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November 2006
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From our quarterly newsletter
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November
2005
Forgotten Child
Soon many of us will begin the yearly tradition
of buying Christmas Gifts. Many of us will experience that wonderful
joy of choosing a gift for a child who is part of our lives. We
will reflect on their interests and then pick the gift. All of
our efforts will be directed at bringing joy to this child on
Christmas morning.
But what happens to the "not so special"
children? Foster children…..the children of the "working
poor"…..children from welfare families.
Let me tell you about some of these "forgotten"
children. They are the ones who come through the Aunt Leah's doors.
They are children who are without family and community. They are
children who have become deficient in trust and social skills.
Lonely and struggling, they have few friends to rely on. They
are teenagers who have lived in many foster homes and group homes.
One young girl told me that Aunt Leah's was her 32nd home. I have
no capacity to imagine this experience for this young child.
But these children are very similar to the children
on your "Christmas List". They have many of the same
interests. The same hopes and dreams. A gift on Christmas morning
for these children will offset many painful memories of sorrow
and loss. It will encourage "possibility thinking".
It will become part of a continuum of service that will create
a trusting and kind adult--_a positive adult capable of fulfilling
his/her own dreams.
A world where there are no "poor kids".
That's my dream. But dreaming the dream while accepting the reality
is a difficult task. If you are fortunate enough to be able to
purchase a gift for a daughter, son, niece, nephew or grandchild
this Christmas then I would encourage you to add one more child
to your list. Give an equal amount to a young person from Aunt
Leah's this Christmas.
If children are not part of your shopping list,
then I encourage you to begin a new tradition. Shop for one of
the "forgotten" children this Christmas.
With a gift of $35, you will provide one gift
for an Aunt Leah's youth or mom. A gift of $60 will provide a
gift and a "Christmas Evening" to mark Christmas 2005.
With a gift of $100 a young mom can have all of the above and
be able to purchase "baby's first gift".
Won't you join me in "dreaming the dream"
this Christmas for some very important kids?
In the Spirit of Leah,
Gale Stewart
Founder and Executive Director of
Aunt Leah's Independent Lifeskills Society
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November 2005
Restaurant Training Program Coordinator Zoe Renaud Leaves
Aunt Leah's
Long Term Restaurant Training Coordinator, Zoë
Renaud, has left Aunt Leah's to work in another field (Environmental
Engineering), for which she has been attending BCIT. Zoë
worked for Aunt Leah's since 1998 and she will be greatly missed.
"I first came to Aunt Leah's to apply for
the chef position for the community meals many years ago,"
Zoë says. "Although I wasn't hired for that position,
Sarah and Catherine thought I would make a good Floor Trainer
for the youth in the Restaurant Training Program so I began that
job on a part-time basis."
"The first group of youth I worked with were
extremely challenging and I spent the first few months wondering
what I had gotten myself into," she continues.
"But as time went on and I got comfortable
in my new role working with youth I began to realize I had much
more to offer them than I originally thought. I also began to
see the successes that the youth were experiencing in their lives
because of their involvement with Aunt Leah's and I felt honoured
to be a part of their journey."
When asked if Aunt Leah's made a significant difference,
Zoë answers with the question: "Where hasn't Aunt Leah's
made a significant difference?"
"I have years worth of faces who have been
profoundly affected by their involvement with this society,"
Zoë says. "These faces are the youth and women in the
training programs who express a new found sense of confidence
and self-worth because they know they can do it. These faces are
the people in our communities who come to the weekly meals and
are served with the dignity and friendliness they so greatly deserve,
but rarely receive. These faces are the youth who come back to
visit, many years after they have left our programs, just to say
hello and fill us in on their lives and feel the sense of family
that Aunt Leah's has created around itself. So many faces I can
see shine brighter because of this society, including my own."
Zoë describes the program participants as
inspiring because they all came to improve themselves in some
aspect of their lives.
When asked about accreditation, Zoë says,
"In my opinion, the accreditation process was a huge benefit
to Aunt Leah's because it helped build a stronger foundation and
a staff body that was well-informed about the society."
Zoë will be maintaining a connection to Aunt
Leah's in the future as she continues in her role as a Support
Link Overseer. With Zoë's departure comes a new staff member,
Pamela Urquhart. Pamela comes to Aunt Leah's with a background
as a childcare worker. "I needed something challenging as
well as a change from what I was doing," Pamela explains.
"The whole concept of the Restaurant Training Program is
unique and the meals are needed in every community." Like
Zoë, Pamela finds the training program participants inspirational,
in particular when working with individuals with many challenges.
"The look on their faces when they are part of something
as simple as putting a bun on a plate can be amazing."
