Citizens respond to homelessness
Group takes problem on street into their own hands
Elaine Anselmi
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, February 11, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
When the day shelter closes and before the Salvation Army opens for dinner, there is a two-hour gap where homeless people are left seeking warmth in public spaces and local businesses.
Members of the Citizen Response Team Dessi Telbis, left, Stephanie Young and Sade Sada follow Lydia Bardak, executive director of the John Howard Society of the NWT, as she speaks with a homeless man on the street. - Elaine Anselmi/NNSL photo |
Loaded down with granola bars, water bottles, gloves and hand warmers to dole out, Lydia Bardak, executive director of the John Howard Society of the NWT and a team of three volunteers head out into the -34 C weather on Feb. 3 to offer support to the crowds that gather.
"It's just to do that referral or we've walked with ladies down to the women's centre when they don't want to walk alone, just to do that low-level intervention," said Bardak.
"Not every single matter is a police matter; sometimes it just takes a friendly, caring response."
The group, called the Citizen Response Team, met at the John Howard Society office and headed to the post office where a crowd of six people had taken shelter on the cold night, while others filtered in and out.
"You saw the way we were providing very mild supervision in the post office because sometimes when customers come in and face that kind of crowd they might feel intimidated," Bardak said.
"If we had some place to take them, we'd take them, but we have to wait until 7 p.m. so we can walk with them down to the soup kitchen."
After the visit to the post office and a quick stop at a bank where Bardak offered intervention into a rising argument, the group headed to the library. Although the people gathered at the library were seated quietly following library protocol, Bardak said when issues do arise, staff aren't necessarily trained to respond.
The team developed out of a public town hall meeting in 2013, said Bardak, and follows after previous attempts to use non-RCMP measures to respond to the homeless population.
"We recruited volunteers and started training and orientation in August 2014," said Bardak.
"I'm mentoring the volunteers and then the other training we're providing is to make sure all of the volunteers have St. John's Ambulance First Aid, mental health first aid and orientation to the various services in the community."
The group travels together, usually with around five or six people, but as they become more comfortable Bardak said the volunteers will break off in pairs, in order to cover more space and days per week.
"There was a need to have more presence out on the street, interaction with people who are out there," said Bardak.
"Some volunteers are quite active with getting out."
Having heard about some of the work Bardak was doing through the John Howard Society, volunteer Dessi Telbis said volunteering on the team piqued her interest.
"I just wanted to get to know the faces that you see on a daily basis," said Telbis. "I pass a lot of these people so much but don't know anything about them. I had this idea that they're probably very misunderstood and a lot of people probably had very inaccurate thoughts about them."
Another volunteer, Sade Sada, said the opportunity fit well with his studies in first-year social work.
"It's very important for me to be involved in the practice because studying is one thing and the practice to be in contact with what's really happening in our city is something different," said Sada.
As the current volunteers become ready to set off in pairs, Lydia said they will be recruiting new members for the team in the coming month.
"People are always happy to be approached and greeted in a friendly manner," said Bardak.
"These are folks that I've known for a long time, so it's just a matter of introducing them to the volunteers."
By interacting with homeless people in this way, Bardak said there is an opportunity to talk about and possibly encourage positive life changes.
"When you're walking for 20 minutes with somebody to the women's shelter, you can talk about, 'Have you contemplated having your own place?' 'What would life be like if you weren't drinking?'" Bardak said.
"That's the idea, to contemplate changes that could happen in a persons life and maybe they'll think about that."
