SR Vol 27 No 3, July 2009 - Nova Scotia Barristers' Society

“Young people need an avenue to follow,” says Dr. Jeff Karabanow
of the Dalhousie School of Social Work. “More and more studies
are supporting the finding that nearly one in two children on the
street has child welfare experience. There is something wrong with
that picture.”
While most kids rely on Mom and Dad, it’s not an option for
these young people, he notes. “Those two foundations don’t exist
for this population. They need little things like being able to take a
shower, little things that would make them feel human again.”
And they need the support of their community. For some kids,
like Rob, that support comes one person at a time. While staying
at Phoenix House, he met a man who gave him much-needed
support. “I had a meeting with him and explained to him what
I was going through and asked if he could help me get back on
track. He started to test me to see if I was a hard worker and could
keep a job or not. So he started me as a street sweeper.”
Support also needs to come from the government. Just as the
House of Assembly was dissolved for the recent election, the former
MacDonald government unveiled the province’s first Poverty
Reduction Strategy, developed in response to recommendations
from the Poverty Reduction Working Group, which was put in
place through legislation supported by all three parties.
The $155-million strategy calls for training low-skilled workers,
increasing affordable housing and improving benefits for lowincome
families. About $88 million will be invested in training
workers with less than a Grade 12 education level. Another $59
million will be spent to increase access to quality, affordable
housing and the development of a provincial housing strategy.
Poverty is one thing, but it’s extremely important to include youth
directly in this strategy, youth advocates argue.
It’s one opportunity to begin strengthening the social safety net.
As for Rob, there seem to be a lot of right directions in his life at
the moment. “I’m doing good,” he says. “I even got a puppy and
now I’m taking care of her.”
* surname withheld at Rob’s request
Lights, camera, action on youth
The glitz, glitter and gold of television and movies holds a special
allure for young people. Now it also holds an employment
opportunity for youth looking to get off the street, on their feet
and into a better, brighter world.
An innovative project in Dalhousie’s Faculty of Health
Professions saw five homeless youth share their insights and
stories while gaining practical skills in film production.
Dr. Jeff Karabanow is a social work professor who researches
the pathways in and out of youth homelessness. Having worked
on a documentary with street kids in Guatemala, he saw the
potential in using the tools of popular media to provide a voice
and inspire confidence in young people.
He collaborated with Dal nursing professor Dr. Jean Hughes,
film producer Bryan Hofbauer (3 Needles, The Event) and other
colleagues on the Halifax project, funded primarily by the federal
government through the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council. They met with the group of homeless youth
several times a week.
“All of them were just so thankful to be provided for for five
hours a day,” he says.
While learning about camera work, storyboarding, scriptwriting,
editing and composing, the young participants created three
short films. One animation effort was nominated for an award at
the ViewFinders International Film Festival for Youth. Another,
a documentary, inspired its creator to enroll in community
college in Truro toward a career as a youth worker.
But the biggest reward for all the hard work and commitment
was the bond the budding filmmakers developed with each
other – and their mentors. “We built a little family for four
months,” says Karabanow.
“Regardless of how they look or how they act,” he adds, “these
are kids who are yearning to be accepted by mainstream culture
… they need support.”
In June, Karabanow and Hughes led an informal public
discussion on youth homelessness through Café Scientifique,
sponsored by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
“Youth are the fastest growing homeless population in
Canada, followed closely by young families,” Hughes told the
gathering.
Both professors are inspired by the resilience, creativity and
hope they encounter in the youth they’ve met. Karabanow hired
two of the film project’s participants to help out on a national
research study about the work homeless youth do to support
themselves. He also enlisted a formerly homeless young
woman to draw the illustrations for his new book, Voices from
the Streets: How Canadian Homeless Young People are Getting
Off the Street, to be published this fall by Fernwood Press.
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