Tonee Sabine: Four months before being accepted by Diana English On the night of March 27, 1991, 27 children between the ages of 12 and 20 were on the streets in Ter- race with no place to sleep. Terrace does have its share of "street kids". According to Project Reconnect street worker Tonee Sabine, an average of 25 kids every night have no home they can go to — want to go to — when darkness falls. Sabine says some parents, in the morning, find kids of varying ages sleeping in their homes, kids are brought home by their own children because their friends have no other place to spend the night. Reconnect was started four years ago to catch kids needing help but fit into no existing social services program. Street kids are people with no resources, suffering from the effects of abuse, drugs and, in ‘many cases, bad health, Most kids are not aware of what help there is for them in the community. Sabine says many of them go through other service agencies, but some- times do not receive, or in some cases do not want, help. > from Terrace Review —— Wednesday, October 30, 1991 17 The subculture of homeless teens Reconnect helps kids leave the streets Sabine says that when kids run their home town the Reconnect workers in various areas can get in touch with each other to pass on physical descriptions and risk factors of the kids involved. The Reconnect agencies in other towns will put out “feelers" on the street and wait. If contact is made, the workers will attempt to reconnect the kids with their home communities. Reconnect can also put the kids in contact with support agencies that can help them with health care and job searches. According to Sabine it is not hard to locate someone through the street network. The kids will talk about other kids to people they trust. But if they feel the needs of the friend in question are better served by silence, then they will keep that silence. Sabine says she was on the streets with the kids for four months before they accepted her as part of their life. She says the new kids have a difficult time at first identifying who she is and why she is there. Sabine says many kids end up on the streets because of a crisis at home. They will stay away any- where from two days to three weeks and then go back, until the next crisis causes them to run again. The nature of crisis can range from parents being on a binge to alienation caused by re- marriage of a parent. Other kids leave home and never go back. Often the family situation is such that the child may seem better off not being there. When they don’t find the support they need at home, the kids go to their peer group. Sabine says there is a very strong street grapevine in Fall Tune-up Special A CYL. 46° IGNITION TUNE-UP 6 CYL. 9° V6/V8 5° o Ignition system pre-analysis v Test battery and clean connections ¢ inspect spark plugs Test electronic cylinder power balance ¥ Test spark plug cables ¥ Inspect rotor & distributor cap 21 SERVICE CHECKS o Inspect all air and gas filters ow Checkstarler wo Check voltage regulator and alternator v inspect all belts and hoses e Pressure test cooling system o Test the radiator antifreeze “eCheck all under-the-hood lluid levels _ & Check heat riser valve v Check PCV valve oe Check EGR valve Inspect choke v Check timing & adjust wv Check vacuum advance Check operation of biock healer v Road test vehicle 2 = * LABOUR ONLY: PARTS & FLUIDS NOT INCLUDED: » TOTEM SERVICE. (N&J Service Centre Ltd.) A PETRO-CANADA DEALER 4711 Lakelse Ave., Terrace, B.C. 635-4515 ‘y Marque de commerce de Petro-Canada Inc. - Trademark PETROCANADA © which kids take care of each other. The kids are not always ready for help, The role of the Reconnect street worker is to be there when they are ready. Sabine says she has ofien tried to counsel teenage Tunaways to go back home. Other _ street kids, their friends, are fre- quently in agreement. In many cases the kids do go home, and stay there. In other instances older kids who have been on the street for a while leam that education is a good thing, and often return to school for upgrading. Sabine says the older kids will often help the younger ones on the street. They know where the younger ones are coming from and can understand their problems. Sabine says that all the kids have different needs and are in different situations. The ultimate goal of Reconnect is to repatriate the run- ‘aways with their communities. If the child does go home, Reconnect will help the family get the support it needs to stay together and will walk through the system with them. However the street workers must wait and recognize the time when the child is ready in order to give them-that help. . In most instances, when helping a street kid from another town, the -Reconnect worker will first contact the Children’s Helpline. A social worker will then attempt to locate a temporary foster home or a fe- ceiving or group home, depending on space available at the time. Once the connection has been made, the Ministry of Social Ser- vices and housing will take over the situation. Reconnect is authorized to deal with 13- to 19-year-olds. Sabine sometimes sees younger children on the streets, but they can usually be sent home without too much trouble. However, in too many cases, they are back: on the streets the next year. While many of the kids she deals with are older teen- agers, often they are emotionally very young. She says they can display an odd combination of naivete and street smarts. The streets change dramatically in the summer. There is much more activity and more obvious PREFERRED drug and alcohol use than in the winter. While alcohol is most often the substance of choice, Sabine says she is seeing kids using cocaine and LSD, as well as mari- juana. One type of LSD is called "cartoon acid"; the hallucinogenic chemical is dried onto a small square of blotting paper illustrated with the image of familiar cartoon characters, presumably to be more marketable to younger kids. She says some of the kids are only weekend users of intoxicants, while others use whatever they can, whenever they can. They all have different definitions of "party time". Sabine says that most of the time the role of the Reconnect street worker is to remain neutral. The workers should always be ap- proachable, not seen as being enforcers or reprimanders. If the kids lose faith in Reconnect, then Reconnect loses the kid. Sabine says that the danger of AIDS should be a bigger issue among street kids, especially the younger ones. Most of the older ones are aware, she thinks, and appear to take the necessary pre- cautions. A parents support group called "Responding Parents" has been formed by some of the concerned parents of kids who have hit the streets. Sabine says the group connects parents to each other and allows them to help cach other find solutions, Last Christmas these parents, some of the kids, a Youth Outreach Worker and Reconnect organized and held a Christmas dinner at Danny’s Pool Hall. According to Sabine, the dinner went over well for all. the people involved. There are about 23 Reconnect — agencies in B.C. which are funded © by Community Services through Social Services and Housing. Locally Reconnect is supervised by Skeena Family Resources, a pro- gram of Terrace and District Com- | munity Services. Sabine, Terrace’s only Reconnect street worker, says that like most other organizations of its type, Reconnect relies heavily on other social services. 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