Phone : 780.289.1803

The Simon Poultney Foundation

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Young Lions Media

Simon had a specific vision of a place where youth and young adults could hang out, experience community and explore their gifts in music, film-making, writing and art.  We all have an innate artistic talent but his experience was there are not enough resources for young people to pursue their interests in those areas. Outside of regular school most extra-mural programs are focused on recreational/sporting activities which often do not appeal to those with an artistic leaning.

The notion that these days we all have ready access to all types of technology is also a misnomer. Whilst many schools and households do have current technology, the use of it is still very restricted by hours of operation, family rules or simply lack of mentoring in the use of it.

Simon's dream was to buy an older house where he would live on the main floor and devote the living space and basement to his media project.  Thus the concept became commonly known as "The Media House".  Our dream is still to have it based in a house but for now we have an excellent partnership agreement with the Spruce Grove Public Library where we have use of space for our programs.

Since May 2006 we have carried out a number of projects through YLM :  

Annual filming of City of Spruce Grove FCSS’s “Summer in the City” activities and production of a DVD as a record of same.

Annual partnership with Parkland Young Life in the hosting of a film festival open to local young amateur film-makers.  In 2009 this event will be entirely organized by SPF/YLM as their own event. See Night at the Oscars

Hosting of an art exhibition featuring the theme “Hope” in conjunction with the Rotary Run for Life in aid of Suicide Prevention in September each year.

Partnership with the Parkland Celebration Choir on their annual Christmas production in the community.

Partnership with the Heroes program, a youth character development program being delivered to youth in the Parkland area.  In 2008 this included sending a team of six local teenagers and three adult leaders to Zambia, Africa for three weeks to work on the Foundation’s community project there.

Delivery of a basic film-making course at the Stony Plain Youth Centre twice per year.

Several video productions for local community groups and events both on a voluntary and a paid basis.

Digital archiving of old media – slides, photographs, vinyl records, cassette tapes, video tapes and documents to preserve them for historical purposes. 

Our future plans include :

Developing a still photography program.

Finding more space to be able to include a full selection of musical instruments and a recording studio for both music and film.

Holding further art and photography shows to enable users of the Media centre to showcase their work in the community.

Note : Simon loved lions and he often talked about calling his organization "Young Lions".  Thus we have chosen to call this operation of SPF "Young Lions Media".

If you are interested in volunteering at the centre as mentor to other teenagers to learn how to make and edit movies or to help with some media projects that we already have to work on, please contact us via e-mail or at 780.289.1803.