The Sudbury Action Centre for Youth
July 11, 2005
By Nicole Zummach
SUDBURY, ON // Homelessness, drug addiction, abuse. These are not the components of a happy adolescence, yet they are realities that many young people have to face on a daily basis. Without some sort of outside support and assistance, youth run the risk of spiralling downward, rather than reaching their full potential. Since 1986, the Sudbury Action Centre for Youth has been responding to the needs of young people in the community, helping to ensure that they have the opportunity to work through issues and make the most of their lives. While the centre's biggest reward is seeing the difference that can be made in the life of a young person, it is also receiving recognition at the national level. In 2002, the organization won its first Donner Canadian Foundation Award for Counselling Services, followed by a second award in 2004. CharityVillage spoke with executive director Marlene Gorman about the role that counselling plays within the centre's programs, the issues facing youth in Sudbury, and what it takes to be a successful community-based organization.
CharityVillage: You provide a number of different programs for youth, but you received the Donner Award for your counselling services. How is counselling integrated into the work you do?
Marlene Gorman: Counselling is integrated into our services by first creating warm, trusting relationships with clients. From these relationships, we are usually able to help them evaluate both what they want, and the behaviours that they are presently choosing. We then help them to create a plan that will either change what they want to something more achievable, and/or to choose behaviours that will better satisfy what they presently want. For example, in the Peer Mentoring Program, youth develop trusting relationships with the staff and other participants who help them to set personal goals and work toward achieving these goals throughout the course of the program. Youth are provided with life skills coaching, and learn about issues of relevance to young people today. They use this knowledge to help make choices about their own behaviours and to help their peers.
In the Housing Support Program, homeless youth and adults are presented with information about available emergency shelters and affordable housing. Our Housing Support Worker also works with them to help address some of the underlying issues affecting their housing crises, such as addictions, mental illness, unemployment, poverty, and/or a lack of life skills. The Employment Program assists individuals who have a hard time finding and keeping full-time employment by providing opportunities for casual labour and helping them to set and work toward vocational goals. The POINT Needle Exchange and IDU Outreach Program offer support in a non-judgmental fashion to injection drug users who choose to exercise harm reduction strategies that will help to reduce their risk of contracting and/or spreading HIV and/or hepatitis. Counselling is integrated into all of these services.
CV: What do you feel you are doing right in the area of counselling? What are you working to improve upon?
MG: We have qualified staff and volunteers who are familiar with the practice of Brief Therapy and Reality Therapy. They are a multi-skilled team of professionals who put the needs of the clients first. They understand the importance of providing a safe, non-judgmental environment where trusting relationships can be created. They also work collaboratively with other service providers to help create a continuum of care for those in need.
We are always working on sustaining the programs and services we offer. This is very important as it affects our success rate with counselling. We have identified the ability to build trusting relationships as an essential component of counselling, but constantly struggle to retain the qualified staff we have due to the nature of contract funding. We try to convey the importance of ongoing stable funding to retain staff, as it takes time to build relationships with at-risk youth.
CV: Looking at the bigger picture, what are some of the most pressing issues/concerns facing young people today? How are you working to address some of these issues?
MG: Many of the issues challenging youth today are not much different from those that previous generations faced. Youth still struggle to figure out who they are and where they fit in. They struggle with issues related to their identity, such as sexuality, body image, self-esteem, and relationships. The Peer Mentoring Program and individual support help youth through this process.
Youth are also challenged by the high rate of unemployment. The unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 in Ontario is 12.9%, whereas for Northern Ontario youth it is 19%. We provide a casual labour program that gives individuals an opportunity to earn an honest wage. Sometimes a worker will be offered full-time employment as a direct result of their participation in the casual labour program. We recently completed a community plan for youth employment, and also work with other service providers to help identify the individual training and employment needs of high-risk youth.
Another urgent issue facing youth today is homelessness. It is very challenging for youth to find and keep affordable housing in Sudbury. Youth aged 16 to 24 make up 43% of the absolute homeless population. Youth who are on the street are more likely to misuse/abuse drugs and become victims of violence. So the best way to deal with street-involved youth is to make sure they don't end up on the street in the first place. We provide support to youth to help them find emergency shelter and affordable housing and to work on some of the underlying issues leading to their homelessness. Our Housing Support Worker has assisted more than 500 homeless individuals in the past year.
CV: What components are necessary to operate a successful and effective community-based organization such as yours?
MG: The first component is strategic management. We are governed by a board of directors who, through consultations with management, staff, volunteers, clients, and community partners, establish the mission, vision, goals and objectives of the organization. The success of our organization is also based on sound financial management. With limited resources, it is essential that we continuously focus our efforts on areas of improvement, in order to ensure that the services we are providing are effective in meeting the needs of our clients. Donors have always been impressed with the level of accountability of our organization. The effective delivery of programs has resulted in the development of new partnerships with supporters from the business community, who often provide donations to help cover the costs of youth initiatives.
Another component involves the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the programs we offer. One must constantly gauge the effectiveness of program activities, and be prepared to make necessary changes. Innovation is also an essential component of service delivery. Our agency views innovation as a positive and continual learning process that must be inclusive of everyone involved. The key is to ask people what they think, sincerely listen to their response, and follow through on a plan to test it out. It is through innovation that this organization has managed to continue to provide invaluable services to at-risk youth, despite the provincial government's withdrawal of funding for community support programs for youth.
Finally, the most essential component of any successful organization is the people. Our staff is the backbone of this organization, and their dedication shows in the service they provide to at-risk youth and vulnerable adults, as well as all of the extra things they do to help ensure that the organization operates in a safe and efficient manner. Like so many others in the nonprofit sector, our staff is bombarded with heavy caseloads as the needs of those we serve keep growing and the resources to meet their needs keep shrinking. We are also blessed with more than one hundred volunteers who generously give of their time and talents to help with governance, program delivery, maintenance, and fundraising. The clients also contribute to the success of the agency; they are the reason we are here. They demonstrate great courage and place their trust in us to help them make positive changes in their lives.
For more information about the Sudbury Action Centre for Youth,
visit: www.sacy.ca.
To learn more about the Donner Awards, visit: www.fraserinstitute.ca/donner/index.asp.
