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%

TERRACE 638-8585
PRINCE RUPERT 624-5714

MARCH
SPECIAL

ASSORTED COMPUTER
-FURNITURE

BUSINESS MACHINES

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

(737 Fraser St, Frince Rupert, B.C, V8J 11
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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.

ee