Transformational change taking place in Glace Bay
AUDIO: Updates on the New Dawn Youth and Family Centre and the Icelandic Prevention Model, two projects working in tandem to reshape the future of Glace Bay, on CBC Radio’s Information Morning
Dear Friends,
There are children in our community who wake each morning carrying more than their share. They carry the weight of absent parents, of cupboards gone bare, of streets that don’t feel safe. They carry questions about their worth, their place, their future.
And yet—they carry light too. In their drawings, their music, their questions, their laughter, there is an enduring brilliance. There is beauty. There is so much more than the world has made room for.
The New Dawn Youth and Family Centre is a collective effort to reflect and amplify that light.
It is a place built on the belief that every child is gifted, and that our job as a community is not to fix them—but to see them, to know them, to love them. It is a place where no child will be made to feel small for being poor, isolated, different, afraid, behind.
Here, love is not abstract. It’s found in open doors that never slam shut, warm suppers that fill belly and soul, and creative expression that stains fingers with paint and possibility.
For generations, Glace Bay has lived with the long echo of economic collapse—of mines closed, families fractured, addiction rising in the cracks. Too many of our young people have come of age surrounded by the message that they don’t matter.
At New Dawn, we’ve never waited for permission to build a better future. New Dawn has always believed that community is built through courage, care, honesty, and action. We have built housing, cared for our elderly, nurtured the arts, seeded conversations and gardens, made room. This Youth and Family Centre is the next chapter.
And we cannot do it alone.
We are asking you—our neighbours, our partners, our kindred dreamers—to stand with us. To believe, as we do, that there is no such thing as a lost cause. That love, when organized and made visible and resolute, can change everything.
Help build this place. Not just with bricks, but with tenderness. With the kind of fierce love that says to a child: you matter, you are home. Will you stand with the young people of Glace Bay as they build something beautiful, something truly their own?
With gratitude,
Erika Shea
CEO/President
The New Dawn Youth and Family Centre will stand as a promise to every child in Glace Bay: you matter, you belong, your future is bright. Your support ensures that this promise has a permanent home — one built on love, resilience, and community. Join us in laying the foundation. Give today.
Glace Bay carries a proud past — carved into the coalmines, shaped by the sea, and bound together by generations who labored with grit and heart.
It’s a town that has seen plenty of ups and downs and has faced them all with a resilience that runs as deep as the coal beneath its bedrock.
In the wake of the industries that once sustained it, Glace Bay faces new struggles: poverty, addiction, and loss. Yet hope endures. Out of challenge comes the will to rise, lace up work boots, and build again.
This same spirit now builds the New Dawn Youth and Family Centre, a place where hope takes root and a brighter future begins.
At the corner of Reserve and Official Row, once home to the DEVCO machine shop, we’ve planted a seed. The New Dawn Youth and Family Centre will be more than brick and steel — it will be a place of belonging where children, families, and neighbours can grow side by side.
Here, children will be nurtured in licensed childcare, young people will find energy in the gym and skatepark, families will gather over coffee and shared meals, and the community will flourish together. Every detail is shaped with care for dignity, accessibility, and inclusion, ensuring all who arrive feel welcome.
This is more than a building. It is a promise — of brighter days, of dignity, of love. A place where Glace Bay can reclaim its spirit, where hope takes root, and where tomorrow begins.
Designed with accessibility and inclusion at its core, the Centre will be Rick Hansen Foundation–certified and built to net-zero standards, with features like solar panels, a green roof, and sustainable materials.
The Centre will host free and low-cost programs for children, teens, families, and seniors, in partnership with local organizations and government. From volunteer and mentorship opportunities for youth, to entrepreneurship workshops, to arts and recreation programs, the Centre will become a dynamic base for innovation and belonging.
