Strong Futures for area teens

 

 

Over the summer, the Whitecourt Teen Centre held a 10-session program called Strong Futures. After receiving a grant from Status of Women for roughly $36,000, the centre was able to develop the program and collect the material needed. With the ability to reuse the program, the one-time grant will serve to support future teens and create even more of an impact.

Developed around abuse and violence, the sessions touched on different areas including domestic, sexual, physical, and mental abuse while also focusing on self-care with physical activities and art projects. Groups were split into two different age categories, 12 to 14 and 15 to 17 and, from there, they were split once more into male and female groups.

Youth Development Co-ordinator and Teen Centre Manager Alicia Smallwood says the popular program gave children a safe place to talk about hard subjects. “We found out with our youth that maybe it’s not happening in their home but that they know someone, or they have known someone who has been affected. No matter how hard it was to talk about the abuse, it was relatable to every teen in some way which is a scary thought. So, it is positive to have these conversations and to know that they have somewhere to go. We talked about getting help and where to find help in our community.”

When it comes to relationship abuse, it can be hard sometimes to know what constitutes as abuse and what doesn’t even for adults, so the program gave teens an opportunity to learn what’s right and what isn’t as well as things to watch for. Both girls and boys learned how to be safe in their relationships and how to properly consent, respect each other, and get help when it’s needed.

“We found that when we were talking about healthy and unhealthy relationships, something that came up was that some of the boys were getting pinched by their girlfriends for playing video games, and we had to talk about that because this is abuse, too,” said Alicia, noting that abuse to boys is often not looked at the same. During each session, WellSpring Family Resource & Crisis Centre Youth Outreach worker Rebekah Hansen took part and was able to provide information from her experience in working with victims of abuse.

The program will continue beyond the 10 sessions as a regular talking point at the centre. “It’s not all to do with abuse but we still keep elements from our program going and keeping those conversations open. We just want to change the way it’s talked about and that the kids have safe people to talk to.”

In the coming weeks, residents will see posters up around the community which will showcase truth cards that the teens made during the program. The cards feature uplifting statements such as “Stop punishing yourself” and “You are worth taking care of.” On top of being a visible reminder locally, Alicia says they will also be going provincially. “Our truth cards are going to be sent out to different shelters throughout Alberta, so they will be touching lives in different ways. Our goal with Status of Women and with our Strong Futures program was not to just touch one group, but to see how far we could spread it, to touch many different lives.”

On November 25 MLA Oneil Carlier visited with Alicia and several members of the program to congratulate them on their success and to support them in the future.  “Anything we can do to address societal problems such as family violence and violence within relationships, where we can touch the youth and show them what a healthy relationship is and to build that, is important. Entering adulthood with some healthy thoughts and healthy processes and viewpoints on what a relationship is and should be helps them and all of us.”

If you are a survivor of abuse and would like to share your story with teens so they may learn from your advice, please call the Teen Centre at 780-778-6696. The 24-hour crisis line at Wellspring is 780-778-6209.