A streetworker holds a trusting lion's paw

Vauxhall woman finds blessings in her Covenant House work

Saskia Shopman

By MICHELLE CLAUSIUS
Special to the WCR
Vancouver

Saskia Shopman's bright blue eyes have seen more hardship than most of us will ever in our lifetime.

As a youth worker at Covenant House Vancouver, Saskia works with the "hardest of the hard", homeless and runaway youth, commonly known as "street kids."

Privately funded, Covenant House is the only service in Vancouver that offers a continuum of care (street outreach, daily drop-in, crisis shelter and transitional living program) for street youth, 10 per cent of whom come from Alberta.

A nun's light

When Saskia, who grew up in Vauxhall, was completing her child and youth work degree at Lethbridge Community College, she met a woman who made a huge impact on her life - a young novice soon to take her vows.

Saskia talked about how she wanted to work with street youth and was told about Covenant House. Rooted in the Catholic faith, Covenant House provides food, shelter, clothing and counselling to street youth in 21 cities across North and Central America.

Being Catholic herself, Saskia thought that Covenant House sounded perfect for her.

She now works in Covenant House's Community Support Services (CSS) department which offers young people both a daily drop-in and street outreach services. CSS caters to those kids who are the most street entrenched, the most difficult to reach.

Saskia loves the drop-in and outreach work because she's able to meet the kids "where they're at," often when they are at their most vulnerable.

What follows is a story Saskia has written about one of her experiences doing outreach with Covenant House Vancouver:

Saskia's story

In like a lamb and out like a lion is generally how I would describe Evan. He's a sweet 21-year-old youth who has been in and out of the foster care system all of his life. Evan is just a little guy in size, however he is weighted down with a ferocious temper that has brought him much trouble.

I see Evan often as he accesses Covenant House frequently through our drop-in centre.

One afternoon I received a call from Evan in the hospital. He was crying like a child from the pain he was is in. He'd been in the hospital because of an abscess on his buttocks. (He would often get abscesses due to his drug use.)

My heart went out to Evan because he has such a sweet heart and he had no one to look after him or pick him up from the hospital.

Within minutes, another outreach worker and I went to the hospital to get him. He could barely walk because of the wound from the surgery he had undergone.

My partner and I helped Evan back to his hotel room in Vancouver's downtown east side. When we entered the hotel lobby, we discovered his room was on the ninth floor and there wasn't an elevator.

Evan could barely walk, so the stairs weren't an option. My partner and I looked around for possible solutions to the problem and finally came up with the idea of carrying him up to his room on a chair.

We made it up the first couple of flights of stairs, but our plan wasn't working. Evan was in excruciating pain, tears streaming down his face. My heart broke for him as he was trying so hard to be a trooper.

The seat of the chair was pressing against Evan's surgery wound, so we decided to remove it and allow him to rest on the chair's frame.

The hotel manager came to give us a hand and followed from behind as we attempted again to carry Evan up the remaining flights of stairs.

So much pain

I could see that every movement was tearing into Evan. I didn't know what else we could do to alleviate some of the pain, so as the men continued to carry him, and the tears continued to flow, I asked him if he wanted my hand to hold. He looked at my eyes and with a shaking hand reached out to mine and grasped it.

It was a memorable moment for me as we journeyed for the next 30 minutes up those stairs. I felt as though my hand was going to break as the pain Evan was feeling was being channelled through his hand and clamping onto mine.

From lion to lamb

When we finally reached Evan's room, he fell onto his bed both exhausted and relieved. He looked at us with so much gratitude and thanked us so many times. Before we left, we made sure he was all set up with supplies.

I gave him his bandages for changing, hygiene supplies we brought from the hospital, stocked his fridge with groceries, and provided him with clean underwear.

It was so rewarding for my co-worker and I as Evan trusted us in his vulnerable state, like a small child, and reached out to the only people he knew would accept him with unconditional love.

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