49 licensed spaces for infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children — the first new licensed childcare in Glace Bay in over 50 years
A full gymnasium that doubles as a performance venue, plus indoor and outdoor skateparks for year-round recreation
Classroom-style spaces for tutoring, life skills training, arts, and technology programs
A commercial teaching kitchen to support nutrition education, cooking programs, and community meals, alongside a welcoming cafeteria for families and neighbours to gather.
For Robbie Metcalfe, Glace Bay is more than home, it’s the place his entire family has lived out their lives for generations. At twenty years old, he knows the town’s challenges, but he also sees its potential. For him, the New Dawn Youth and Family Centre will go a long way to reaffirming the town’s sense of being a close-knit family.
“I’m happy to see where the community is going compared to where it was at,” Robbie says. “I feel that Glace Bay has a bright future and that it will thrive to be so much more.”
As a part-time staff member at Undercurrent Youth Centre, he believes deeply in what the promise of the expanded New Dawn Youth and Family Centre will offer. Now, as design turns into construction, he feels it’s going to be “fantastic”, thanks to what he calls “the best team of people making it the best it can be.”
"My hope is that the new Centre becomes a safe and healthy space for everyone, and that we make every single person feel welcome into our space."
At the heart of it all is his belief in the power of relationships to transform lives. “A number one value will definitely be that we make bonds and connections with everyone,” he says, “and that now, we’ll be able keep that family dynamic on a way bigger scale.”
As plans for the new Centre take shape, Robbie is excited about the impact it will have on young people like himself. “I want to see how many more lives we can change and the impact we can make,” he says.
“We aren’t building a structure to come to—we’re building a home.”
The New Dawn Youth and Family Centre will stand as a promise to every child in Glace Bay: you matter, you belong, your future is bright. Your support ensures that this promise has a permanent home — one built on love, resilience, and community. Join us in laying the foundation. Give today.
“All our children are deserving of spaces that reflect their beauty and worth back to them, that challenge them, that carry them through hard times, and that help them uncover the unique gift they want to offer to the world.”
— Erika Shea, President and CEO, New Dawn Enterprises
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AUDIO: Updates on the New Dawn Youth and Family Centre and the Icelandic Prevention Model, two projects working in tandem to reshape the future of Glace Bay, on CBC Radio’s Information Morning
AUDIO: New Dawn’s Manager of Early Childhood Education, April Benoit, in conversation with CBC Radio’s Steve Sutherland
New Dawn Child Care Centre, to be located in Glace Bay Youth and Family Centre, will add 49 new child care spaces
New Dawn Enterprises
37 Nepean St, Sydney, Nova Scotia B1P 6A7
newdawn@newdawn.ca
902-539-9560
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Eymu’ti’k Unama’ki, newte’jk l’uiknek te’sikl Mi’kmawe’l maqamikall mna’q iknmuetumittl. Ula maqamikew wiaqi-wikasik Wantaqo’tie’l aqq I’lamatultimkewe’l Ankukamkewe’l Mi’kmaq aqq Eleke’wuti kisa’matultisnik 1726ek.
We are in Unama’ki, one of the seven traditional and unceded ancestral territories of the people of Mi’kma’ki. This territory is covered by the Treaties of Peace and Friendship which the Mi’kmaq first signed with the British Crown in 1726.
Ketu’-keknuite’tmek aqq kepmite’tmek ula tela’matultimkip wjit maqamikew ta’n etekl mtmo’taqne’l. Ula tett, ula maqamikek, etl-lukutiek l’tunen aqq apoqntmnen apoqnmasimk aqq weliknamk Unama’ki.
We wish to recognize and honour this understanding of the lands on which we reside. It is from here, on these lands, that we work to create and support a culture of self-reliance and vibrancy.
AuCoin Renovations is matching all donations to the New Dawn Youth and Family Centre up to $10,000.
Glace Bay’s young people deserve a safe, welcoming place to learn, grow, and belong. The new Youth & Family Centre is being built for them, and your gift can help open its doors.
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