Covenant House Vancouver

Following the death of Curtis Brick a homeless man that died last summer due to issues caused by heat, Vancouver has put in place an extreme-heat strategy. We talked about this issue in a recent blog posting.

Vancouver has started putting the strategy into effect by placing temporary water fountains around the city in key places. News 1130 has covered this story and The Province has also weighed in.

At Covenant House we are continuing to help our youth keep cool by providing lots of water, sunscreen and reminding youth to seek out shade.

We hope you and yours are having a fun, healthy and safe summer!

Do you have any thoughts about this strategy? Or ideas to keep cool?
If so please share them with us.

First we want to send a big thanks to each and every one of you who have voted for Covenant House Vancouver through the Pepsi Refresh Project. Your daily votes are helping to keep us in the running for the $100,000.00 grant.

Below are comments taken from our Pepsi Refresh page from youth that we have worked with. I hope our young people's comments help keep you motivated to vote for us and let you know that you truly are making a difference in the lives of our youth.

Here are some of the things our youth are saying:

"This is amazing. Covenant House helped me more than once. I was kind of mean to them but they are really there to help. They care about each and every single one. And they really help you get the tools you need to get back on your feet! Thank you Covenant House I will be voting until the end!!!"

"They saved my life. I left home 8 years ago with some substance problems, some family problems and a lot of self image problems. I stayed in and out of the shelter and in their rights of passage program. I have been sober and clean for 5 years and am forever grateful for their guidance and support"

"I was 17 the first time Covenant House was there for me! So many years later and things are going extremely well! Keep up the great work! In all the triumph and turmoil since, I do thank Covenant House for being my very first influence of good and ongoing gift of hope! You are not forgotten! *wink*"

"To quote Dante's Inferno "In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself astray in a dark wood where the straight road had been lost." Covenant House helped me find the road that I had lost. This was at a time when no one else would help me. Along the journey I've made lifelong friends."

"Every child needs a home. Unfortunately some of us don't get one. A long time ago I found myself at covy's door. I'd been through so many foster homes I didn't remember the names of the people I'd lived with. I'd been hurt I'd been abused and when the world turned its back on me cov didn't"

To read all of the comments please go to: http://www.refresheverything.ca/covenanthousevancouver and make sure to vote while you are there.

Please keep voting, tweeting and facebooking about Covenant House Vancouver and the Pepsi Refresh project.

How can you help?

1. Go to http://www.refresheverything.ca/login

2. Then go to http://www.refresheverything.ca/covenanthousevancouver

3. Click on the "Vote for this idea" button.

4. Do this once per day, as the winner will be the idea with the most votes by August 31st.

What else can you do to help?

Put a reminder in your Outlook / I-Calendar
Set as your homepage
Share with friends and family

Please remember that the more votes that we receive, the better a chance we have at winning and continuing to make a difference in the lives of our youth.

We would like to thank Bryan Adams and The Bryan Adams Foundation for making a donation that will provide access to all of our programs to one of our young people for an entire year.

Last night I had the privilege of seeing Cirque du Soleil's new show Kooza, and it was spectacular. Not just spectacular, but breathtaking, amazing, magical, thrilling, funny, and exciting and every other positive adjective you can think of.

We at Covenant House Vancouver are so lucky that Cirque du Soleil has chosen to support us again this year. All the proceeds from the tickets we sell will come directly to Covenant House Vancouver and our young people. Cirque du Soleil also donates tickets so our youth can attend the show. Some of our youth were sitting behind me and they were so excited and were in awe of the performances.

Here are what a few of our young people had to say:

"I thought I had seen all there is to see, but after that show I felt that my mind had been blown away"

"Heart pounding till the last minute"

"Breathtaking and adrenaline filled"

"I can finally die on my deathbed because now I have seen Cirque and it's something I have always wanted to see"

"I was born and put on this earth to have the chance to see Cirque du Soleil"

"During the performance I died and was reborn many times. Not only were the skills portrayed breathtaking, they were beautifully entertaining. I am still shocked the day after"

We do have a few tickets remaining but they are selling quickly. So please get your tickets today as you will not only see a fantastic show but also be supporting our young people as well.

Cirque du Soleil's benefit night for Covenant House is on Friday, August 6th, 2010.
Tickets: $150 (a portion of the ticket price is eligible for a tax receipt).

