Sudbury Action Centre for Youth leaves big gap in services to fill, says executive director

It will be difficult to fill the gap left by the closure of the Sudbury Action Centre for Youth (SACY), says the organization's last executive director.

SACY closed its doors permanently on March 18 due to insolvency and the inability to pay staff any longer.

The organization provided different harm reduction and housing services to vulnerable people in the community, including a low-barrier youth shelter and peer support for trans youth.

Terry Burden was SACY's interim executive director.

Years before she worked there, Burden said SACY helped her during a difficult time in her life.

"I was a teen parent and was going through a breakup," she said. "One of the things that I did was connect myself with a parenting program."

That program connected her with other young parents. 

"And during [my] intake they realized that my housing was unstable enough that I would very rapidly be qualifying for homelessness," Burden said.

Staff at SACY connected her to their housing services, and were able to find her a safe place to live. That helped her get back on her feet.

"All of a sudden all that stress went away because I had the housing I needed," she said.

When she was 34, Burden started working at SACY, and was the person who helped other people turn their lives around.

She said some of her favourite memories are of actions that may appear small to most people, but had a big impact on people in crisis.

"A long-term client of mine had not ever been able to get any of his family Christmas presents because he would always accidentally spend the money," she said.

She went Christmas shopping with that client and helped him deliver the presents to his family.