2005-11-30

John S. Hatch

Death of a Family

For the past seventeen years ‘The Studio’ has operated as a safe haven for the ever-growing number of Vancouver street-youth. Operated by artist Brenda Carr
(I have been a committed volunteer from its inception), it has offered a free art program for youth who are referred by other agencies, or who just come in off the street. Available are oil and acrylic painting, materials for drawing, and pottery. Food is always accessible, as is an internet-connected computer to allow contact with family and friends, to search for jobs, or just for fun.

Over the years thousands of at-risk young people have availed themselves of the program, usually with very positive results. Some have come in only once or twice, but most keep coming for months and years. All have found a safe and welcoming environment in which each is respected and genuinely cared about. In addition to creating art, The Studio has been catalytic in assisting clients to find stable housing, jobs or educational opportunities, in overcoming substance abuse, or in dealing (through referrals) with mental health issues such as depression.

Many young people have flattered Brenda and The Studio by claiming that their experience was akin to membership in a family. As many of the youth in the program are least temporarily estranged from their own real families, this comes as high praise indeed, and a great responsibility. More than a few have credited Brenda with saving their very lives. We are prepared to take calls 24 hours a day if there is a crisis, a courtesy that has never been abused.

The Campbell Liberals just cut 100% of our funding.

One might think that after seventeen highly successful years of assistance to some of society’s neediest members, the government might have approached us in a personal fashion; no, they sent us a form letter stating that the contract would not be renewed. It is not that the program is being replaced by something better; at a time when ever more youth are finding themselves on the streets-- the Campbell government is simply abandoning it and them.

How much will this foolish frugality save the government? $60,000 per annum. That’s not a typo. Abandoning homeless kids to pimps and pushers will save approximately sixty thousand dollars a year. What doing so will cost in terms of intervention by other agencies (health, mental health, police, etc.) and lost opportunities? We’ll never know. In a series of articles I previously wrote for BC Politics (‘The Politics of Sadism’), Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 I listed the huge number of solemn pre-election promises broken by the premier (‘I won’t tear up contracts’; ‘I won’t privatize BC Hydro’; ‘I won’t gut welfare’, etc. ad infinitum). It seems that the only one he meant to keep was regarding the 2010 Olympics (Another Campbell howler: ‘The Olympics will pay for themselves.’). It’s a strange, sad world indeed in which billions and billions can be readily found to subsidize this party for the privileged (and make no mistake, a non-repayable subsidy is what it will be), while ever more programs are snatched from the poorest and most helpless.

It feels like the death of a family.