For tickets and/or information please contact:

Mark Savard
Development Officer - Community Giving
savard@covenanthousebc.org
Tel. 604-639-8922


Enjoy this sneak peek into the magic of Cirque du Soleil and KOOZA


Here what others are saying about KOOZA:

http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Cirque+Soleil+rediscovers+roots+Kooza/3306275/story.html?id=3306275

http://www.theprovince.com/story_print.html?id=3292826&sponsor=

http://www.pressplus1.com/press-releases/kooza-brings-a-magical-world-of-clowns-and-acrobats-to-vancouver.html

Watch a great movie and see "The Big Picture" by contributing to the community at the same time! The Big Picture is a movie fundraiser featuring the film Inception and organized by youth volunteers of S.U.C.C.E.S.S.'s Youth Leadership Millennium (YLM) Program. Proceeds from the event will benefit Vancouver's Covenant House, a local charity that has been providing 24-hour shelter, drug, alcohol and mental health counselling, as well as many other areas of support for homeless youths, a group estimated to number 15,000 per year in British Columbia.

Please join us on Friday, July 23, from 3 - 6pm at the Rio Theatre for a screening of Inception, the exciting sci-fi action thriller from Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight) that features a star-studded cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Cane and more!
For advance tickets and/or questions, reach us at ylmcc2010@gmail.com. Tickets can also be purchased on the event day at the Rio Theatre, starting at 2:45pm.

When: Friday July 23, 2010 3:00pm
Where: Rio Theatre | 1660 E Broadway (at Commercial Dr.)
Admission: $10

About S.U.C.C.E.S.S:

S.U.C.C.E.S.S. Youth Leadership Millennium is a 7-month program dedicated to helping young people aged 14-25 in areas of personal and leadership development. Each year, we organize a series of activities, workshops and events that are not only fun, but also increase participants' social and cultural awareness and facilitate creative and positive change in our community. Now in its 12th year, YLM renews its commitment to give back to the community by hosting this movie fundraiser organized entirely by young graduates of the program!

Find us on facebook.

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to present at Mental Health Camp. The theme of this year's conference was "Breaking the Silence" so my presentation spoke to our use of "On the House" in helping to break the silence around mental illness. I spent some time giving background on how our mental health program came to be and the amazing results the initial pilot project produced (which lead to the program becoming a permanent offering at Covenant House), such as:

The average wait-time for a youth to see a psychiatrist has gone from 6 months to 8 days

a reduction in missed psychiatric appointments from 56% to 15%

an increase in the length of stay in the shelter from 9 to 21 days (when a young person stays in the shelter 20 days or more, they have a higher likelihood of maintaining independence after leaving)

psychiatric care is taking place where the youth are typically more comfortable (Covenant House) versus in a clinic or hospital setting unless necessary; (it often takes up to six visits at CHV before the youth is comfortable seeing the psychiatrists off-site)

Youth continue to present for appointments even when not in the Shelter (will call in if they have left town)

I explained how our blog was utilizing the creative works of our youth and how I sometimes struggle with this. I was very eager to learn what people thought about youth participation on the blog. We've talked about this before and the comments were encouraging so I asked the delegates what they thought: is posting youth art potentially harmful to their reputations or an authentic and meaningful form of expression? While people acknowledged that there is always a risk when someone "put themselves out there" on the web (ie. Youth poetry, prose or artwork), they argued that it is no different than you or I doing it - we all might regret over sharing at some point in the future.

In terms of whether "outing" oneself as a Covenant House client or one with mental illness and what impact that might have for someone's future employment prospects, for example, one delegate (a young man in his early 20s I would guess) made a very salient point: he suggests that employers are beginning to welcome, nut shun, someone who has overcome a hardship like a mental illness or homelessness; that resilience is recognized and honoured. I thought this was an interesting point of view.

Overwhelmingly, the people I talked with admire what we are doing with our blog and they think it is great that we are publishing our young people's work. They were supportive and encouraged me to get more youth involvement recognizing that the more "truth" there is on the web about mental health, the more people will understand the complexity and prevalence of an infliction many people will face at some point in their lives.

Thank you to Raul Pacheo and Isabella Mori for organizing Mental Health Camp; it was an honour to be part of it and I look forward to next year.

Youth photography - by Kevin

After not seeing changes in the rankings for the Pepsi Refresh project we have now jumped 27 spots and are currently in 2nd place. It is all thanks to you and your daily voting.

