Lethbridge is home to a variety of different help organizations and programs designed to assist people build a healthy lifestyle, but youth who are in crisis are still falling through the cracks.

According to Stats Canada, teen suicide and attempted suicide rates are increasing more than ever before. Studies have shown that compared to the United States there are at least 57 per cent more of youth males who complete attempts each year. Each year, three times as many teenage Canadian women attempt suicide without completion than in the United States.

Antoon Leenaars, President of Canadian Society for Suicide Prevention says that in the U.S., gun-toting aggression has always been viewed as more acceptable while in Canada, colonization leading to a norm of suppressed anger and retaliation could be the reason for our increased issue with suicide.

“It has been suggested that in the U.S. they kill each other. In Canada we kill ourselves,” says Leenaars.

Lethbridge has a number of resources that cater to troubled youth. Organizations like alternate high schools, church and community youth groups, the YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club of Canada, Woods Homes, Streets Alive and 5th on 5th, to name a few, work hard to keep the city’s teenagers headed in the right direction, but the number of teens in crisis is still growing.

This became clear to 26-year-old Jordan Schellenberg who envisions creating a centre for Lethbridge youth called the MAT, meaning Mentor, Assist and Transform.

Schellenberg attended the Criminal Justice program at Lethbridge College and had hopes of becoming a police officer, but that all seemed to change when the idea for the MAT came to him and he could not turn it away.

According to the mission statement, “The MAT is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to supporting at-risk youth, mentoring them in their current journey, assisting them with their immediate needs, and transforming their lives for the future.”

“What I’m starting up is a place for teens to come to, where they feel safe,” says Schellenberg.

Schellenberg explains that all his life and even in his current job as an anti-theft security officer, he is confronted daily by teens who are struggling with drugs, crime and crisis.

“As I was in criminal justice and with my job right now I see a lot of at-risk kids who come through that I’ve dealt with and they always seem to have some sort of drugs on them or pipes and so slowly through school, I began to think about restorative justice, where we don’t want to just arrest them and lock them up, but that there needs to be apart about working them back into the community.”

He began to see a pattern among the teenagers who seemed to be repeatedly getting into trouble.

“I usually would talk to kids I had in my office waiting for the police and they would usually open up to me and say things like, ‘well our house was invaded a week ago and everything was taken from us and so we had to steal this money, because we don’t have anything,” says Schellenberg.

“I realized that there was something wrong with the way we were doing things and these kids are being ignored and need help basically.”

This realization brought Schellenberg back to time he spent in Moose Jaw at a youth centre called Joe’s Place. The centre was started by an individual who also saw the need for alternative outlets which teens which would promote positive, healthy and creative living.

“What Joe’s Place did was create this alternative for these kids to get out of trouble and I slowly I began feeling like this was something that needed to be done in Lethbridge.”

Schellenberg says the MAT will be designed to empower young people to make their own healthy choices while providing them with the assistance and mentorship they need in finding out who they are and where they want to excel.

“Everyone is searching for something. Whether they’re searching through using drugs or whatever, they are just looking for that out. There has to be an out for them and If you can even create a space for an hour or two where that out isn’t the drugs their using but a place where they can just go and chill, then so be it.

“If there’s an alternative for that out, then that’s a mission accomplished for that time in their life, and maybe they’ll keep coming back.”

Plans for the MAT have been in process for over a year and Schellenberg says that although there are many obstacles to face, he is committed.

“Right now the main thing we’re trying to start up is a high school lunch program because we don’t need a building for that. We don’t want them to feel like they’re lower than anyone else or be seen by anyone else getting this free lunch and at that age that’s important, like that’s huge.

“It’ll be about empowering them and making them feel good about themselves but that’s the biggest challenge. We just want to start building relationships.”

According to Ken Kissick, executive director of Street’s Alive, the face of today’s youth and the issues they can get entangled in is changing.

“Because of the drugs that are available, today’s young people caught up in the street are not going to be like the old drunks, like the drugs. . . meth. . . just does nasty things. They aren’t going to live near as long as our old street drunks if they stay in it, it’ll kill them, fast, if they don’t kill themselves and we have to create the alternative.”

Street’s Alive is another organization committed to helping empower people to change their lives. In a general sense, Street’s Alive serves Lethbridge’s homeless population but has expanded into other programs such as a weekly youth group called Epidemyc.

“It’s an eclectic group of kids that come from different backgrounds: single-parent backgrounds, no parent backgrounds, addicted backgrounds, just everything and they are being radically changed because the leaders are being consistent and are following truth.”

Kissick says that in the past, Street’s Alive has also recognized that for some kids, if it is even available, home is not necessarily a safe place to be.

“We had a homework club but for some of the kids it wasn’t about helping them with homework. It is about simply creating an environment where they could do homework because they didn’t have that at home,” says Kissick.

Kissick says these young people need positive influence and the ability to create a peer group to succeed.

“We tend to want to label kids ADD, ADHD something D all because they are a little hyper. I think it’s because they have a lot of energy and don’t know where to focus it. I think music is a huge key or creative arts. They need an outlet outside of a video game where you just shoot a lot of people…they are downloading anger, but that’s going to transfer somewhere. There are a lot of ways to get rid of emotions and it’s about connecting.”

When asked about the need for positive environments for youth, such as the MAT, Kissick had some advice based on what he has experienced working with youth and given from the perspective of a young person.

“So you ask me the question, ‘how are you or are you?’ or ‘Are you OK.’ I give you a response and now I am looking for you to do something because if I tell you I’m not fine, what are you going to do? Now I’m not looking for you to fix my problem, I’m looking for you to help me with my problem and I and probably not going to like you in the process, but if you’ll stay faithful, I’ll stay with you.”

Kissick says that Street’s Alive has always been committed to meeting people where they are at and then walking with them as they implement positive change in their own lives.

“We may touch 100 people every day but what we’re looking for is those two or three who really want to get out of where they are and you walk with them and they’re willing to walk with you because you’ve been consistent. How can they trust you if they don’t know you?”

He adds that this need for trusting relationships directly relates to what is needed in today’s youth crisis.

“Today’s youth simply wants to be able to trust people,” says Kissick.

“Today’s youth are way smarter than people give them credit for and when I say smarter I mean in an astute world view.  They don’t want a song and dance, they don’t want a smoke screen; they just want the truth. And they want someone to show them.”

Kissick says that although the problem of youth facing crisis is large, a little dedication could go a long way.

“Give me a leader with a vision, 10 committed volunteers and 12 months and you’ll change the face of the youth in this city.”

For more information on the the MAT visit thematlethbridge.wordpress.com

For more information on Street’s Alive and Epidemyc youth visit www.streetsalive.ca