By Raymond Viger
Some practitioners argue that “the older people get, the harder it is to change them.” With over 30 years of community work with teenagers at Café Graffiti, five years in the Far North with Inuit communities experiencing suicidal crises, and ten years working with suicidal individuals and those in existential crisis, I wholeheartedly agree with this statement.
Personally, I have always set limits on my interventions. If I haven’t initiated a therapeutic relationship with someone before the age of 40, I don’t have the time to offer them my services. It would take too much time, too much energy, and yield too few results. I only have 24 hours a day available. For 30 years, I have chosen to prioritize adolescents and young adults.
It is true that if we could intervene with a potential abuser in childhood, the results would be magical, rapid, and economical. But that’s no reason to abandon teenagers.
The Crisis
On the contrary. The adolescent crisis is a prime opportunity for intervention. The word “crisis” comes from Greek and means change. Whether the crisis stems from the transition between childhood and adulthood, a breakup, or any other reason, the affected individual has nothing left to lose. Considering a new lifestyle, a new philosophy, becomes possible. And that’s where our intervention can be undertaken.
Our intervention tools for teenagers are not the same as those used with younger children. But they can be very concrete and very effective. The individual reaches a point where they no longer have the support of their family for housing, food, and their standard of living. They face the reality of having to find money to gain their independence. Selling drugs, renting their body, stealing from a neighbor, or finding a fulfilling job that can stimulate and sustain them are among these choices.
We are at a crossroads. And the path taken could become permanent. Our role is that of a facilitator who will open and present doors so that the decisions made are as healthy and positive as possible for both the individual and their family.
It is in this context that our intervention organization has specialized for 30 years. The young person who comes to us is not a delinquent or a problem to be solved. They are a human being with needs to be met. And our goal is to offer them positive and fulfilling life choices.
The Costs
But how much can all this cost? To compare intervention with a child and intervention with an adolescent, let’s define a rough estimate of the costs involved. Intervening with children could cost $1,000 per child for part-time work over a two-year period. Intervening with adolescents could cost $10,000 per teenager and require ongoing, continuous intervention, on average over a five-year period. We will have to create a living environment for him where he feels safe and at home. We become a social family for him.
The $1,000 per child must come from a grant. No five-year-old has the money to pay for this intervention or earns enough to cover the costs.
For our young adults, $10,000 each is a significant amount. Our organization received no funding to fulfill its mission. But it didn’t cost us anything. By guiding them through the completion of contracts, we created a job for the young person and financed everything.
On-The-Job Training
This was a concrete intervention in a real work context. The young person’s motivation to remain in the program and adapt comes from the income they earn from the contracts they complete. This allows them to build a portfolio of their experience and increase their employability. Adolescence is an important period of questioning and change. Intervening at this stage of life becomes relevant and allows us to achieve remarkable results.
Although the initial investment is higher than for interventions with children, ultimately it costs nothing and can yield significant returns. And we have remained independent of the financial whims of governments. We have never had to wait for approval from others to carry out our mission.
Impacts
Today, many of these young people, who were at a crossroads, are recognized artists funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, journalists, politicians, construction workers, employers creating other jobs…
But beyond that, the quality of life, both for these young people and for you, has just changed. An abuser, a rapist, can easily have a hundred victims in their career.
He’s a real thug. Let’s not even consider the $100,000 a year it could cost to incarcerate him, or the legal and police costs of sending him to prison… If $10,000 spent during adolescence prevents 100 rapes, that means each rape prevented costs only $100. That’s a small price to pay to avoid the suffering and trauma these assaults cause for the victims and their families.
If you dare tell me it’s not worth intervening with teenagers and young adults, then go ahead and apply for grants to work with children. But please, leave my parish alone. It seems this isn’t your area of expertise.
I would accept that intervening with young adults is futile the day we have a society capable of providing parents who are all 100% fit for their parental mission, that governments are able to finance and provide all the appropriate and specialized early childhood services, that no child is mistreated, that they all eat their fill and that they are surrounded by loving and responsible adults.
Photo at top : Amir Hosseine
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