The St. Joseph Youth Alliance hopes to convert a warehouse into a youth center for the East Side. The 5,000 square feet of unused warehouse is part of the office space Youth Alliance leases at 3308 Leonard Road.

Robin Hammond, Youth Alliance executive director, said a capital campaign is being planned to renovate the warehouse and eventually purchase the building. She said projected costs for improvements to the warehouse will be around $150,000.

“We’re really kind of planning for what we want the youth center to look like. We want the kids to kind of help us in designing that and have the feel they want it to have,” Mrs. Hammond said. “We’d like to keep the renovations as inexpensive as possible.”

Plans are to turn the warehouse into a comprehensive youth center that includes weightlifitng, healthful eating and cooking classes, art classes, movie nights, dances and other family fun activities.

Mrs. Hammond said she recognized a need for this type of facility on the East Side when Youth Alliance moved here a year ago.

“It’s particularly an area that this part of town has been looking for — a resource for young people,” she said.

The St. Joseph Youth Alliance serves youth and families in the Northwest Missouri region by providing mentoring, crisis prevention, substance abuse prevention, early childhood development and other services.

Alonzo Weston can be reached at alonzow@npgco.com.