"The group of school kids that we have are
just amazing," Pamela says. "We show them once or twice
how to do something and they just go do it. They are so happy
to be there."
Aunt Leah's welcomes Pamela and wishes her success
with the Training Program and Aunt Leah's.
Written by Tracy Sherlock
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November 2005
Restaurant Training Program Adds New Church Partnerships
Along with a new co-ordinator,
the program has made two new partnerships with Vancouver Churches:
both Shaughnessy Heights United and Knox United Churches have
initiated meal programs with our training programs this fall.
Knox United Church is hosting a community lunch on the second
Wednesday of each month and Shaughnessy Heights United Church
is hosting a lunch on the third Wednesday of every month. Aunt
Leah's welcomes and appreciates these new church partners.
Clif Prowse is the
chairperson of the City Partners portion of the Shaughnessy Heights
United Church Outreach Committee, and as such he has been actively
involved in initiating the meal at the church.
"It was on this
committee that we learned about Aunt Leah's," he says. "The
people from Wilson Heights told us about the Aunt Leah's training
programs." The church committee wanted to establish a meal
in order to integrate more fully with their community.
"We wanted to
host the meal and interact with the people rather than cooking
and serving the meal," Clif says. "We want to welcome
everyone to the meal because we can learn a lot from each other."
Aunt Leah's Training Program was one of the deciding factors in
initiating the community meal.
"Aunt Leah's training
helps people into a position where they can get jobs in the hospitality
industry and that's awesome," Clif says.
Written by Tracy Sherlock
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May
2005
Building On A Good Idea
It’s only when we look back at our history
that we understand how we got to where we are. This is definitely
true of Aunt Leah’s Support Link Program. This program predates
our incorporation. In 1986, our youngest child was in school and
I began pursuing a concept that I had come to while being a foster
parent. The idea came out of a simple observation. Foster children
that were in their teen years could not adapt to a new family
(especially those that had experienced their childhood in multiple
foster homes). They didn’t have the ability, nor should
they be expected to attach themselves to a new mother/father figure
in the way we might expect younger foster children to do.
Developmentally they were moving toward adulthood
and independence. My idea was to find kind and caring individuals
who would allow teenage foster children to live in their basement
suites. In addition I would ask them to take on a role of friendly
landlord and permit me to do one to one support with them. So
with lots of energy and a naïve sense of my own capabilities,
I set out to pursue the Ministry of Social Services with my idea.
Unfortunately, my many conversations and many attempts to write
proposals to engage the ministry fell on deaf ears, except for
one social worker who had two young teenage girls he had been
unsuccessful in finding homes for. These two young women had severe
addiction issues. Somehow he managed to convince his superiors
to let me find homes with basement suites to implement my new
idea. Perhaps the placement I was suggesting wasn’t any
riskier than leaving them on the street on the downtown eastside.
So with permission granted and my first contract about to be drawn
up, I contacted friends and neighbours, explaining my idea. They
would open their basement suite to a foster child, I would check
in on them daily and they would call whenever they had concerns.
Support Link was born.
My first mentors were a front-line worker, Margaret
Michaud and Jerry Adams (now Executive Director of the Urban Native
Youth Association). I will always be grateful for their wisdom
and patience during those early days in understanding the issues
and learning how to give healthy support to these two young women.
By 1988, I had four young people in basement suites
in the Marpole area. My zeal was beginning to be tempered with
the realization of personal liability, so I set out to become
incorporated as a society. At the same time, I had written a proposal
for the Aunt Leah’s Home for pregnant and parenting teens.
When incorporation occurred in the summer of 1988, we were well
on our way to providing supported housing for foster children
in all stages of their development.
Our first Support Link Contracts were in Vancouver.
At one point in the early 90’s we had 18 suites under contract
(2-3 in Burnaby and 1-2 suites designated for the young moms leaving
the Aunt Leah’s House). Over nearly 20 years, Support Link
has developed and expanded into an excellent program. Today the
primitive methods I used in the early 90’s have been replaced
by policies and procedures that truly meet the needs of every
youngster entering the program. In June it will become our first
accredited program. Today the Ministry for Children and Family
Development espouse the concept. They look for foster parents
who in addition to providing a home for children also have basement
suites where the teenagers in their homes can have an experience
of semi-independence. The saying goes, that if you see others
using your idea, it must have been a good one.
In the spirit of Leah,
Gale Stewart
Founder and Executive Director
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January 2004
Another Door Opens As Aunt Leah's House Closes
Fifteen years ago,
Bridget Orford and myself were filling a number of shopping carts,
trunks and vans with household furnishings. All with the excitement
of founding a new organization and a new residential facility
for pregnant and parenting street teens called Aunt Leah's Home.
