Karing Kitchen

Spent the morning at the Karing Kitchen today. My experience was....good. wonderful that anyone can go pick up bread and baked products after they are donated and delivered there, this morning there were about 8 tables of baked goods delivered from Sobeys, lots of stuff for people to take home. Norm works the floor and is really friendly and helpful. It seemed a bit like feast or famine to me, tons and tons of food and they say, then there may not be any. Today they had lots of volunteers, and I guess some days they don't have enough. I can see how it may be a difficult place for a youth to do community service hours as there isn't a lot of direction on what to do while there, I think it may be a bit intimidating for a teenager, although a great place to volunteer if you are a "take charge" kind of person. 

We served food from 11:00-1:00, which is the daily Monday to Friday hours for serving. The doors open for volunteers around 7:30-8:00am. This is also when anyone can come in and pick up some baked goods and if it is really cold or really hot outside, can sit inside and play cards or visit. 

 Things that volunteers may be asked to do: 

Serve hot or cold food during the lunch hours 11-1. 

 Serve tea and coffee during the lunch hours 11-1. 

Serve  juice and milk during the lunch hours 11-1. 

Help put desserts on plates for serving. 

Help unload the boxes of food delivered. 

Help unpack and lay out the food delivered. 

Peel and prepare vegetables and food for lunch. 

Clean tables, scrape plates and do dishes. 

Fill up water jug and juice cups for lunch time. 

 Phylis is the woman to get ahold of if you want to talk about volunteering or serving community hours. 854-3837

The lunch serving hours are very busy, Today we served people non stop for 2 hours. 

Aids Moncton~Needle Exchange

Had a visit with Debby Warren, executive director of Aids Moncton, today! 

What an unexpected "gem" I found. I had no idea that they offered so many wonderful services to our community. 

As the name implies, they are focused on harm reduction. They have a safe needle disposal and will dispense clean needles and supplies (such as cookers, needles, crack pipes, screens) to those in need. 

They also offer education to those who need it and to the community about disposing of a found needle and safe sex. 

Darlene is there to provide new, clean supplies and condoms and lube to those who need it, no questions asked. 

This is a safe, confidential place with caring, educated and respectful staff. They will direct clients to services needed within the community and advocate for services when necessary. They offer clean supplies, disposal, counsel, help and direction and a respectful shoulder if needed. 

Safe spaces is a program for youth LGBTQ that is partnered with the ymca. tuesdays at the ymca 7-9pm. You can call and talk to Sarah (director of this program) anytime. 

Bridgette is in charge of volunteer services if you are interested in donating of your time or skills. They also welcome donations of snacks and treats to give out. 

This place has so much more to offer than I could have imagined. They are open 8:30-4:30 Monday -Friday and summer 8:00-3:30. 

Lonewater farm Saint John

I visited the Lonewater Farm Rehab in Saint John a couple weeks ago.  This rehab is run by Horizon health Care and under the direction of Registered Nurse Peter Roy.

This is a residential rehab for men aged 19 and up. The program is 3 months long and the men get a pass every weekend based on a clean urine test. 

They go fishing, plant a garden, work with carpentry as well as therapy, meetings and 12 step meetings and more. They are allowed cell phones, TV and laptops. It seems to be a great transition from a life of drugs to treatment. They could transition to the 28 day treatment rehab at Ridgewood Addiction Services in Saint John before or after their stay at the farm. 

The cost is only $365 per month and if they are on social assistance it is put in trust to the farm and their stay would be paid that way. 

Lonewater Farm is secluded in the countryside of Saint John, a beautiful place to start recovery. 

The Harvest House

This past weekend my ten year old and I visited our local homeless shelter to spend an evening and overnight attempting to better understand homelessness and learn what is available to our community. 

