Teen Poverty

February 22nd, 2016

On Monday evening, I went to a meeting at The Branch Restaurant in Kemptville. The meeting was organized by the Share the Love campaign officer, Heather Sansom. I was invited to speak about the art project I facilitated at Oxford on Rideau Public School. A gentleman from Youth Centres of Canada provided sobering statistics about poverty and the results of rural poverty on our community. Robin Heald from the Kemptville Youth Centre spoke at length about the situations she encounters through her work, youth who need shelter and have nowhere to go. She described the lack of resources in our area, like shelters and, explained the difference between agencies that offer referrals and agencies that conduct referral management. The Kemptville Youth Centre can refer clients to resources in adjoining communities like the Ottawa Shelter or the Prescott Shelter which is currently conducting a pilot project. Referring means she can give clients a phone number and a telephone, the rest is up to them. Once the teenagers leave her centre, she has no idea where they ended up.

We discussed the impact of poverty on community health: inadequate food or cold homes so children get sick. We examined the correlation to dropping out of school, teen pregnancy, obesity (by eating cheap, processed food) and relocation. Youth will choose to go to the Ottawa shelter, given a choice because there are more accessible resources there and transportation. Once they get there, there is no follow-up so they may end up on the streets which can lead to drug use or prostitution. Robin would rather have referral management services. This means you actively connect youth to resources, you contact those resources for them and coordinate them accessing the services. You then follow-up for a set amount of time to ensure they are gaining the skills or contact necessary to their success. They may need job skills or assistance with housing. Once teenagers leave our area, chances are they will not return to our area.

We met Mario, the manager of the new ReStore in Kemptville who just moved to Kemptville from PEI. The Restore raises funds for Habitat for Humanity by accepting donations of used construction materials and selling them to the public, home builders etc. The money helps to pay for their next building project. Habitat for Humanity chooses a family in need and works in partnership with them to build a home. They have a mortgage but is in interest-free and adjusted according to their income. The home is theirs and they can choose to sell it once they have lived there for a year. Mario reported the many benefits for families who become homeowners. Children have a space of their own, a home they can be proud of, they have sense of ownership and learn to take care of their home, they can have people over for playdates.

Having the ReStore is good news. However, the lack of resources for teens means many local youth fall through the cracks. Robin lead a brainstorm of potential solutions. Initially, the discussion was focused on how we can gather data re: how many local teens are actually homeless, couch surfing or stuck in abusive situations. There were many suggestions including having an intranet database that social service agencies could use to enter information about teenagers who were using their services, using the youth's initials to ensure confidentiality while avoiding counting the same person twice. Others talked about policies and procedures that exist elsewhere. We could contact them and ask for their service map to learn from their experience. One success story came from Medicine Hat where homelessness became a priority and was drastically reduced. The Prescott Shelter Pilot Project is likely to expand to our area. For now, Robin encourages everyone to contact their MP and MPP and demand that the issue of teen homelessness be addressed. This is a crucial time as our Municipality is discussing policies that will affect affordable housing in Leeds-Grenville.

Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org