Al6 Terrace Review — Wednesday, March 21, 1990

Reconnect still active, street kids still there _

“many. youth - ‘running | from. - abusive situations. Friends.can —. .

Joe Sullivan being pro-family, would like nothing better than to

see local families reconciled by

talking through their differences.

and individual difficulties. He urges young people to look for the good in their home life, and work on the ‘“‘not-so-good’’, Sullivan says, ‘‘Family is good in principle. We all have to work out differences.’? He would like to see both parents and teens take advantage of the many

workshops offered in Terrace. |

by Betty Barton

Far too often, says Sullivan, either parent or teen decides not to attend a workshop or seminar and a problem is left unresolved, at least for the time being. One of his visions is to see youth housing for Ministry-approved teen runaway cases. He says parents are often concerned that

Royal award seen as incentive for youth

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in Canada, is the most prestigious achievement award for young Canadians, a challenge from Prince Philip to all young people between the ages of 14 and 25. It offers them opportunities to broaden their interests and experience under adult guidance and assessment. This is achieved through participation in a balanced program of practical, cultural and adventurous activities chosen.to suit individual aptitudes and related to local needs and

conditions.

Excerpt from a promotional brochure

' Starting in April Joe Sullivan of Reconnect will be coor-

- dinating a group of nine young

people to undertake the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award program. Joe wants to offer this program to young people in Terrace who are ‘spinning their wheels’’. The idea is to get them involved in someting constructive to broaden their interests and ex- perience through participation in a balanced set of programs. Four areas the teens will be in- volved in are community service, expeditions, skills, and fitness. » Joe would like to see the young people volunteer at Ter- raceview Lodge and other facilities which have a need for volunteers. Joe explains that so many of the kids lack self- esteem, discipline or confidence. This would be a chance for them

20%

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MARCH SPECIAL

ASSORTED COMPUTER -FURNITURE

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4552 Lakelse Ave. Terrace, B.C. V8G_ 1P8

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to feel good about themselves and return something to the community. It’s a chance for the

‘young people and Reconnect to

access the business community, to have fund-raising accredited and to give the young people a positive focus for their energies.

A certain number of hours

achieved in each area will merit ©

bronze, silver or gold awards. The award itself consists of a

lapel pin of the appropriate

metal and an inscribed cer-

tificate of achievement.

More than 20,000 young Can- adians are now participating in the Award Programme, either as members of organized youth groups such as Guiding, Scout-

ing, Cadets or church youth

groups, and through schools or on an individual basis.

OFF

their jones will leave their home environments for the ex- citement and novelty of youth housing. Joe stresses that it would only be available for ‘‘Ministry-approved cases, who have a real-need.”” .

He also tries to keep kids in the education system and to find

safe home environments for’

them. Sullivan began his job as Pro-

ject Reconnect coordinator in~

September 1989 after three years

as a volunteer youth leader in

the Pentecostal Church youth group. He dealt with 20-35 church kids, with up to 50 non- church kids dropping in because they had heard about ‘‘all the

neat activities we participated |

in.”’ Sullivan is thankful for the ties with the young people that were formed prior to beginning his work with Reconnect. He got the word out through a lot of street youth.

Joe Sullivan has been in Ter- race for six years, He was not a

street kid himself, but says he |

‘‘sraduated from the school of hard knocks’’. Joe left the education system in Grade 11 and left home at age seventeen.

Now 29, the eldest of six children, he has fended for himself since then. Joe’s main

goal in taking the job with

Reconnect was to address com- munity concern for their youth,

determine why kids runaway and establish a prevention pro- gram for those still at home.

In presentations at Family management classes at Caledonia and to Skeena’s peer counselling group, Joe shows a 20-minute video, does com- munications skills . workshops and has question and answer periods.

If, after discussion, the in- dividual youth with concerns still feels the need to run, Joe en- courages him or her to talk to a counsellor at school or at Social Services. He deals only with youth from the ages of 13 to 19. If anyone younger approaches him, he refers them to a social worker at Social Services and Housing. If they’re 17 or 18 years old, that’s a real grey area, says Joe. They often have adult problems but lack the life ex- perience to deal with them, And with Social Services and Hous- ing regulations, they’ re still con- sidered children.

