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Youth Programs at the Prince George Native Friendship Centre

The Friendship Centre is a non-profit, non-sectarian organization dedicated to servicing the needs of Native people residing in the urban area and improving the quality of life in the community as a whole. Fundamental to this is recognizing the inherent worth of all people regardless of race, creed, or culture and to promote this view in the community at large.

The Prince George Native Friendship Centre services approximately 15,000 clients per year and has 55 full-time and eight part-time staff members.

The Youth programs at the Friendship Centre work with both Native and non-Native youth in Prince George. Youth programs include:

Prince George Reconnect

This program's objectives are to prevent young people from becoming street kids and to help those who are on the street to leave it for a healthier and safer lifestyle. The program services both native and non-native youths under the age of 19 and includes identifying street kids and where possible reuniting them with their families and/or communities. This program includes life skills, counselling, job search techniques, cultural and recreational activities.

Recently the Prince George Reconnect Team opened a very small teen drop-in. The room was an instant success and is usually filled to overflowing, especially on weekends. The services include lifestyle counselling, drug and alcohol counselling, sexual abuse treatment services, drop-in education, computer training, cultural awareness workshops, games and snacks. The drop-in was so successful that the client load of Reconnect has tripled in the last year. The Prince George Reconnect is now working with an average of 200 clients at any one time. As there are currently three full time Street Workers the ratio of counsellor to client has risen to an impossible 67-1.

With summer coming the number of youth frequenting the streets will only increase. This unrealistic client load has become a very serious problem within the PG Reconnect Team and employee burnout is becoming inevitable. As it is impossible to not offer the services to every youth we come in contact with we are finding that there are just not enough of us to go around.

A further problem which has arisen with the opening of the teen drop-in has been to reduce the number of hours the Street Workers are on the streets. Because there must be someone to be in the drop-in this takes staff away from being on the streets. As well, the Prince George area has become extremely violent and dangerous in the last year, as evidenced by the recent murders of three youth who were street involved. This makes it imperative that the safety of the Street Workers be addressed and that they work in pairs at all times. Double staffing is a further tax on the man hours that are available for street work.

With the dangerous level of violence in Prince George today it is all the more important that we attempt to remove youth at risk from the downtown core and try to prevent other youth from frequenting the streets. Many kids are dying or in very dangerous situations. We must act now to prevent further deaths! The Prince George Reconnect is desperately in need of at least one more Street Worker.

Stay in School Initiative (S.T.A.R.T.)

Objective is to provide a combination of personal development, academic upgrading, individual and group counselling, Native history/culture, career counselling and job shadowing to 30 youth who are potential and actual early school leavers; in an effort to re-integrate them toward self actualization within the peer group setting - the school system.

Aids Prevention Program

Objective is to provide medical services such as needle exchange, AIDS and sexual transmitted disease testing and counselling, condom distribution, community education, advocacy and referral for all aspects of a person's life.

Drug and Alcohol Services

Objective is to provide an outpatient program for adults and young individuals and families who are experiencing drug and/ or alcohol related problems. Services provided include counselling, referrals, workshops, prevention and cultural education and workshops. Program also provides two supportive recovery beds for men.

Sexual Abuse Treatment Services

Objective is to provide counselling services for actual and/ or potential survivors of sexual abuse. Provision of services includes crisis intervention, emotional support, provision of accessibility of available options and comprehensive group and individual therapy utilizing conventional and non-conventional approaches, as well as aboriginal healing tools are combined to create and appropriate and intensive plan for healing.

Spiritual Advisor

Objective is to assist community members in educational, spiritual and cultural programming. Group and individual counselling utilizes aboriginal healing practices such as sweat purification, pipe ceremonies, smudge ceremonies as well as conventional techniques.

Outreach Worker

Objective is to establish and maintain a rental dwelling inventory which includes rooming houses, apartments, single, double and family occupancy units. The worker acts as a referral agent for clients needing to secure accommodation as well as providing information regarding bus stops, education/recreation facilities, shopping facilities, budget planning, and mediation with landlords.

Program Director

Objective is to provide cultural, social, recreational and educational programming which will assist Native People in all age categories in their transition to urban living.

Employment Counselling Unit

Objective is to provide employment assistance to the Aboriginal community in Prince George through a combination of delivery mechanisms such as individual employment counselling, group counselling, job search strategies, labor market information sessions, referral to inter-agency services and employment readiness workshops in an effort to increase the employability of unemployed Natives.

New Initiatives

The Friendship house is presently under development and will be completed by 1996.

1. To provide a secure six to eight bed short term living facility for youth between the ages of 12 and 19.

2. To cooperatively liaise with the government and service delivery agencies to meet the needs of the client group.

For more information, please contact:

Mona Aldoff, Coordinator, Reconnect Team
Prince George Native Friendship Centre
144 George Street
Prince George, B.C. V2L 1P9
Ph: (604) 564-3568 Fx: (604) 563-0924.