This was an open invitation to the general public to spend a homeless night, visit the areas of our city most affected by homelessness and get 'our hands dirty' spending time with the residents, sleeping in the shelter and making and sharing breakfast. My ten year old and I were the only people who showed up. I am so glad we went, we learned so much about what is available and made a few friends too. I have to say that I really didn't know what to expect. Having heard many negative things about the shelter; that it is a bunch of 'crack heads' and 'sex offenders', I have heard many comments about its negative impact it could have on a teenager needing to spend the night or longer. I will admit that I adopted this opinion as well, out of ignorance. 

This place is a shelter. A safe place for a person with no where to go. A place of companionship and yes, there are drug addicts and people who have broken the law, and others who for one reason or another have found themselves homeless. They are people. We met a few people who's story will stay with us, people who we are proud to call 'friend', people who have overcome great obstacles and found themselves seeking shelter and recovery in this place. 

The Harvest House has many services to offer. An overnight safe, clean shelter, a program where a person could live longer to get back on their feet, an addiction recovery house and a couple other "transition" houses to help people start a life. The people who work there seem genuine and compassionate, they are humble and caring. There is a sense of comradery of family. 

My son and I will be going back to volunteer and to visit, show our support and companionship. I encourage anyone to visit. I especially challenge anyone working with people who may need help of this kind to take the time to visit. Knowledge is power. Together we are better. 

Programs to be offered Fall 2013

Here is a list of programs that will be offered in the Fall of 2013: Coaching for troubled you: 3 month coaching contracts offered to referred youth Coaching can be done in person or over phone or skype. Step Out! Program is for youth who have attended Portage or other drug rehabilitation and are transitioning form treatment back to life. This program has 9 sessions, one session per week for 9 weeks or 3 sessions per week for three weeks. Each session is 3 hours long. Designed to give support and help youth get back on their feet in the "real world". There is also parental support. Re Touch Program is a program for youth who have made a decision to stay sober (either from treatment or otherwise) and have experienced a lapse or relapse in their recovery. This program has session 1~3 hours each and is flexible in length. Number of sessions will be determined by need. This program will also help maintain motivation for treatment if admission to Portage is required for a first or second program. There is also parental support. This program can be adapted to in person, over phone or skype. Parents of teens and Parents of substance abusing youth workshops, coaching and support groups. In person, over phone or skype. Pilates/Yoga classes~ 1/ week or 3/week classes are offered by certified Pilates instructor. Recovery yoga~ Affirmation yoga classes will be offered in Winter 2014. These classes are for youth in recovery. There will also be classes for parents in recovery. Meditation workshops~ 6 week sessions. 1 hour each. These sessions will teach basics of meditation and benefits. Understand and practice of mindfulness and imagery and how to use this through recovery. This training will be especially helpful for youth and adults in recovery. Learn how to "be inside your head" safely. Meditation classes are also available non~recovery based. Create a Vision workshops~ These workshops are 3 hours in length. Learn how to use imagery and mindfulness. Learn the healing power of using labyrinths and mandalas. Learn about vision boards and how to use them to create the future you want. These are powerful mind~focusing and healing tools. These workshops are also offered for work groups and mother/father & child groups as well as individuals.

Our future: Our youth

"Youth are our future; the continued strength of our country depends in large part on how we raise the next generation. It is our country’s responsibility to ensure that they receive the supports they need to develop to their full potential." Raisingtheroof.org

Some statistics from Raisingtheroof.org on homelessness in youth that relates to my proposed youth initiative:

Legal issues: Close to 30% of youth respondents reported legal issues as a barrier to achieving their goals. The difficult circumstances of street life often lead homeless youth to get involved in high-risk activities such as sexual exploitation, drug dealing and ‘squeegeeing’ as a way to access income.Also, youth often get tickets for panhandling, failing to pay fares on public transit, loitering and other misdemeanours. Criminalizing youth rather than treating these issues from a social perspective only adds to the already difficult challenges that street-involved youth face. Www.raisingtheroof.org