Please keep voting, tweeting and facebooking about Covenant House Vancouver and the Pepsi Refresh project.

Thanks for all your hard work: now go vote and win us $100,000.00.

How can you help?

1. Go to http://www.refresheverything.ca/login

2. Then go to http://www.refresheverything.ca/covenanthousevancouver

3. Click on the "Vote for this idea" button.

You will hear the sound of a Pepsi can opening and your vote will be counted.

4. Do this once per day, as the winner will be the idea with the most votes by August 31st.

What else can you do to help?

Put a reminder in your Outlook / I-Calendar
Set as your homepage
Share with friends and family

Please remember that, the more votes that we receive, the better a chance we have at winning and continuing to make a difference in the lives of our youth.

Watch a great movie and see "The Big Picture" by contributing to the community at the same time! The Big Picture is a movie fundraiser featuring the film Inception and organized by youth volunteers of S.U.C.C.E.S.S.'s Youth Leadership Millennium (YLM) Program. Proceeds from the event will benefit Vancouver's Covenant House, a local charity that has been providing 24-hour shelter, drug, alcohol and mental health counselling, as well as many other areas of support for homeless youths, a group estimated to number 15,000 per year in British Columbia.

Please join us on Friday, July 23, from 3 - 6pm at the Rio Theatre for a screening of Inception, the exciting sci-fi action thriller from Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight) that features a star-studded cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Cane and more!
For advance tickets and/or questions, reach us at ylmcc2010@gmail.com. Tickets can also be purchased on the event day at the Rio Theatre, starting at 2:45pm.

When: Friday July 23, 2010 3:00pm
Where: Rio Theatre | 1660 E Broadway (at Commercial Dr.)
Admission: $10

About S.U.C.C.E.S.S:

S.U.C.C.E.S.S. Youth Leadership Millennium is a 7-month program dedicated to helping young people aged 14-25 in areas of personal and leadership development. Each year, we organize a series of activities, workshops and events that are not only fun, but also increase participants' social and cultural awareness and facilitate creative and positive change in our community. Now in its 12th year, YLM renews its commitment to give back to the community by hosting this movie fundraiser organized entirely by young graduates of the program!

Find us on facebook.

 

 

Howard, one of our Community Support Service youth workers, just popped in to tell me a great story as a follow up to the youth versus staff hockey game.

He told me that last year, before we started renting the gym at the Roundhouse, the youth and staff would play hockey near the beach. Howard recalled two young men who really "went at it" during a game, slashing each other's sticks, eventually breaking out into a full-fledged fight.

They were pulled apart and it turns out that the two had recently been discharged from the Shelter together for inappropriate behavior and they were taking their anger out on each other. One of the youth was not as good of a player as the other youth. The youth that was the better player was really rubbing the not as good player's nose in it and teasing him lots.

Well, fast forward a year and at our recent hockey game, the two young men were playing again - this time cheering each other on and having a blast. Howard mentioned that the one young man had really improved his hockey playing skills after having noticed the other youth giving him pointers. Apparently the two are the best of friends, are currently staying in our shelter and doing very well.

It is amazing what a difference a year can make in the lives of our youth.

Covenant House International is urging all Americans to support Bill H.R. 1623, a bill that would expand the protection of Megan's Law, mandating reporting requirements for convicted sex traffickers including pimps against minors to engage in international travel, and preventing entry into the U.S. by any foreign sex offender against a minor.  Click here for more information.

We have written about human trafficking a few times, most recently drawing attention to Canada's lack of a national strategy on human trafficking and we never receive any comments on these posts. Maybe the issue of human trafficking is a "no brainer" and people don't feel the need to comment. I wonder too if human trafficking is still largely flying under the radar for most people - they know it exists but the details are vague and repugnant. For a lot of people, the thought of human enslavement whether for physical labour or sexual exploitation is beyond comprehension.

A few years ago, we had a presentation for our youth workers from a young woman who had exited the sex trade; she had been trafficked throughout Canada and United States and her story still haunts me. She is now an educator teaching organizations like Covenant House how the sex trade and trafficking works and how we can assist those trying to exit. She escaped, many do not.

If you are interested in learning more about human trafficking, click here  and if you are reading this blog from the United States and want to lend your voice to Bill 1623, click here.