Community
2026
Scroll down to read about DVSLC’s Proposal to Establish a Youth Hub
Makerspace Youth Nights
Thanks to a partnership with BGC Southern Alberta, our community’s young people were presented with an opportunity to develop their woodworking skills at Valley Makerspace, creating picnic tables for donation to local community groups.
From January to March 2026, nine local teens, age 13-17, spent one evening per month at Valley Makerspace completing all the steps involved in building a picnic table. Accompanied by a skilled adult volunteer, the teens turned lumber into beautiful, usable picnic tables.
Using the laser engraver at Valley Makerspace, each table is engraved with the signatures of the youth who made it.
The picnic tables will be donated to:
– Town of Diamond Valley for use at the skateboard park
– BGC Southern Alberta for use at Kids Club Daycare
– DVSLC for use at Valley Makerspace
BGC Teen Night Participants work on securing the benches on the picnic table they built during Youth Nights at Valley Makerspace. The end board of each table features engraved signatures of the young builders.
Thank you to BGC Southern Alberta and Diamond Valley Sustainable Living Centre Volunteers for your interest in engaging youth at Valley Makerspace. Our gratitude to Diamond Valley Youth Foundation, Rona Black Diamond and Foothills Energy Co-op for supporting this project!
2026
Diamond Valley’s Dedicated Youth Space
The second floor of the Oilfields Arena has been used by BGC Southern Alberta (formerly “Boys and Girls Clubs of Foothills”) to operate a wide variety of youth programs for the last 34 years, effectively creating our community’s only dedicated youth space outside of schools.
Since 2024, three programs have been based out of this space, serving families with children age 3 to 17 with high quality programming, including the Diamond Valley Sustainable Living Centre’s licensed child care program, Connections Nature Play.
We’d like to share our sincere gratitude to BGC Southern Alberta for welcoming us into their space and we wish them all the best as they continue to serve Diamond Valley and area families.
Connections Nature Play indoor program area on the second floor of the Oilfields Arena, our ‘home base’ for the last two years.
DVSLC Proposes Community-Led Youth Hub
On January 21, 2026, the Town of Diamond Valley passed a motion to repurpose the 2nd floor of the Oilfields Arena, eliminating our community’s only dedicated youth space effective June 26, 2026.
In response, the Diamond Valley Sustainable Living Centre presented a delegation to Diamond Valley Town Council on March 18, 2026, proposing a community-led solution to this emerging gap in our community’s social infrastructure.
The proposed Youth Hub would have provided space for programs targeted at children and youth age 3 to 17. Photo credit: iStock, Getty, Great Schools.
The proposed youth hub would provided a space where our our town’s children and teens could be proactively engaged, supporting them in building social connections, hands-on skills and a sense of belonging in our community. Multiple program providers could book the space to run a wide variety of programs, such as bike repair and maintenance clinics, after school bushcraft programs, art programs, mountain bike skills camps, and more, until Diamond Valley Community Association’s efforts to build a community recreation centre come to fruition.
At the March 18th meeting, Town Council invited the submission of a Business Case, the development of which inspired us to meet with countless residents, as well as school administrators, community organizations, potential youth program providers, funding agencies and local businesses where we learned that there is strong and wide community support for the establishment of a community-led dedicated youth space.
The proposal – which would not cost the Town of Diamond Valley any financial resources – consisted of purchasing a self-contained portable building and requesting Town permission to install it on a piece of Town-owned public service land near the skateboard parks and mountain bike skills track – an already existing hub of youth-focused outdoor infrastructure.
DVSLC Withdraws Youth Hub Proposal due to Development Contraints
On April 21, DVSLC representatives met with Town of Diamond Valley planning staff, where it was confirmed that several non-negotiable land use bylaw requirements and development stipulations pose obstacles affecting the overall financial feasibility of the project, including:
• requirement to connect to municipal water/sewer infrastructure even though the proposed portable building has integrated septic and water supply features that do not need water or sewer connectivity and a viable plan has been developed to address Council’s original concerns regarding underground utility work,
• requirement to create paved or concrete parking stalls in numbers greater than the number of vehicles that would be on-site at any given time for unparented/drop-off programs, and lack of flexibility regarding more affordable and environmentally-sound surfacing alternatives,
• vague statement of fair market value for a lease, even though the proposed property is generally believed to have no development potential,
• substantial fees for multiple external engineering consultants, including paying for the Town’s engineering review, and finally
• undefined time required to obtain the requisite development permits.
Collectively, these conditions, which cannot be waived, elevate the costs and extend the timeline well beyond what seems reasonable to continue to pursue this important initiative, one that would have provided a valuable and indeed needed asset to the community.
Formal notice has been provided to the Town of Diamond Valley regarding the withdrawal of Diamond Valley Sustainable Living Centre’s proposal to lead the development and operation of a youth hub in Diamond Valley.
Given that this project will no longer be proceeding, we will not be conducting a community survey to gather feedback.
Thank you to all residents, community organizations, funding agencies and local businesses who have shown their support and offered their services to make this project a reality.