As most of you are
aware, in a few months we will reverse the activities of the fall
of 1988 by closing the doors of Aunt Leah's Home. Since the house
was our founding program it is often referred to simply as Aunt
Leah's so there may be some who are thinking that the organization
itself is closing.
This is not the case.
The government has cut the funding to this one program. The organization
has just completed its most successful year to date and anticipates
new partnerships and new programming for 2004.
Each of us have turning
points in our lives, places where we become better people because
of certain experiences that came into our lives. The creation
of Aunt Leah's House was one of those significant events for me.
The Aunt Leah's House
was where I learned so very much from some of the most courageous
young people I will ever meet. As founder, I not only developed
the administrative skills to run the day to day operations of
a non-profit, but I also had the privilege of hearing stories
form children who have witnessed and survived life experiences
that most of us will never encounter.
Like most transitions
in life, I find it painful to leave those things that I have cared
for. In this case it is a physical home, a particular model of
care, a team of professionals who will not be part of the organization
any longer. Aunt Leah's will continue to assist teen mothers in
another context, through a different model. This year, through
a partnership with Soroptimist International of Vancouver we will
develop a new program, "Thresholds", which will have
a three bed residential component to provide supported housing
to young mothers and marginalized women. I am very excited about
this new residential program and believe that it will be a very
practical support to young moms.
The word "limen"
means 'threshold' and to be in a state of liminality is to be
posed upon uncertain ground, to be leaving one condition or country
or self and entering upon another. This is what Aunt Leah's will
be doing in 2004. We will be leaving a model of care that we have
used for fifteen years. With the new Thresholds program we will
construct a new way of providing the same service.
"The most salient
sign of liminality is it unsteadiness, it lack of clarity about
exactly where one belongs and what one should be doing, or wants
to be doing."* Again, Aunt Leah's will parallel the lives
of the young women to come to us. They are searching for ways
to leave parts of their lives behind and are yet to experience
the new skills they will acquire to do this. In 2004 Aunt Leah's
will form new partnerships and Thresholds will flow out of the
experience of fifteen years running Aunt Leah's house.
In the spirit of Leah,
Gale Stewart
Founder and Executive Director
* From a book by Carol
Heilbrun.
"Women's Lives - The View from the Threshold"
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October 2003
One Young Life At A Time
Fall is here and with
it many homes experience the beginnings of school and routines
determined by the needs of children. At Aunt Leah's our fall training
programs have begun and the youth and teen moms in our care are
attending programs where they are taught the lifeskills they will
soon need to live on their own.
It seems surreal to
write on the topic of teenagers living on their own. The most
vulnerable young people in our society having to learn how to
live on their own at age 16,17 and 18.
Our minds and our hearts
direct us to think that those with the least opportunities in
life should receive the most support. But that is not how it is.
The weariness of the topic can take away energy that can be better
spent on equipping kids to be good tenants, good moms and dads,
good community members.
Lifeskills Training
is the mandate of the organization and the task we set out to
do each day at Aunt Leah's. Preparing these 16 and 17 year-olds
for their 19th birthday and a radical transition to adulthood.
For our teen mothers it encompasses both the transition and the
establishing of a small and fragile family unit.
The word lifeskills
can roll off the tongue in a very clinical way. What we are really
talking about is the ability to do life well. This is a big undertaking
for youth who have lost mom, dad, home and community and have
had to adapt to all of the other liabilities that poverty brings
about.
What kind of skills
are involved? You must know how to look after your own personal
care; Look after your home, your finances, your children, your
relationships; Know how to be a good neighbour: How to live within
community. You also need to have the skill and the confidence
of performing a task in exchange for an agreed upon monetary wage.
And finally you need to have the management skills to take that
money and use it to feed yourself, pay your rent, look after those
you love and invest in a small amount of healthy leisure.
"Lifeskills"
are profoundly basic to establishing community. Without them we
become a society in chaos. And it poses the question; "What
happens to a youngster who without family supports, does not acquire
these lifeskills?” The answer is equally profound. These
courageous, sensitive and kind youngsters develop survival skills
to replace what they were never taught. At best they will weaken
an already hampered welfare and health-care system by repeating
the cycle of poverty for their children. At worst, they will support
the "underground economy". They will break into houses,
rob retail stores, become participants in the sex and drug trade
and eventually enter our penal system.
Sometimes I try to
imagine one of my own children at age 16 being left on his/her
own in a "third world" country without language, money
and food. This exercise is a way of understanding the struggle
of the youth have who come through the Aunt Leah’s doors.
