Covenant House Vancouver

I recently got back from my summer holidays and while I was off I had the absolute thrill of running into an old client of Covenant House; he has been independent for about 5 years and he was someone for whom I always had a special place in my heart. 

His story wasn't unlike a lot of our youth; his parents were divorced, his mother had a drinking problem and there was a lot of turmoil in his young life. He ran away from home and found himself at Covenant House where he first accessed our Crisis Shelter, then moved on to our semi-independent program, Rights of Passage (ROP). We worked together a lot for various communications projects here at Covenant House as he was always so eager to "give back" to us, as many of our young people are. There is no shortage of gratitude at Covenant House and there is no better way to start and end one's work day than to feel grateful for working for an organization that touches young lives so incredibly.

Anyway, on one of the first days of my vacation, I was at The Lion King with my daughter (a very special treat for her 13th birthday) and when we were leaving, we got on the elevator and in walked this young man. We recognized each other instantly and there was a brief moment where I thought "do I mention Covenant House?". I didn't. I just asked him how he was and he said that he was great. He introduced to me his lovely wife and told me he was on paternity leave as they had just had a baby. Even recalling it now, I well up – the pride I felt in seeing him "all grown up" and obviously very happy was amazing.

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.

Yesterday we held our 2nd annual youth versus staff floor hockey game at the Roundhouse Recreation Centre. Many were on hand to cheer for both the youth and the staff alike. There was participation from the whole agency including youth from CSS and staff from Case Management. The final score is being debated but it has been agreed that the youth won. Way to go Youth!

It was a really great game to watch and I was surprised at the intensity and determination to win by both the youth and the staff. It was wonderful for both teams to have a chance to participate in a fun and healthy activity together, and anytime our youth have the chance to see adults having fun without drugs or alcohol is a positive learning experience for them.

Great fun was had by all, even poor Sister Nancy who took a ball to the side of the head as a spectator (don't worry, she's okay).

Here are some pictures from the game.


John the Program Director is playing hard



CSS Manager Kevin is having fun


Enjoy and have a healthy, happy weekend.

 A while back, we got a call from Riverview hospital about a girl who had gone AWOL (missing).

We happened to know the youth and had seen her the day before without realizing she was already AWOL The Hospital called just to let us know so that if we did see her we could try to get her back to a safe place. She showed up that very day to women's drop in all happy to see us and of course it is hard to decide to make that call - to know that you are going to get an ambulance here to pick her up and bring her back to the hospital.

My team and I worked together and we got the police here and the police were amazing, the sweetest, kindest most understanding police officers. They allowed me to talk with the youth before bringing her downstairs. At first the youth was quite upset and she said she was fine and didn't need any help and asked to please not let her be locked up. The police allowed us to stand there and work through the whole situation until the youth came to a point where she calmed down and she appeared to be feeling a little bit better.

Then we had to wait for the paddy wagon because the ambulance cannot transport somebody, even if it is a medical need, so it had to be the paddy wagon. We stood there and waited for the paddy wagon and while we continued processing the girl looked at me and said "You know what, it is for the best. I do need help". We talked about how much better she was doing and how much work she had obviously put in and she said "You know I am doing better and this is going to work for me".

Congratulations to Nicole whose stark and eloquent comic appeared on our blog a few months ago, for her recent winning of Ve'ahavta's 9th annual Creative Writing Contest.  Out of 750 submissions, Nicole placed 4th which is an amazing accomplishment.

The submissions were judged by a list of writers and media personalities. In 2010, the judges included humanitarian and actress Mia Farrow, Steve Paikin of TVO, Wendy Mesley of CBC, and producer and television host George Tsioutsioulas. The winners receive various prizes, including a creative writing course at The University of Toronto and The University of British Columbia, along with the top cash prize donated by Kernel's Popcorn for $1500.

Below is Nicole's winning submission:

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.

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.

During outreach we were handing out sandwiches we ran into a kid on the street that we didn't know and he said that he had just got out of the hospital. He had his little patient bag with his belongings and a blanket wrapped around him. He didn't know who we were so we introduced ourselves and told him about what we could help him out with and what our services were and we offered him a sandwich.

The funny thing is he was listening to all our services but as soon as we pulled out the sandwiches his eyes just lit up and he was like "you're going to give me a sandwich?" and we said yeah and we have other things to offer too but all he could focus on was the sandwich and he ripped it open and he was shoving it in his face and smacking away and he was like "This is so great. "Oh my gosh I can't believe you gave me a sandwich". There were crumbs flying out of his mouth and everything.

It was just comical and really touching to see how something so small can make somebody's day a little brighter. Providing somebody with food is huge when they are starving. People are appreciative and those moments can make a difference in somebody's day and in somebody's life.

 

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.

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.