Shelter aims to keep youth from street life trouble

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Reaching out to help troubled and disadvantaged youth before despair and substance abuse claim their lives is the purpose of Tumivut, a new youth shelter being built in Toronto. It will be administered by Na-Me-Res, the long established Native men's residence in the city's west end.

Na-Me-Res Executive Director Greg Rogers said Tumivut, which means Our Footprints, will provide services to 52 male and female youth, aged 16 to 21 when it opens early this year. Renovations on the building at 26 Vaughan Road began in September. It will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Tumivut means more than just a bed and an occasional meal for homeless teens. Services will include individual and group counselling sessions, daily lifeskills sessions, and counselling in a number of areas where youth may be having difficulty, such as finding and keeping employment; obtaining housing; accessing training or educational opportunities; parenting skills, health and sexuality; addictions; and Native traditions. Mental health issues will be served by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

"Upon intake, you'll go through an assessment with your counsellor and come up with a work plan, and identify what issues are facing you. And as long as you are working towards your issues, you can stay there, because the theory is that if you're working towards them, you'll solve them and find permanent or transitional housing, or return to your reserve community or . . . back to your parents."

Tumivut is being funded in the amount of $1 million through the federal government progam, Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative Youth. Another $240,000 is coming from Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative Capital; the city of Toronto is contributing $100,000, Native funding comes to $65,000 and Na-Me-Res is carrying a $650,000 mortgage.

Rogers said that last month Na-Me-Res was introducing a similar model for its own adult male residents. Before, he said, the rule of thumb was that they could stay three months, but if someone was close to obtaining housing, work, or a space in a treatment centre, the shelter did not put them out on the street.

"We want to help people that want to help themselves. We're not a wet shelter, we're not a harm reduction shelter . . . certainly we're a harm reduction shelter in that we get people off the streets, feed them well and give them good care, but first of all our Elders told us the building should be dry, no alcohol, no drugs, and also the clients we get-many of them are fighting addictions-the last thing they need is exposure to those things.

"I think there's a place in Toronto very seriously for a harm-reduction shelter for Natives, but it isn't Na-Me-Res, and I think it's something we're already talking with a number of the other Native groups here about, if they'd give us more skipping money to Toronto that that's something we would look at downtown. Because just because somebody's had some drinks doesn't mean they should sleep in the corner of Queen and Yonge," said Greg Rogers.

Right now if a Na-Me-Res client relapses into drug or alcohol use, they take him to another, non-Native shelter, as there are currently no exclusively Native shelters in Toronto for men.

Tumivut is meant to help today's youth avoid falling into this life in the future.

"It's something we feel very sad about," said Rogers. "First of all, there's a number of people that die every year, and unfortunately, a disproportionate amount are Native. More has to be done." Tumivut is a step in that direction.