Step one to helping kids: Give a damn
Hockey program is just one idea in campaign to end youth violence
Lena Sin and Glenda Luymes
The Province Friday, September 21, 2007

The VPD's Const. Adam Dhaliwal and Det. Lindsey Houghton come off the ice following a 'HEROS' hockey practice.

Rinkside at a hockey game, the kid looked up to his mother and asked if he too could play hockey.

Not this year, she responded. They had no money.

Norm Flynn couldn't help but overhear this conversation.

"I just said this is ridiculous. I mean, there's got to be a way to give kids the opportunity to play, right?" says Flynn.

Hockey. It seems so simple. But Flynn maintains that's what saved him years ago growing up in a tough, low-income neighbourhood in Winnipeg.

And it's what he and others steadfastly believe can keep kids out of gangs today.

After hearing that little boy's conversation, Flynn created an after-school hockey program for at-risk kids in Vancouver's east side seven years ago. He called it HEROS -- Hockey Reaching Out Society.

Along with volunteers from Vancouver police and corporate donors, Flynn is in his own way making a dent in Vancouver's youth gangs.

You only have to hear the story of one 19-year-old who went through the program to understand how: The young man said he spent most of elementary school doing illegal things with bad friends until he got the opportunity to play hockey through HEROS. Since then, he's watched other friends go on to become Nightcrawlers; he went on to college with a scholarship provided by the program.

"Mentorship is the most important thing," says author and street gang expert Michael C. Chettleburgh. "The kids who I've seen turn around their lives, who were at-risk, who were into trouble -- when they met someone who gave a damn about them, they turned their lives around."

He says stemming the tide of youth gangs begins with a perspective change from the community -- a recognition that this is a problem that affects us all and for which we have a responsibility to help solve.

"If you steadfastly believe that street gangs have been thrust upon us from the outside, that lazy youth are doing it just for the money and the thrills, or that the optimum solution is to arrest our way out of the problem . . . I encourage you to visit [any one of Canada's slums]," says Chettleburgh. "You will never see the street gang issue the same way."

Dr. Mark Totten, director of the youth services bureau of Ottawa who has studied youth gangs for the B.C. government, blames poverty and racism for the growing number of youth gangs.

So what can the average, middle-class British Columbian do?

Chettleburgh suggests that an easy way to be a part of the solution is to volunteer at a Boys and Girls Club or become a Big Brother or Sister.

"If you own a business or are in a hiring capacity, certainly try to create employment opportunities. Those are two things we can do," he says.

At the same time, he stressed the need for our federal and provincial governments to make a similar investment in the community.

When Ottawa enacted the Youth Criminal Justice Act in 2003, it took away jail time as an option for judges, except for violent or repeat offenders.

The act favours rehabilitation -- which can work -- but police, youth workers and teachers say there hasn't been enough investment into such programs.

"The act came in but the government didn't put enough money back into the communities to facilitate the situation," says Chettleburgh. "So now you've got street level cops who say, 'Look, I've got a kid who fits all the criteria of the YCJA on diversion, but I don't know where to send him and if I send him to a Boys and Girls Club, they're bursting at the seams.'"

Vancouver police youth squad members agree that we cannot arrest our way out of the problem.

But they're also upfront in pointing out that they do see some youths who need to be held accountable through imprisonment and programs inside prison.

Their worry, however, is that our prison system is broken and unsafe.

"You've got to be very diligent about the create-a-crook method, because you can create your own monster by using jail as a social network," says Const. Ciaran Feenan, a Vancouver police school liaison officer.

"You've got a situation where if a young person's going to jail, if they're not gang affiliated, they're dead," says Chettleburgh. "We need major, major prison reform."

Looking back on a decade without her daughter, Suman Virk, mother of murdered teen Reena Virk, believes that programs should be mandatory for youth in custody.

She points to the differences between Kelly Ellard and Warren Glowatski, her daughter's killers.

Glowatski, a wannabe gangster at the time he was convicted in Reena's killing, has participated in a restorative justice program that included meeting the Virk family.

"It just seemed unbelievable that we'd be sitting down with him," says Virk. "But he seemed to have grown up as a result of the help he received in jail. He says he wants to alleviate our pain in any way he's able."

Virk says although Glowatski's remorse can't change the fact that her daughter is dead, she feels it is better to see him take responsibility and try to do something good with his life than it would be if he was locked away forever.

Virk says she feels sorry for Ellard, who is appealing her conviction for the fourth time.

"She's a victim of the system," she says. "By letting her appeal again and again, and by not forcing her to get treatment, the system has failed her."

Reena's mom urges parents to talk to their kids about violence.

"I think if I could tell people anything, it's to cherish their families every day. Communicate with your kids, know what is going on in their lives . . . Really, just relish in the joy of your children."

lsin@png.canwest.com

gluymes@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Province 2007