The History of UYA

While working for The Salvation Army Ethics Centre and as a faculty member at William & Catherine Booth College, Dr. Cornelius Buller engaged in conversations and thought processes regarding the connection of The Salvation Army and Booth College to urban mission in Winnipeg. As the internal discussions gained momentum Buller approached Harry Lehotsky about these ideas. The proximity of New Life Ministries and the integrity and stature of Rev. Lehotsky suggested this might be the right direction for Booth College.

Simultaneously, Camp Arnes staff and board members were thinking about the Camp's role in the lives of inner city youth. In 2006 these separate conversations converged. Camp Arnes in particular took action, moving the conversations toward a new urban venture. In February, 2006 Arnes and World Vision Canadian Programs - specifically the Partner's to End Child Poverty initiative - began working toward a collaborative approach. This led, in October, 2006, to Camp Arnes hiring Cornelius Buller as Executive Director of the new Urban Youth Adventures program with a target start date for spring/early summer of 2007.

With the assistance of World Vision, Arnes completed a detailed initial community assessment and followed that with the development of a project design and implementation plan. World Vision committed to provide significant levels of operational support to assist in start up.

The vision of launching Urban Youth Adventures is to bring Camp Arnes' tradition of inspiring and building vision, character and leadership in youth into the inner city of Winnipeg, year round, as a partner with other agencies, ministries and churches.