... the single most critical issue facing communities World-wide is Bullying whatever its' guise and Abuse of Persons regardless of their age or gender identification. The largest segment of the population being a direct causal result of that Bullying and Abuse are the mostly undocumented, nameless and faceless, "Street Kids" which through their now endemic homelessness is a very real problem, as this reprise of the Stanford University's 1991 article illustrates.
The situation for these youngsters has altered not one iota in the intervening 20-years since the aforementioned article was first published, and apparently not likely going to in the next twenty; not until, and unless, we as a society become virulently PROACTIVE, and demand that solutions be found.
Taking an aggressive posture against BULLYING, in general, and all abuse of persons in particular, regardless of its' source is a beginning; but, it represents only that, just a beginning; a first step.
Clearly, removing bullying and abuse as being the largest single cause of our youngsters winding up on the streets, unsupported, and under served with respect to their overall welfare and emerging needs should be, and is, a priority; but, it is now, and will be for the foreseeable future, additionally, necessary that a suitable government funded social safety-net be established to address these needs.
I give you by example, and not in a good way either, Toronto, Canada, the mid-1980's: The largest publicly accessible day-hostel servicing transient youngsters in the City is closed; with no suitable alternative being provided. Not for lack of either the funding or the need; but, simply because the City wanted the land at the north-west corner of College and Bay Streets upon which they intended on erecting the new Metropolitan Police Headquarters Building. The deal was done. The Hostel (an intrinsic component of the then Central Toronto YMCA) was closed, the Province ponied up the necessary alternative parcel of "Crown" land, not to house a facility that would encompass Hostelry facilities, but the new, 10's of millions dollars, LUXURY Central Metropolitan Toronto YMCA, whose memberships would initially cost in the ten's of hundreds of dollars, and not that of the more reasonably accessible less than $100 annual fee of its' predecessor. In the process, more than 200 much needed hostel beds were lost forever; and the message therein being transmitted was heard loud and clear that our youngsters didn't really matter a jot in the larger scheme of things. I should mention too, the original day-hostel was located in the heart of what then was, and continues to be, Toronto's "Boys Town".
In the wake of this travesty, organizations like Covenant House (then newly arrived on the Toronto scene), Eva's Place (themselves just getting started as an organization with no facilities yet on the horizon for 5-years or more), Second Base (grossly under funded, and then struggling in Toronto's East-end), and Youth Without Shelter (West-end Toronto's then only solution and patently overcrowded and forgotten), and host of others scrambled to pick up the slack; a circumstance 20-years later which all find themselves still scrambling.
Through the intervening years: Toronto's new 10's of hundreds million dollars Opera House (also on "Crown" Land") was erected right next door the the YMCA building some 15-years later; too Queen's Park, the nascent and historical seat of the Provincial Government Legislature, and all manner of attendant government offices are not quite a block away, as are the downtown campuses of The University of Toronto and Ryerson University, four of Toronto's most luxurious Hotel, Dining and Shopping complexes and the 1970's constructed billion dollar Centre for Forensic Sciences (which included the adjunct Ontario Coroner's building) and of course the magnificent multimillion dollar Metropolitan Toronto Police Headquarters.
Further, I give you the present day, and a comparative side note to all the aforementioned: The City of Toronto (and collectively the other two levels of government) evidently had more than a billion dollars of funding available to secure the bodies of the Group of 20 recently, when hosting their annual conference, this over and above the half-a-billion or so spent housing and feeding them, and their retinue, and providing venues for them to conference in; but, there is no money with which to build suitable housing for our most at-risk, and largely ignored, abused and discarded youth and adults.
Go figure!
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
Do you think, Warren, that the street kids are out there because they had no safe place in the education system and the home? Ok, stupid questions, that, and rhetorical.
ReplyDeleteBut, having postulated that, will stopping school bullying allow future generations of potential street kids to stay in safer homes?
I don't mean this is a quick fix. Future generations reap what is sown in them. A generation with seeds of hate and bullying sown in it will harvest hatred and bigotry. A generation with open eyes, shown how to celebrate differences whatever they be will, surely, show tolerance to its own children.
And then I wonder how the generation who went to Woodstock, who espoused free love and "peace, man!" are now the generation of bigots. What happened to them?
But I think I know the answer.They were the rich kids, the ones whose parents paid while they played. They may, now, be the financial elite, but the don't care. And opinion formers are not the lunching classes. Bigotry and hatred is formed in the churches. One only has to listen to Ratzinger to see that plainly.
In part, removing the likelihood of abuse, whether outside or inside of the home, and we have to accept that bullying is one form of that abuse, definitely would increase the potential that the next generation of youngsters would find safe haven (and support) in their own home, and thereby not end up as Street Kids.
ReplyDeleteThe catch-22 to this paradigm is that in order to ameliorate any decrease in future incidences of abuse (and by extension, bullying) we have to address bigotry in general, and exclusion in particular, both of which are being widely disseminated throughout all of World society by the Religion Nazis and their acolytes, and their influence. This needs to be, and must be, done through education, re-enforced through proactive legislation. This initiative must firstly come from within the home, and secondly through the school system and the lastly within the local community and the workplace.
Yes, I do believe that a large percentage of today's Street Kids are just that street kids, because in part they had no safe haven (and support) either in their home, or at school, and should they not end up suiciding as many do, they become run-a-ways, and end up living off the streets of the large urban centres nationwide.
Throwing money at the problem. may be, and is, only a short-term solution, at best; but, better than adequate funding does need to be provided to build suitable, and sustainable, shelter, and to provide long-term counseling services to deal with the trauma associated with our collective lack of support and disinterest in their welfare for the past couple of generations, and to ensure that future generations have the capability to grow, and prosper, in an environment which embraces diversity and inclusion.