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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - As an argument between a woman and man escalated, their voices rose as the man started yelling for his money to be returned. With violence seeming imminent, Lydia Bardak stepped in between the two and spent the next 20 minutes talking down the intoxicated man outside the day shelter into getting violent.

Isadore (Happy) Washie, left, and Lucie Black, right, are two of the people who regularly visit the day shelter on 51 Street, which is managed by Lydia Bardak, centre. - Heather Lange/NNSL photo

It was a small taste of the everyday action Bardak sees as manager of the day shelter on 51 Street, but it does not get her down or keep her from continuing her work.

"I'm not doing it for recognition. I feel good and I'm blessed so it's easy for me to help others," said Bardak.

Lydia Bardak is the executive director of the John Howard Society, a city councillor, a member of the Yellowknife Homelessness Coalition, on the Yellowknife Area Police Advisory Committee, a member of the Coalition Against Family Violence NWT as well as the administrator of the Dene Ko day shelter on 51 Street , to name a few investments of her time.

Bardak has been working with non-government organizations for 30 years, first getting introduced with helping others in Brownies and Girl Guides while she was growing up in Vancouver and Edmonton.

When Bardak attended the University of Alberta, she joined a women's fraternity that volunteered with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. In 1989, Bardak moved to Yellowknife to work with the institute. It was then Bardak was introduced to the John Howard Society while she was working with a blind man who did federal penitentiary time.

"I didn't know there was such mean, ugly places. What I saw was an individual who became suddenly blind at the age of 19," said Bardak.

From volunteering at the John Howard Society, Bardak became the executive director of the society eight years ago. In November 2009, the John Howard Society, opened the Dene Ko day shelter on 51 Street.

More than 250 individuals visit the day shelter and last year, nearly 40 men under the age of 30. Bardak wants to expand services to help this group with acquiring job skills and a place to stay.

"We haven't been able to provide counselling to help people move on in their lives because we don't have adequate funding," said Bardak.

"It's one of the hardest places in Yellowknife to work," said Bardak yet the rewards are there day after day.

Bardak sees the fruits of her labours by the appreciation shown by some of the day shelters clients. She said says almost everyday someone will come up to say thanks for having the shelter open and that they don't know what they would do without it.

"Sometimes I think there is not a darn thing I can do to help, but a kind word can go a long way. I try to find something to laugh about. If I've walked away and they have a smile on their face, that is the best I can do," said Bardak.

Bardak said through volunteering and spending time at the shelter, she has gained a new perspective on life.

"When the behavior is not what we want, we have to ask, 'Is it because they can't or won't?' If it is because they can't, we have to stop asking them to do it. If it's because they won't, we have to look at that defiant behavior," said Bardak.

At the NWT Association of Communities annual general meeting last month, Bardak was presented with the Community Builder Award. She was nominated by her colleagues on city council.

"She helps people who have legal challenges and people with lifestyle challenges, working with them and taking over the day shelter and keeping an eye on that. Her attitude has always been people with a problem need a solution, they don't need blame. It's not necessarily their fault," said Mayor Gord Van Tighem, president of the association.

"She is dedicated to helping people in all the things I've seen her involved in."

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