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Free school tuition for community work Earn bucks for schooling while making a better community is the idea behind Youth Community Action, a program just getting started.

Free school tuition for community work Earn bucks for schooling while making a better community is the idea behind Youth Community Action, a program just getting started. Whistler and Pemberton youth aged 15-24 can earn up to $2,400 toward fees for college, university, or any post-secondary school program such as a trades apprenticeship or other added education/training by working up to 300 hours for non-profit community groups. Be an assistant librarian, chip in at the museum, help with community policing, pass out information along the Valley Trail — whatever it is can be time added up over the year. The YWCA in North Vancouver is the area host agency for the provincial program, operated through the Ministry of Advanced Education, Training & Technology. "We'd like youth to start applying now," says Whistler detachment RCMP Const. Warren Tomalty, who sees exciting potential for the program to assist youth to afford expensive tuition fees. "I hope the project will result in 10-12 different jobs for youth," Tomalty says. The project will be a bigger success if more non-profit groups in Whistler and Pemberton step forward to sponsor projects that can take advantage of the Youth Community Action program. The jobs don't have to be all-or-nothing situations. A hundred hours for a project, for example, can be done by splitting the hours between several youth. As well, youth can do several jobs to give them as many hours as they want to the 300-hour per year maximum. What's more, youth are encouraged to pitch a job proposal to community organizations to see if they want to take part. For more information, contact Jody Watt at the North Vancouver YWCA: (604) 984-7630 — fax is 984-7112 — or write him at #113, 255 West First St., North Vancouver, V7M 3G8.