Agency changes young lives

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Winnipeg Free Press, Monday January 12, 2009
Reproduced with permission.

It took a tragedy to help Paul Bennett realize that his longtime friends were part of the wrong crowd and that he needed to get his life on track.

The cousin who encouraged Bennett to complete high school after he dropped out three times recently died in a house fire, and it was then that Bennett realized a valuable life lesson.

"It made me realize that you have to work for what you get," said Bennett, 24, who had not turned to crime while some friends stole cars.

At the start of December, Bennett arrived at the Elmwood Community Resource Centre at 200 Levis St., which has been a United Way partner since its inception in 2001. He was accepted into the Elmwood Youth Employment Experience Program (EYEE).

Bennett is taking steps to becoming an appliance deliveryman once he completes the eight-week program, which is followed by an eight-week work placement. Each participant receives minimum wage for participating in the program.

"My bills aren't stacking up anymore," said Bennett. "It's keeping me on the right path."

Bennett said that he has been given job training, from writing a resumé and a cover letter, to self-marketing and to the value of hard work, as well as life skills such as conflict resolution and coping skills.

Executive director Ingrid Zacharias said that the program is designed to help people between the ages of 16 and 30 who have trouble finding employment. Many of those in the program have no post-secondary education, and, unlike Bennett, have not completed high school.

"In a lot of cases, the people in our program have been involved with the law, have low literacy levels. Many of them have never held a job," she said. "Some of them come from backgrounds where they've been in extremely abusive situations."

Participants in the program have found work doing cleaning and maintenance at Seven Oaks and Concordia hospitals, in the retail industry at The UPS Store and HMV, and at autobody repair shops.

"For some, just the fact that they can hold down a minimum-wage job, there's a lot of satisfaction and pride in that... it's not something you've been able to do," said Zacharias, the founder of the centre. "If you take enough pride in your job to do it well, then there may be opportunity for advancement."

Two of Zacharias' biggest success stories include a single mother who was able to break her reliance on social assistance and another woman who had just kicked crystal meth and had never held a job in her life.

"Sometimes they just need someone to help them believe in themselves," said Zacharias.