The role of addictions: more than 50% of the youth reported drug and alcohol abuse and described addiction as a major factor in coping with homelessness as well as in triggering relapses to street life. many youth self-medicate as a tool for survival in situations where, for example, they might need to stay awake all night to avoid being exploited. Drugs and alcohol are often used as a substitute for expensive mental health medications. And these youth often don’t have sufficient identification to get the medication they need or they have not yet been formally diagnosed. Www.raisingtheroof.org


According to the National Youth in Care Network, there are over 75,000 children and youth in care in Canada on any given day. This number represents a 67% increase over the 1995 estimate of 45,000.
An additional 24,000 youth reside in detention centres and youth justice facilities. Countless more are in mental health institutions. And thousands of youth have fallen through the cracks in the system and are living on the streets and in shelters.9 This latter group likely includes youth who, for one reason or another, were not brought into the care of child welfare authorities, ran away from their foster homes, refused to be involved in the care system or were found ineligible for services.
There is a need to reduce barriers to service access and to make improvements to the systems currently in place to prevent these youth from ending up homeless. Www.raisingtheroof.org

Coaching pilot project

Phase 1of S.T.A.N.D. Will be proposing a coaching pilot project in summer of 2013. Hopefully to start fall/winter 2013/14.

Who is there to empower troubled youth when they may be hitting their rock bottom and ready to make positive changes that will lead to a brighter future? My goal is to have a coaching program in place which will offer coaching services to youth who have lost their way; youth on remand in detention, youth sentenced to open custody, youth spending time in a group home or foster care and youth transitioning from addiction treatment back into the 'real world'.

The youth will be referred to this program by youth interventionists, RCMP from the Youth @ Risk program, open custody staff, probation officers or addiction or mental health counsellors. These youth will be targeted because they have voiced a desire for change, or a desire for change is recognized by a professional. They will be given an hour of coaching per week for a period of 3 months. The coach will use their skills to inspire the youth to discover dreams and encourage strength in competencies such as asking for help. They will be empowered to make decisions about what they want in their life and coached to start playing their 'game of life' as a winner. They will have someone 'on their team', they will learn what skills they have and what skills need enhancing, what character traits need work and what challenges and inner fears they may be experiencing and how to turn those challenges into opportunity.

Why are donations and funding such a project a "worthwhile" investment? (Besides, of course, that these youth deserve the best chance possible to get back on their feet and back into life)
"The social and economic cost: Without a national commitment to address youth homelessness, the numbers of street-involved youth will continue to accelerate, and associated health care, criminal justice, social services and emergency shelter costs will continue to grow.
And that makes no economic sense. It costs an estimated $30,000 – $40,000 per year to keep a youth in the shelter system. The cost of keeping one youth in detention is estimated at over $250 a day, or $100,000 a year." Www.raisingtheroof.org



What all youth need to hear: "We are all imperfect, as human beings, we are wired for struggle, but we are worthy of love & belonging." Brene Brown

It takes a community to raise a child!!

S.T.A.N.D. Sobriety Through a New Direction. I'm in the process of creating a 'Social Enterprise' which will create programs to support youth in need of direction. This organization will reach out to youth in recovery from addictions, youth in need of coaching services to support and encourage healthy change, a volunteer central program which will help connect youth to volunteer opportunities and community service possibilities to encourage empathy and community connections, peer mentoring programs, leadership programs, community programs such as NA, AA and Al Anon, Nar ANON, a drop in center for youth and parents for support, parent support and family programs as well as many other programs designed to help families and youth get support and resources within the community when in need. The plan is to develop a program that will connect youth and families to services available within the community, a source of light for families in darkness.

Many of our youth today are lonely, lost and afraid, tormented and disrespectful, turning to drugs, alcohol and crime out of loneliness, boredom and defiance. They lack necessary respect for themselves and their community in a world we have built. WE are responsible to ensure there are resources for families and teens when they need them. Resources are needed TODAY!!! Photo credit: Photo found online and belongs to its respectful owner.