(The Toronto Star)
Gay and lesbian youth look to future
This Saturday, a 19-year-old student is moving into her own apartment
at the Bleecker Steet Co-operative Homes.
That doesn't sound so extraordinary until you learn that the young
woman, a lesbian, has been homeless since September, crashing with
friends - after harassment from her landlord forced her out of her
last situation - and unable to find safe or affordable housing. She'
s been struggling to complete high school, working part-time to support
herself, with plans to attend university.
The subsidized rent that Bleecker offers means that she won't have
to work full-time and drop out of school. Plus, she has a mentor to
help her move, set up her new apartment and dispense advice on everything
from grocery shopping to getting along with neighbours.
Chalk up another victory for Leslie Chudnovsky, a social worker who
runs the Mentoring and Housing Project of Supporting Our Youth (SOY),
an innovative, three-year-old community development project that
seeks to improve the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender
and transsexual youth in Toronto. The project matches up youth with
mentors and also helps young people in need find places to live in
gay-positive homes, with the support of their mentors.
``Bleecker had been interested for a long time in addressing homelessness
amongst youth,'' Chudnovsky says. ``But youth at risk need support,
beyond just getting an apartment. Because the youth we'll be placing
all have mentors, it makes for a perfect partnership with Bleecker.'
'
Impressed with SOY's work in providing these youths with positive
connections to adults in the community, the Bleecker Street Co-op
approached the organization earlier this year and offered up to five
units to house queer youth. The young woman above is the second to
be housed, a 17-year-old transsexual woman moved into Bleecker in
September.
Run out of the offices of Central Toronto Youth Services in the heart
of the city's gay village at Church and Wellesley, SOY provides a
variety of services and supportive and social opportunities. And right
from the start, says Bev Lepischak, a program co-ordinator at central
youth services and supervisor of SOY, it was clear that a mentoring
and housing initiative was a priority.
``Back in 1995, a young gay man was getting counselling at (youth
services),'' Lepischak says. ``He had been kicked out of his home
by his religious parents. He was 18, but he just didn't have the skills
to be on his own yet. Through our own network of friends, some counsellors
found him a place to stay with an older, stable gay male couple. He
just thrived there. As we were developing SOY, a couple of years later,
I thought that this situation didn't need to be an exception, it
could be a model.''
Chudnovsky was hired to run the project a year ago. After a rigorous
orientation and screening process, she's matched up 23 queer youth
with adult mentors. ``We've had great response from both adults and
youth. Adults say they remember how tough it was when they were younger.
Often they did have one person who made a difference in their (lives)
and now they want to give that back to someone else.
``The youth who have approached us are very diverse, but I would
say feelings of aloneness and isolation are outstanding features of
all of their experiences.''
Many youth in the program struggle with complex issues: Almost a
third live in shelters, transitional housing or on the street; a third
are chronic substance abusers; a handful work in the sex trade. Yet
the needs they express are painfully simple. One young woman told
Chudnovsky that she was looking for a mentor, because ``it would be
really wonderful to have someone ask me how my day was.''
For the first time in 14 years, boy has finally found some security
Another participant, a 16-year-old boy, has been in the care of Children'
s Aid since he was 2 years old. In those 14 years, he's been placed
in 14 different living situations. Currently living in a group home,
he is being mentored by a gay male couple. Aside from counsellors
and social workers, the couple are his first, consistent adult caregivers.
They've even helped him enroll in school.
``So much of what the youth want is so basic,'' Chudnovsky says.
``They want someone to talk to, someone to take an interest in them
and their well-being. A lot of them find it really powerful to see
healthy, happy, well-adjusted, grown-up queer people. One girl told
me once that when she sees her mentor's life, she sees that `there'
s a future for me, too'.''
For more information about SOY, call (416) 924-2100 ext. 264. Or
check out www.soytoronto.org
Rachel Giese's column appears
in The Star every other Thursday.
Author not available, Gay and
lesbian youth look to future. , The Toronto Star, 12-07-2000.