User:HugoRain/Shawbridge Boys' Farm

Shawbridge Boys' Farm, now called Shawbridge Youth Centres, is a farm in Shawbridge, Quebec. The farm was originally used either as a training home for underpriviledged, wayward and orphaned boys' or as a youth detention center.

History
The original idea originated in 1899, when James R. Dick, one of the superintendent's of the Boys' Home of Montreal, suggested that a boys' home farm in the Laurentians should be built and used for the training of delinquent boys. The farm was built in 1907, after 8 years of planning, and a farm named Boys' Farm and Training School was built north of Montreal, in Shawbridge, a small town in the Laurentians.

Although the farm was being used to house orphans, criminals under the age of 18 would be sent there to serve time for small chargers, such as robbery, assault, or theft.

The farm had a separate charter granted in 1917, and was also sponsored later that same year by by the Rotary Club of Toronto and Montreal, who procedeed to build a cottage on the farm. In total, the farm was sponsored for about 15,000$ by the Rotary Club.

The houses were bult from bricks that were made right there in Shawbridge, just like the other buildings in the village. They were built from red bricks and of fieldstone quarried from the rock falls of the Piedmont mountain cliffs right behind Shawbridge.

Present
Shawbridge Boys' Farm is now called Shawbridge Youth Centres, and it's now owned and operated fully by Batshaw Youth and Family Services, a government service meant to help families with their issue.

Although it is mostly used as a chain of group homes that are isolated from the community, it is also used as a youth detention center.