After years of planning to expand the Whitney Pier Youth Club, construction on the new facility is finally underway.

“It’s three years, three-and-a-half years in the making just to get to this point,” says youth club board member Debra Borden Reddick. “It’s been a long process, but it’s been worth it.”

It’s a process that will allow the club to accommodate more youth.

Currently it is home to more than 100 children a day and has a total of 230 members.

Board members say the expansion will focus on the older generation.

“We don’t have a lot of programs for the teens,” explains Reddick. “I think it’s very, very important that at this point in their lives, that they have somebody or group that cares about them and wants to make sure they get on the right track.”

Sheraton Simmons and Jessica Gracie have been coming to the youth centre for 10 years, they’re happy to see the club grow because they say it’s a safe place and a good place to learn.

“I’ve learned that the one thing in life you need to get around is respect,” says Simmons. “That’s our goal here, everyone is treated with respect.”

“When I first started coming here I was younger and I didn’t really listen very well,” adds Gracie. “They taught me how to listen.”

The $350,000 cost for the addition to the facility was raised through community support.

Chester Borden, the club’s director, says everyone from parents to tradespeople are volunteering their skills and time to help limit the costs for the non-profit charity.

“Whitney Pier is a strong community,” Border says. “One of the most multicultural communities east of Montreal, so you have everybody coming together and this is a great example of our community as a whole.”

Borden says the project still needs help for various stages of the build and is hoping the community will come through once again.

There is already a list of more than 60 children waiting to be part of the club.

With the new addition, board members are hoping they will be able to accommodate those children when the project is finished in September.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.