Throwing a Lifeline to the men of the street
MARG ROTHWELL
PAGE 9 - KANATA KOURIER-STANDARD - OCTOBER 1ST, 1999
The Lifeline Centre needs to be thrown a line itself.
Officially called the Lifeline Centre for Addicted Survivors of Trauma, the Murray Street house in downtown Ottawa is looking for support. As part of its campaign, a fundraising Thanksgiving Benefit Dance and auction will be held on Friday, Oct. 8 at the Rideau Curling Club on Cooper Street at Percy. Tickets, at $20 per person, are available in the west end at Guardian Drugs on Robertson Road in Bells Corners or by calling 789-1866. The group hopes to raise about $10,000 from the event.
The centre is already running out of the downtown building on a part time basis thanks to some funding from the Sisters of Charity, but to do what its founders want, it need will take about $258,000 a year.
The Lifeline Centre is unique concept in Canada It will eventually offer six-month full-time stay for homeless men who want to overcome their addictions while most facilities only offer services for 30 days. It's like a Betty Ford Centre for the homeless.
Executive director Terry Hogan knows his stuff. He himself was homeless, an addict and a survivor of sexual abuse that began when he was 12. Now, he's been "clean and sober" for the past 21 years and has worked for the Ottawa Detox Centre and Union Mission, among others, trying to help others wrestle their demons and get off the street.
Hogan is also a passionate believer in the Lifeline Centre concept. Homelessness isn't caused in isolation, he says. There are often a combination of various addictions and mental illnesses involve too. One can't be treated without treating the others.
Though Hogan admittedly attempted suicide numerous times, it was that social worker's unflagging support that finally made him see the light himself. "I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. (The support) is what broke through."
"I'm living proof it work" Hogan says. "Somebody cared about me enough to persist and finally I came to believe in them, not me. Then I came to believe in me."
Senior counselor Debbie McConkey is also a believer. She's seen the Lifeline Centre concept work. In only a few months, operating on a part-time basis and on a shoestring, she's helped about 40 men to through each 12-week treatment stage -- the program will only be offered to the more than 3,000 men now estimated to be living on Ottawa's streets.
"I know it's a good program." she says. "When you look at some of these guys who were on the street, they aren't (there) any more. When you take where they were three years ago, it's phenomenal. It's stunning. That kind of progress is not usual.".
Both Hogan and McConkey say one of their biggest problems is helping the men overcome the stigma of sexual abuse and how it's often at the root of other issues.
"Of the 3,200 men on the street, most, about 2,500, have been sexually abused." Hogan says. "Men are where females were 20 years ago. We're perceived as the abusers." McConkey agrees.
"Men are just beginning to ask for services. They're only beginning to recognize the effects (of sexual abuse). They often don't label it as abuse ... it's just what happens or it's discipline."
"It's too big of an issue." Hogan says. "It can't be ignored any more. Four out of five (men on the street) is what you're dealing with."
Hogan, McConkey and Kathy Beamish, a Kanata resident who's a member of the board of directors, hope to have the Lifeline Centre up and running by January. They've got the moral support of Kanata regional councilor Alex Muster, who's also head of the region's Community Services Committee. That committee will be charged with recommending the disbursement of monies put aside in a $1 million fund for the prevention of homelessness.
While there are no guarantees the group will get its money - and it definitely won't get the whole amount under the fund's rules -- Munter thinks it's "a good concept, a good idea.
"I think it's a great project," he says. "It tries to deal with the root causes (of homelessness, as well as addictions and mental illnesses)." McConkey sums it up best. "People are recognizing it's necessary," she says. "It's a vital piece of the puzzle."
Anyone wishing more information on the Lifeline Centre is welcome to call Terry Hogan at (613) 789-1866.
"People are recognizing it's necessary. It's a vital piece of the puzzle." - Debbie McConkey