Joe works closely with the schools, concerned parents, friends, Social Services and

Housing and other agencies.

“I'm only as good as the other resources available’, he ex- plains.

Joe says some of the youth are running from strong parental values; religious, moral and financial. He also deals with

help only so much. Then the

community has to pick up the -

slack. Joe credits teachers and other youth workers for all the good things that have already happened for youth in the Ter- race area.

Reconnect is funded by the Ministry of Social Services and Housing, coordinated under Yvonne Reid, head of Special Services to Children for the Ter- race and District Community Services.

Joe says he ‘“‘has to balance the workload. It’s got a night time component, which is just as

important as the daytime calls —

and concerns.’’ Joe’s contacts range from one brief telephone call to long-term relationships where he follows a young person right through a program. He tries to impress on them right from the beginning that he can’t concentrate all his efforts on one client. He gets about six or seven

new files in a one-month period -

and he still has to keep up with the old ones.

**My heart is in the job. It’s good to know there are other people who feel this way too. If we can help them find a goal and skills to accomplish that goal, I’ve done my job, The best use of my time is to spend a whole day with a kid who needs me.”’

The Terrace Pentecostal Church has applied to the City of Terrace for a youth drop-in centre which would have facili- ties for use as a safe house as re- quired. Project Reconnect coor- dinator Joe Sullivan says that if the Youth Centre does become a reality, he would definitely use it — for workshops, for individual talks with young people, for meetings and for a safe house. Joe is working closely with Cliff Siebert, Minister of Youth of the Pentecostal Church.

by Betty Barton

A year ago, when Suzanne

Dufour was the coordinator of

Reconnect, a committee was formed to look into the possibil- ity of a safe house for the home- less and transitional youth of Terrace. . At the time, Dufour explained that there seemed to be a com- mon theme among the youth with whom she dealt — trouble with ‘“‘recombining’’ families. The father and mother split up, the parent with responsibility for the child finds a new partner who doesn’t get along with the

‘child. The ‘kid’ is cither driven _out of the home by abusive

behavior or ‘“‘gets the boot’. Suzanne is now a. youth worker at Lakelse High. Al-

though she’s no longer directly -

involved, she can still see the

need for a safe house. Even at -Lakelse High,. she says, a stu-— dent: will occasionally ‘need a

place’ fora few nights.. She'd - decmed necessary. This means that

really like someone to revive the Safe House Committee which has disbanded since her depar- ture from Reconnect.

Joe Sullivan says that with the current caseload, his efforts have not been concentrated in this area, but he still hopes to see the safe house become a reality.

Francis Smith of the Kermode

Friendship Centre says they’d

still like to see it go, but time, people, and funds are in short supply.

There seems to be a need and an interest, but that appears to. be all there is at this point.

Some official barriers close to being removed —

When Terrace’s Pentecostal Church asked for city approval of their planned youth center, ‘they ran into a bylaw snag, Because the Fire Commissioner's records listed the capacity of the church plus its new sanctuary as being 1,014 people they required a minimum of 127 parking spaces on site, This meant that the house they intended to use as a teen drop-in center would have to be tom down and

‘every available square foot of their

property would have had to be tumed into parking lot. — Appreciating the fact that the entire building will probably never be used at the same time, however, city council has now dropped the number of required parking spaces

to 99, with the condition that the — “elty can. change that number if it is

the house in question won’t have to be torn down but it’s use as a

teen drop-in center is still under debate.

The debate focuses on the ques- tion of whether or not the drop-in center could be considered an accessory use to the church, or if rezoning would be required to

permit it’s operation. In response -

to this question, the ‘city is now developing a policy to define what types of use should be considered a an accessoty to church funct- ions. For the development of the Pentecostal youth center, this could be called hurdle number two. But there are more hurdles down the road. Still to come is a response from the provincial government on. a funding application for the - church’s youth project.

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