Safe place for kids to heal, grow

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This article was published 28/09/2019 (2432 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Breeze Foy was 11 when she first went to Macdonald Youth Services.

“I was in CFS (Child and Family Services) from seven,” the 20-year-old said recently. “My mom passed away when I was six and my stepdad couldn’t take care of me because of his grief. I wasn’t a permanent ward at the time. That didn’t happen until I was 10.

“They (MYS workers) were there for me. I was fortunate because I didn’t get moved around a lot. I was in homes for long periods of time and I would develop trust and relationships.

“Macdonald Youth Services brought me to where I am today.”

MYS is celebrating 90 years of helping young people such as Foy.

It was named in honour of Sir Hugh John Macdonald — son of the country’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald — and whose house is now the Dalnavert Museum.

Hugh Macdonald, who died in 1929, was a lawyer and a politician — he was the province’s premier for most of 1900 before running unsuccessfully for a federal seat. But he also served as a police magistrate from 1911 until his death and, while he was known for cracking down on strikers in the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, he was an advocate for the potential in youth.

He believed that some got in trouble by committing petty crimes only because of the bleak social and economic times, so he helped some find a job and gave temporary shelter in his own home.

A group of citizens founded the Sir Hugh John Macdonald Memorial Hostel in his honour just a few months after his death, locating it in a rented house on Mountain Avenue before moving two years later to its current location at 175 Mayfair Ave.

It became MYS in 1993.

Today, MYS has grown. It also helps youth in Thompson and The Pas and the adjacent Opaskwayak Cree Nation.

Kerri Irvin-Ross, MYS’s chief executive officer, said they support more than 10,000 youth every year.

“Every youth has unique gifts and we need to support them and provide opportunities,” Irvin-Ross said.

“We help from early childhood to early adulthood.”

Irvin-Ross said MYS follows many of the same principles followed by its namesake.

“He noticed the number of young men who were homeless, hungry and needing a safe place to stay,” she said.

“That’s how the youth hostel started and we offer those same resources today.”

MYS also operates 24-hour youth-crisis services, a 24-hour crisis line at 204-949-4777 and 1-888-383-2776, family supports, Healing Homes, Indigenous initiatives, Skills4Life and foster families.

Ursula Delaronde has been a foster parent with MYS for more than four decades. During that time, she has fostered more than 50 children.

“I’m a grandma, I’m an aunty,” she says.

“I’ve been doing this for awhile. One of my ‘children’ is 45 now. I had three siblings for 16 years. One of them said recently, ‘You know, mom, I want to thank you for keeping us together as babies.’

“To me, it didn’t seem that much, but for him, it was big.”

Delaronde said she wants to help children get the chance to return to their home community, but until then, she helps ground them and give them a solid foundation to grow and heal.

“People just don’t know the pain these kids are going through. You just want to make a difference in these kids and their lives.”

Jim Krovats, chairman of MYS, said he became involved with the organization “as a way of helping kids.” He said, with 800 employees, MYS is a large organization.

“It has been a real learning curve,” he said. “I knew so little about the child-welfare world when I came here. But I wanted to help kids who needed a hand up.

“These kids have gone through trauma or a crisis. Their parents may not be around. What we’re trying to do is keep people with their families. They might be aunts or uncles.

“What MYS does is unbelievable. And being on the board of MYS has made me a better person.”

Irvin-Ross said the majority of MYS’s funding comes from the provincial government, but they have had private donors help them do special projects, including building their therapeutic centre and head office on Mayfair Avenue next to the decades-old hostel.

She said the role of MYS is “to provide the resources youth need to go back to family or community and give them the tools they need, housing, employment, whatever they need.

“We are the largest youth-serving agency in Manitoba.”

Foy has received that help first-hand. In fact, she was so satisfied with what MYS offered her that she applied for extended care to age 21, wanted to be more independent and when she was 17, had MYS help her get an apartment, pay for food and help with the bills.

“They helped me to learn to be an adult,” she said. “I was 17 when I moved into my own apartment. It was great. I had never been on my own.

“But it was really terrifying the first night.”

Foy is still living in an apartment and she is about to take a child and youth care program at Red River College. She is so grateful to MYS that someday, she’d like to work with the organization.

“I want to help youth be better,” she said. “My goal is to change the system.

“I’ve been in the system my whole life and there are a lot of good things, but there are other things I can change. I just want people to be like me. I know what it’s like to be alone.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca