Impact

One success story we have had was a Young gentleman who was really struggling on his last year of high school. Both of his parents are addicted to drugs and he was living at home with grandma. Money was tight, and this young man was really struggling to complete his final year of high school. He believed that it made more sense to quit school and get a job so he can help his grandmother. In the area that he lives in the drug dealers offer him ways to make money and he would come into our programs and tell us how hard it is to turn down the opportunity to make some fast cash. At home, grandma was getting old And wasn't able to walk much and truthfully, she wasn't able to control the decisions the young man was making. However, because of his involvement with our programs, our staff was there to motivate him and inspire him as he fought his way through the final year of high school. Unfortunately, due to medical issues his grandma was not able to watch him graduate. However, some of our staff did attend his graduation with balloons and a small gift cheering for him as he crossed the stage to collect his diploma, not even realizing how he just beat the odds that were truly stacked up against him. Today he’s working at Costco and is set to start College in September.

Another young woman who had just graduated high school, but was heading down the wrong path. She  was on charges for stealing, she was smoking a lot of weed, getting into fights and dating men much older than her. After she graduated high school, she had a lot of idle time on her hands, and she would fill that time with smoking weed or hanging out with her friends, making bad decisions. She first started coming to our programs once a week, then she bumped it up to twice a week, then we signed her up for conflict resolution, and she was one of the first young women to receive her certificate for the training. She would come to the drop-in on Friday, where we would assist the youth in preparing food for that day and she was so engaged in all of the cooking activities. Whether she was chopping onions, stirring the pot or writing down the ingredients and recipes , she was always engaged in what we were doing in the kitchen.  During one of her visits to the drop-in she was talking about stealing, and sharing that she only does it because of the lack of money at home. So some of the staff helped her work on her résumé and assisted her with looking at job postings and now she currently works at Shoppers Drug Mart and Rona and is working towards going to college next year. We supported her through her time in court for her theft charges, they were ultimately dropped and she is doing really well for herself. She really never gave up on herself.