They are very much alone and needing to acquire lifeskills in
a very short period of time.
I invite you as reader
to suspend your imagination to a different place. Try to imagine
a young child growing up without a nurturing family and then imagine
this same child as a teenager before his/her nineteenth birthday
and how frightening the future must be.
At time of writing
we are planning to create an additional suite/apartment for one
youth who has reached the age of nineteen and still needs support
for another 6-12 months. This apartment would be in addition to
the fourteen suites we already have in our semi-independent living
program.
Right now we have the
vision.....we don't have the funds. Would you consider making
an investment in this type of supported housing for a graduate
(a 19 year old) in our residential programs? The work of lifeskills
training is not flashy. It will never make the news. Rather it’s
the tenacious belief in assisting one young life at a time. Equipping
one young person with the skills to do life well. It’s what
every mom, dad, grandparent, aunt and uncle passes on to the children
in their care.
Help us make a difference……Help
us do life well for the kids at Aunt Leah’s.
In the spirit of Leah,
Gale Stewart
Founder and Executive Director
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June 2003
The Leah Files
I was recently writing my portion of the Aunt
Leah's Annual Report. Annual Reports provide an opportunity to
reflect on past accomplishments and provide a vehicle to share
our hopes for the year ahead. This year the organization is celebrating
the transition into our 15th year of operation.
Like the youth who come to us for help and guidance
the society is in its 15 year old adolescent phase of development.
Often confident, feeling that our wings are fully developed. Sometimes
questioning our abilities, knowing that there are skills still
to be learned. Always needing the assurance from others that we
can manage.
Fifteen years ago I was sitting at a PC Jr. Computer
(remember those?) responding to a proposal request from the Ministry
of Social Services for a residential facility that would accommodate
street involved teen mothers and their babies. I found the draft
of that proposal earlier this year. Part of it reads like this:
"All of us need places and people to support
us during our crucial "beginnings" in life. For street
youth this is especially important, since her own beginnings as
a child were probably difficult and painful…Aunt Leah's
will be a home where the teen mom can provide good beginnings
for her new baby, a supportive environment where the bonding process
can occur unhampered." -summer/1988-
Somewhere in the writing of that proposal, I accidentally
pushed the connection to the power bar and lost the whole document.
I clearly remember that it was well after midnight, the deadline
was the next day and that I definitely felt like turning the computer
off and going to bed. But some internal motivator clicked in.
I decided to type furiously and attempt to recall what I could
remember of that evening's work. The outcome is the Aunt Leah's
story and the on-going history of some of the most courageous
young Canadians that you and I will ever meet.
In this anniversary year we will complete the
necessary work to become an accredited social services agency.
During the process we will develop skills, procedures and best
practices that will mature the organization. At this time, the
work set before us seems onerous. We continue to experience the
double bind of limited resources to accomplish accreditation and
the persistent pressure of having to achieve our fund-raising
goals. We have set September 30th, 2004 as our deadline for the
completion of accreditation and I have asked Tracy Sherlock (our
Newsletter Editor/Financial Manager) to coordinate the effort
beginning this September/03.
Along with the pressure to complete the accreditation
process, the lack of funding for our Restaurant Training program
continues to place this program in jeopardy. Since losing the
government funding for this program just over a year ago, we have
managed to fundraise enough valuable dollars to continue the program
through this month. The program is scheduled to begin again in
September, however without continued support from our donors it
is again in jeopardy.
As always I would like to pay tribute to the amazing
Aunt Leah's Staff. In easy and difficult times they continue to
be the primary advocates for young people who are often without
skills, without family and home, without adult supports and with
only a small portion of hope. Aunt Leah's staff are committed
to equipping these vulnerable youth with the necessary skills
that will enable them to live on their own at a much too early
age. For those of you who have had the experience of living with
or parenting adolescents, you will agree that the task of preparing
a 17 year old for tenancy, for parenting, for home and financial
management is a daunting task. Everyday Aunt Leah's Staff skillfully
engage 20- 25 teenagers in accomplishing these goals.
This year we say farewell to Graham Hill as Chair
and Board member. Graham has been a constant supporter of the
Aunt Leah's vision and mandate. His calm and accepting approach
to leadership has been a great support to me. We wish him and
Shauna the best as they await the birth of their second child.
To the rest of the board, volunteers and donors I thank you for
your part in bringing stability to society's often forgotten children.
Finally to you the reader, please continue to
remember Aunt Leah's kids. They need places and people to support
their crucial "beginnings". They deserve your financial
support.
In the spirit of Leah,
Gale Stewart
Founder and Executive Director
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