Covenant House Vancouver

Yesterday I heard a presentation from Moe, our Manager of Case Management (the one who oversees all of the plans of care our youth workers put into place for our young people) and I was very inspired yet again to hear about what we do to ensure that our young people are receiving individualized and comprehensive care.

The young people we serve come to us with several barriers to independence and their plans have to take into account many often complicated factors. Such was the case with Tuck, a young man who was with us a few years ago - his story illustrates the complex needs our youth have and their often profound desire to be loved, nurtured and encouraged.  This story was written by a past youth worker, Andrew, who worked in all three of our core programs over many years.

Tuck was a 19 year old who was born into a family that had brothers and sisters from two different marriages. His home life was not like the one you may have experienced. His father was/is affiliated with organized crime. As you can imagine, this would be a difficult place for any young person to grow up in. Tuck shared with me on different occasions some of the illegal activity that he had to take part in due to who he was and who he was connected to. The lifestyle involves drinking and drugs on a regular basis and he became addicted to Crystal Meth in his early teens.

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One day at a time, that's what they say,
Living in yesterday won't give you what you want.
I remember how I used to wish the pain away,
But now I'm re-writing my life in a different font.

I used to sit alone in my room fiending,
Trying to cover up those depressed feelings.
Now I'd rather hang out in an AA meeting,
And finally for the first time I feel like I'm healing.

It feels really good just to be me,
And not living in total fear,
It's like I was blind and now I can see,
And everything is crystal clear.

Now I can't wait for the years to come,
Without worrying how to stay numb.

 

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I am beyond excited about today! Through our life skills program, several of our youth having been attending weekly yoga classes at YYOGA (thank you so much YYOGA). I have been dying to talk to the youth to see how they are enjoying yoga but obviously I can't go and "observe" a class. As one who regularly practices, it occurred to me that I should just go with them to a class and chat to them about it afterwards. So today at 2:30 I am power class bound with staff member Tania and a some youth yogis.  Next week I will have an article about the yoga practice and hopefully some pictures.

If you want to learn more about how yoga enriches the lives of street youth, you must check out this video about Street Yoga, an amazing organization in Portland that provides free yoga so homeless and at-risk youth.

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