Covenant House Vancouver

It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing of our dedicated volunteer, Brian Boyle. Brian passed away peacefully on February 6th, surrounded by his family at Vancouver General Hospital.

Brian started volunteering at Covenant House Vancouver in 2002 and helped us in many ways. He assisted at fundraising events, opened mail over many busy Christmas seasons, picked up food donations and drove to the recycling depot with items we couldn't use.

Brian was always willing to help with driving when we were in a pinch and he would even get a cube van for the job. There was only ever one condition: we had to have his coffee waiting for him when he arrived back at Covenant House!

Rest in peace, Brian. We'll miss your sense of humour and your very kind heart.

Brian pictured here at Covenant House's 10th Anniversary Celebration with (from left to right) daughter Janice Boyle, past Covenant House President Sister Tricia Cruise, and wife and volunteer Barbara Boyle)

Just before Christmas I received an email inquiry from a journalist in London, UK who was writing a story on the Olympics as it relates to homelessness.  She asked a lot of questions about the Assistance to Shelter Act and wanted information on the Government response to homelessness.

I provided her with many links illustrating some of the amazing projects the Provincial and Federal Government had initiated, including our own shelter expansion which enabled us to expand our shelter from 22 to 54 beds in just over a year.  Covenant House is grateful for this support and relieved that we no longer have to turn young people away due to overwhelming need.  Does more need to be done for homeless people in Vancouver?  Most people say YES!  But we've come a long way.

Needless to say, not much about the "good stuff" made it into the story.  Here is a link to the London Guardian article - let me know what you think.

Covenant House is now offering a new modality of therapy called Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and it will be lead by Dr. Kyle Burns, Dr. Jennifer Wide, Jesse (mental health clinician) and myself.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a treatment designed specifically for individuals with self-harm behaviors, such as self-cutting, suicide thoughts, urges to suicide, and suicide attempts. Many clients with these behaviors meet criteria for a disorder called borderline personality (BPD). It is not unusual for individuals diagnosed with BPD to also struggle with other problems -- depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, eating disorders, or alcohol and drug problems. DBT is a modification of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Clients in standard DBT* receive three main modes of treatment - individual therapy, skills group, and phone coaching. In individual therapy, clients receive once weekly individual sessions that are typically an hour to an hour-and-a half in length. Clients also must attend a two-hour weekly skills group for at least one year. Unlike with regular group psychotherapy, these skills groups emerge as classes during which clients learn four sets of important skills - Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotion Regulation, and Distress Tolerance. Clients are also asked to call their individual therapists for skills coaching prior to hurting themselves. The therapist then walks them through alternatives to self-harm or suicidal behaviors.

Each month our crisis shelter manager appears on CKNW's The Christy Clark Show to discuss parenting teenagers.  Many different topics are covered and we can't get to all the questions from callers, so we welcome your questions and will do our best to answer them quickly.  To submit a question go to Ask Covenant House. We will pick the most popular questions/themes and the answers will be posted on the blog.

Yesterday, our youth versus staff floor hockey game was held at the Roundhouse in front of a crowd evenly split in its allegiance. Won by staff 13-12 in a shoot out, the game brought out many youth from our shelter and ROP programs both as participants and spectators.

As I was watching the game, I was thinking how amazing it was to see the youth simply having "fun". I was thinking about from where these youth have come and how so many of them haven't had the opportunity for a lot of fun in their lives, and I got teary. I felt proud that we were providing this chance for fun and fellowship.

Plus it was really FUN for me to see our staff run their butts off, dripping in sweat, feeling their "age" compared to the youth who didn't seem phased in the least.

Our young people also take yoga classes on Friday thanks to the folks at Flow Yoga (part of the YYOGA chain, who also just generously donated $2500 from their Karma yoga classes in November and December). Thank you YYOGA!

Those of us who exercise regularly know how good we feel during and after we break a good sweat and it was awesome to see our youth feeling good and having fun - they so deserve it.

Here's Matt, one of our CSS/Outreach workers after his first period as goalie

 Staff cheering after their narrow victory

We were stoked to learn that the Christmas Eve Jazz Vespers concert at St. Andrews-Wesley raised $5,433.64 - thank you to all who attended and gave so generously!

Rich Coleman, Minister of Housing and Social Development represented the Province of British Columbia at our shelter expansion celebration yesterday.  Also in attendance were Mayor Gregor Robertson, Mary McNeil, MLA for Vancouver-False Creek, and Donna Wilson, Executive Vice President of People and Sustainability for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Krista Thompson, Executive Director here at Covenant House explained that the expansion of our shelter and the associated renovation of our Drop-In space was made possible thanks to the support of the Governments of Canada and British Columbia, Covenant House Corporate, VANOC and an anonymous donor.  The ongoing support support of over 55,000 of our donors enables us to provide food, clothing, counselling and shelter to over 1,900 young people each year and this we are most grateful.

Krista also expressed a sentiment shared by all of us at Covenant House which is that it is an honour to come to "work"; the young people who come to us for help inspire us with their courage and determination each and every day.

Click here for the press release.

Check out January's electronic newsletter.  

We have produced a short information video now available for distribution.  The video provides general information about Covenant House and includes interviews with youth and staff as well as commentary on the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

 

 

If you want more information or a professional quality copy of the video for television broadcasting, please contact:

Michelle Clausius
clausius@covenanthousebc.org

What do you think of it?