Supporting Homeless/At-Risk Youth is a Good Investment

Unfortunately, many of us have negative views of "charity" and trust investing in companies more than investing in people. Often, this is connected to a lack of empathy for homeless or at-risk people. I can remember many instances where I walked past someone and had very negative thoughts about them. (Why don't you get a job? How could you let yourself be homeless? etc.) What about you?

Raising the Roof, a national organization working to end youth homelessness, estimate that there are 65,000 homeless youth in Canada. In Camrose, we average almost 6 youth per night in our supportive housing. It costs us $250 to provide a bed for one month. For the vast majority, homelessness is not a choice. Many of these youth come from unstable situations. One youth texted us recently asking for housing. If we didn't have any he was going to get arrested so that he had a place to stay.

Supporting at risk and homeless youth makes economic and social sense. Housing a youth in the shelter system costs $40,000 per year while being in prison costs society $100,000 per year (>$250/night). Without a comprehensive plan to address youth homelessness the numbers of street-involved youth will continue to accelerate, and associated health care, criminal justice, social services and emergency shelter costs will continue to grow. Providing youth with educational and employment training and opportunities, stable, secure housing and essential life skills – helps them along the positive path towards independence and self-sufficiency as contributing member of society. The cost of NOT supporting homeless youth is much greater.

Join Raising the Roof's call for 65,000 acts of support for homeless youth. Buy a toque, support an agency like the Open Door that provides services and maybe, most importantly, have empathy for those that find themselves at risk.

Saying Thanks is Difficult

Today is the last day for the participants in our Cafe Connections project. They have spent 19 weeks with us learning a lot about life and employment and gaining work experience. We have seen many successes. (some of them I've talked about in earlier blogs) Over those weeks we have seen some of the tough exterior of these young men chipped away as we saw glimpses of the real person come out.

This morning most of them have reverted back to the tough exterior by exhibiting anger towards staff, a lack of thankfulness and general sour attitude. We understand that this is driven by concern over the future, a feeling that they are abandoned again and an anger that they need to leave a supportive environment and move on.

How should our staff respond? They deserve respect just as much as the youth deserve respect. As a parent I would try to validate my child's feelings and communicate that the response is not acceptable.

What do you think? Is there a way to minimize these feelings? Are these feeling natural for someone who has probably felt abandoned in the past?

A Little Whine on Blue Monday

Today is Blue Monday. It is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. People are dealing with their holiday credit card statements, living in a cold Canadian climate with no end to winter and generally feeling blah. Maybe it comes from hearing that the 100 highest paid Canadian CEOs made the same amount of money by 2:20 PM on Jan. 3 (the first working day of the year) as the average Canadian worker does in a year.

Here are a couple of extra reasons for this Executive Director to feel blue: (bear with me while I whine for a bit)

• it is budget development season. The time of year where you work hard for 3 months on applications for funding. IF you are successful you get exactly 9 months before you need to start again.
• it is difficult for our clients to find jobs. It is disaappointing to hear how they applied at many jobs and didn't get any positive responses.
• the hypocrisy of some funders. For the fourth year in a row we have a status quo budget from one of our funders. No extra money for salaries or operating costs while that funder replaces furniture and enxures that all salaries increase every year. How do you meet standards and provide better service with no increase in resources?
• some of our clients move from crisis to crisis. Just when you think things are better for them, they come back in the same place they started.

Thanks for bearing with me. I feel much better. Maybe that is the purpose of Blue Monday. Wallow in self pity for a while and then come out better for it. As my son says, it is better to be a pessimist since you won't be disappointed.

There are also many reasons to look forward positively:

• over 400 individuals and groups contributed to the work of the Open Door in 2010.
• several of our clients have found jobs!
• our funders are still interested in supporting our work.
• a 'yes' answer to a funding proposal is a great feeling
• people are interested in volunteering and working at the Open Door

I hope that your Blue Monday reenergizes you and helps you look forward positively.

The Future is Far Enough to Plan For

We received a donation of a notebook computer before Christmas with the instructions to give it to a client who could make use of it. We weren’t sure how to choose this person. Staff suggested that we ask the young people working in our Café to write a brief description of their experience in the project, why they should get the computer and what they plan to do with it. We agreed and made our decision based on the 4 submissions we received. I’ve included some excerpts for you as they are a powerful testament to the growth that has occured for the participants in the project.

“My life before joining peer connections was hectic. I had been in and out of jail for years due to money making schemes gone wrong.”

“Before my future was only the next day, now the future is far enough to plan for.”

The PEER project has “showed me there is more to life than making money on the streets, going to jail, or selling and doing drugs.”

“I’ve made choices in my life that have caused a lot of pain and hatred to the ones around me.”

“I grew up in a small town which made everything easy to do. But I could not stand the hate that was around me and could [not] stand the way my mom looked at me, it was the look of disappointment.”

“My life routine before open door was very much like any other person the age of twenty and that was to see the money and spend it, It was like every day was one big party and it should never stop and the money should just be coming in for no reason.”

“My day to day routine has also improved every morning I get up and go to work with the knowledge that I can SUCCEED if I truly wanted to…”

Thank you to all of you who make a difference in your community.