On Being a Teen and Falling Through the Cracks in the System

Editor's Note: The Halifax Media Co-op is humbled to present the 'Kitpu Young Journalists Program', in which we are able to feature the works of youth participating in the Kitpu Youth Project. This is the first article in this year-long project, made possible with generous assistance from the Dalhousie Student Union. 

By Lo Ren

K'jipuktuk (Halifax) - The youth of today will be inheriting a world in a state that it is has never been in before. The human world is now in almost constant flux; our technology and understanding of the world is increasing exponentially, and is allowing for innovations that were once thought to be limited to the realm of science fiction. The people who will be stepping up as world and community leaders will need to be prepared to inherit this world and the responsibility that comes with it.

But what are we, as the Halifax Community, actually doing to prepare our next generation of Earth's Caretakers? What challenges do they face, how well are they overcoming them?

There are many facets to this issue, some I believe to be very pressing and also highly ignored. In one area in particular, there is a crack in the floor where a good portion of youth are being swept into and forgotten about. I know about it because I've personally been kicked into it as the world tried to forget about me. I've fought battle after battle, crawling with gritted teeth to reach this surface world where most humans dwell. But as I look back over my shoulder into that chasm, I see the unblinking eyes, like stars with infinite potential, being lost to the abyss.

So let's cut the mysteries. What exactly am I talking about? I'm talking about youth aged 16-18, and how quickly the Halifax community forgets about them.

According to Statistics Canada, the rates for youth admitted to correctional services show a pattern that increases with age, which holds regardless of gender. Interestingly, the rate of 17-year-olds admitted to the correctional system in 2010-2011 was well above those for younger youth. A much higher rate of males find themselves in correctional institutions than females. Also according to Stats Canada, these crimes have a large tendency to be non-violent, most involving property offenses or federal or provincial statute offenses.

In Nova Scotia, we also see some disturbing trends. In 2009/2010, Statistics Canada noted that only 68.5 per cent of 18- to 19-year-olds in Nova Scotia were high school graduates. That's the lowest percentage in the country. Nova Scotia also had the highest percentage of 18-19 year olds that were not high school graduates, and not attending school, at 11.5 per cent, and the highest percentage of 18- to -19-year-olds still in high school, at 20 per cent.

Why the stats? I believe that the lack of supports for 16-18-year-old youth in Nova Scotia leads to them taking the initiative when they are older, if they do, to seek out a high school education.

Being 16 to 18 is an important time in anyone's life. You, as an individual, are at the cusp of adulthood, and each year feels like a new blast of experience and expectations. You're more and more about the world and yourself. This is the time where fundamental experiences may shape who you will be for the rest of your life. You're brimming with excitement for the future and the world should be your oyster.

But in this story, your dad dies.

Your mother, so grief stricken, dies a spiritual death and is no longer the person you thought you knew. Tension builds as bills mount and soon you find yourself in the blame at home for things that shouldn't be your responsibility. Stress builds, emotions from the ongoing changes around you and within you make you like a loose cannon. Your friends might just not get you; school's too busy loading you up with things you're suppose to be doing, yet it isn't as demanding as the demon that your family life has become.

Then, tensions snap and you find yourself in a fight so explosive with your mother all you can find yourself doing is trying to stand your ground, too caught up in it all to even begin to wonder when this chaos began.

After that, you make the only choice you can. Home is no longer a home and you choose to leave in hopes of finding somewhere safe to go.

And now, where would that be? This is where we find ourselves at the gaping abyss which the government and also the general community are contributing to. This is sometimes unconscious, but often times is it done in deliberate actions.

For now, let's go back to you, on the streets. The first place you'd probably go would be a friend's house. The lucky ones have true friends, the ones who've let you into their home and whose parents consider you a son or daughter. Maybe you're even luckier; this incident causes a change of events that leads to your mother healing her soul and you reuniting happily ever after.

Fairy tale endings however are few and far between.

For youth aged 16-18 there is a gaping hole in supports. At 16 you are no longer considered a child, even though any caseworker who would have walked into your home and seen the debauchery within would have said it was unfit for you, and would have known you needed help. It's not even a home you feel safe going back to. But a social worker (one of the few ways for you to get help) still needs to place a call and see, in this case, if your mother 'wants you back' in the home you have run from.

Let's say you're lucky, and even though your mother says “yes," there's still too much crazy inhabiting your household situation for the caseworker to deny you assistance. So, you're on the caseworker's case load. You might get on income assistance. But what does that exactly mean?

Taken directly from the government site, here is the definition of 'Income Assistance':

“The Income Assistance (IA) program provides people in financial need with assistance with basic needs such as food, rent, utilities like heat and electricity and clothing. The program may also help you with other needs such as child care, transportation, prescription drugs, emergency dental care, and eye glasses. To be eligible, you must be 19 years of age of older and if you're ages 16-18, you are eligible if your home is not safe for you to live in, if you and your parents/guardians have conflicts that mean you cannot go back to your home, or if you have no parent or guardian.”

Okay, cool. That sounds very helpful, and if in fact you can actually get assisted by a caseworker who loves their job, you will find your life to be very easy. What the site doesn't readily mention is that you need an active address, as in, an address you are living at that isn't your parent's or guardian's. Coming directly from someone who was stuck in this position, it isn't easy to find one of these addresses. You will need to be living in a monitored living faculty.

Which translates to: a group home, or a homeless shelter.

Neither of these places are good spots to be in, and they are places that will be change you forever, often times, not positively. Unfortunately, these are often times the best options for these young adults.

If education is the means by which we're training the youth of Nova Scotia to step into the challenge of being the next generation of leaders, we'd better have a long look into the abyss into which so many are falling.

Lo Ren is a youth participating in the Kitpu Youth Program.

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