Covenant House Vancouver

13-year old John had started coming downtown Vancouver from his Burnaby home shortly after his father had killed himself two years ago. Wandering the streets and mixing with the wrong people, John was dabbling in drug dealing and was becoming known to police.

Our Outreach team had been trying to connect with John but he wouldn't open up. A worker from another organization said the key to talking with John was to offer him a chocolate bar. So our Outreach Worker Laura started keeping Aero bars in her pocket and whenever she saw John, she would strike up a conversation over the chocolate bar. Eventually, John was persuaded to visit our drop-in centre which he did a few times but he always kept his "distance".

Over a few months, the Outreach team would see John on the street, talk with him and would give him their card, encouraging him to visit the drop-in. They knew that John was living in a safe-house (where he frequently hoarded his food so that he could take it home to his mother) after having fled his abusive step-father, and they realized this was only a short-term solution.

One night, the Outreach phone rang and it was a hardly-recognizable John. He was sobbing and all that Laura could understand was "umbrella" and "step-father". It turned out that when John had gone home to visit his mom, his step father was there, and they got into a fight. John was beaten by his step-father with an umbrella. The Outreach team drove over to John's mother's house, called the police, then talked with John's mother about his safety and his living situation. It was decided that they would try and get John to his brother's place in the prairies.

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Our thank-a-thons are a volunteer driven program wherein we simply call our donors to thank them for their recent donation.  Often the donor is wary of the call, and is pleasantly surprised when they are simply thanked.  We received an email from a donor who was thanked last night and I'm attaching it because it beautifully sums up why we do thank-a-thons and the meaningful impact they have on our donors.

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I couldn't resist posting this picture of one of our staff wearing the latest spring fashion.  Our Gift in Kind (GIK) Program is thriving right now - maybe it's all that spring cleaning people are doing.  In any case, to say that we get a wide variety of donated clothing would be an understatement.  We are grateful for our donor community's generosity - our youth are always in need of clothing for work and leisure activities.

Click here for a list of items for which we are always in need.  And thank you for thinking of our youth when you have clothes to pass along.

Crystal is owed big time for letting me post this photo

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We have had a debate at Covenant House for many years around using photographs of our youth or "clients" in our promotional materials like the annual report and other donor communications. We have used real youth and we have used models. Most recently we began using stock photography.

The first time we ever used real youth in our general information brochure, two youth that had participated changed their minds after the brochure had been printed. We reprinted the brochure at enormous cost. After that we got more stringent in our "releases" ensuring that youth signed their consent in an attempt to prevent another situation where a young person regretted their decision to be photographed.

We tried models a few times and while it made using the photos "easier", the "look" of the models was not genuine and I felt our communications materials suffered as a result. While we've been back and forth with the model versus real youth debate several times, the advent of affordable stock photography has provided us with good quality, relatively realistic looking youth photos. The drawback is that we no longer have the joy of working with Kent Kallberg, who has been our photographer for many years and always provided us with excellent photographs at a greatly reduced price.  Likewise, we can't show pictures of our programs in action.

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It was cold and rainy morning on the downtown streets of Vancouver. My partner and I were doing our routine morning outreach down Granville. On this particular damp morning, we came upon a young woman asking for change. As I looked to her weak body I could tell the cool temperature was taking a toll as she was shaking hiding beneath a canopy at the entrance way of a store. Her knees were pressed against her chest trying to conserve whatever heat remained. The closer we walked to this young woman I realized I knew her; her name was Stephanie, but we called her Steph. Part of me was saddened, as the last news I heard about her was she was living with her parents. I wondered what happened to her and was shocked as to why she was back on the streets downtown.

Immediately I called her name and asked her how she was doing. Initially she tried to hide her face from us, as if embarrassed by the situation she had fallen back into. She eventually looked up and I asked her how she was doing again. Steph then went on to describe to us how she had relapsed after being clean from heroin for 5 months. She had come back to downtown Vancouver with her Mom for an appointment but the memories of her past overwhelmed her as well as the cravings for a fix.

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I haven't posted any youth artwork or photography in a while (sorry!) but here a few to tide you over until I round up some more.  Our youth participation strategy and life skills training includes art/photography along with recreational outings (yoga on Friday afternoons at YYOGA), and cultural & sporting events (we are blessed to receive donated tickets to plays, opera, hockey games etc.)

Many of our youth were not exposed to the arts when they were growing up and it is very endearing when you see them get ready for a night at the Vancouver Opera.  The evening usually begins with a trip to our clothing room to choose appropriate attire and there is excitement in the air as everyone gets ready for a "fancy" night out.  Our recreational volunteers and/or staff accompany the youth and encourage them to write thank you letters to the donors responsibile for the tickets.

Enjoy the photos below; comments, as always, are encouraged.

 

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Thanks to our friends at Covenant House International, we came across this powerful little cartoon entitled "Two Little Girls" that brilliantly illustrates the brutality of human trafficking.  We have talked about human trafficking in the past as and our own Pastoral Counsellor Sister Nancy Brown is an expert on the topic.  Sister Nancy is available to speak to groups (school or churches etc.) who want more information.   Contact us if you are interested in a presentation or simply want more information.

What was your impression of "Two Little Girls"?

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We often get asked about our pet policy as many homeless youth have pets, everything from rats and cats to dogs, and it is not surprising. Being homeless is often a lonely life and all people need companionship and something to love. Pets do not judge you if you smell or are dirty; they love you unconditionally. In turn, homeless youth love their pets unconditionally and will often give up things for themselves for their animals, surrendering food, blankets and shelter to care for their pets.

Not everyone agrees that homeless people should have pets, feeling that if someone can't house or take care of themselves, they are incapable of taking care of animals. In some cases this can be true though the same can be said for those who have a house and ownsa pet; having a place to live doesn't guarantee a person is a responsible pet owner. Many of our youth adopt stray pets that no one else wants and would be otherwise but left to fend for themselves.

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I couldn't resist posting this picture of Walter having a rest after a full morning of counselling. Walter, therapy dog-in-training, sits in on counselling sessions with Jesse, one of our mental health clinicians, and provides comfort and appropriate distraction for our young people. As Walter matures, he is becoming more affectionate with and attentive to our youth but as you can see from this photo, he takes his breaks seriously!

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Chris was orphaned at a young age. He and his siblings went to live with various family members throughout their teen years, as well as with foster families. However, by-and-large, these situations were fairly tenuous and never long-term.

Chris moved alone to Vancouver from the interior of BC when he was 20, hoping to form some roots, and to find some stability in order to make his dreams achievable. His dream was to enter into the world of IT. Upon arriving in Vancouver, he moved in with some friends that he had met in his travels. Soon after moving in with these friends, he returned home from work one night to find that they had left, and had taken everything. He was left alone, with no supports and no belongings, in a new (big) city.

Chris came to Covenant House Vancouver initially in the hopes of finding a warm place to sleep and some food and clothing. He quickly realized that he could also find the stability and security he was seeking to make his dreams a reality. Soon after moving into the shelter, he aquired full-time employment in the construction industry.

Staff at the shelter recognized that Chris applied himself and strove hard to reach the goals that he set for himself. As such, he was referred to and was accepted into our Rights of Passage Program, ROP.  Chris stayed in the Rights of Passage Program for almost a year and a half, and graduated from the program recently.

During his stay at ROP, Chris upheld his employment, and was still employed with the same company upon leaving. Not only did he work full-time, but he took overtime hours whenever he could, allowing him to save for future schooling.

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