CEBU, Philippines - Saturday June 19 saw the ground breaking of the long anticipated Youth Center of the Archdiocese of Cebu, initiated by the Commission of Youth (COY). The event marked the commencement of the construction which aims to provide venue or shelter for all developmental and spiritual activities for the youth, and will be the first of its kind in the Philippines.
Initiated by the Archdiocese of Cebu and led by His Eminence Ricardo Cardinal J. Vidal with Head of Commission of Youth Msgr. Arthur Navales. The site’s location is at P. Gomez St. right across Cebu Cathedral. Likewise present at the event were Fr. Espiritu, Msgr. Alesna, Fr. Mar Balili, Fr. Brian Brigoli, Nene Sta. Rita – TESDA Representative, Hermenia Cabahug – Head of DSWD-AVRC, Engr. Michael Lorenana – Contractor, Theresa Singco – Youth Links Administrator, Mario Marababol – Youth Links Corp. Sec., youth leaders and COY volunteers.
Youth Center is a two-storey building with a land area of 3000 sq. m. in the abandoned Star Press Office and has an estimated budget of P 4M. The ground floor of the building will serve as a multi-purpose hall for trainings, seminars, Masses, recollection and confessions. The second floor will be devoted as classrooms for the different courses that will be offered via Youth Links.
The need to open a big place because of the increasing number of enrollees for different course offerings of Youth Links sparked the desire of the COY to build this center.
According to Cardinal Vidal, the center is constructed to ensure that there will be a permanent place for the formation of youth. He also promised that the second collection of all the churches all over the archdiocese will be pledged for the construction.
The goal of COY for starting up with this project is to offer training to out of school youths and providing the unemployed a tool for finding work here in our country and even abroad, since technical skilled workers are very much in demand.
This project started last 2006 when the Archdiocese held a Congress and began asking themselves what the church could offer to the youth. They started a different kind of Congress offering livelihood programs and skills training. From this the Youth Links was born.
During their first year of operation, the courses offered were more on Computer Literacy Training, in a lone classroom at the Ground Floor of Capitol Parish.
To date, Youth Links has more or less 1,000 graduates, most of whom are able to land a job here and abroad. Others chose to help the organization and decided to stay and teach.
As of now, Youth Links is offering Vocational Trainings such as Basic Computer Literacy, Adobe Photoshop, Auto Cad and Computer Programming, all of which are TESDA accredited. With the building of the Youth Center, COY also plans to add more vocational courses that would be in line with housekeeping, etc., with minimal fee as against other centers which offer the same courses.
This project is made possible through partnership with DOLE, TESDA, DSWD-AVRC, private donors and a community in Australia.
Founders of Youth Links and the COY wish to have the building finished in the soonest possible time. They are accepting donations in cash or in kind.