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Listen to the Children
Reverend Brian J. Kiely,
Unitarian Church of Edmonton, March 11, 2001
On the eve of a provincial election, Alberta is faced with an interesting
problem. By all accounts this is one of the wealthiest provinces
in Canada. We pay the lowest taxes in the land, have long boasted
a balanced budget and have the lowest provincial debt ratio. Financially
we are in great shape with good per capita income numbers and good
prospects for the future.
So why are there so many poor among us? Why are our social assistance
rates
among the lowest in the country? Why has the provision of public
housing for our homeless been dumped largely onto the not-for-profit
sector? Why is the government Albertans are about to re-elect ignoring
the needs of those citizens most desperately in need of support?
The answer seems to lie in a cultural retreat to the bad old days,
back to
when the Protestant Work Ethic dictated that being poor was your
own darn
fault. Starting from the days when Ralph Klein was buying bus tickets
to send the bumsto Vancouver, the government has consistently adopted
a policy position designed to blame the poor for their own plight.
Oh the words the government offers speak of supporting the needs
of all Albertans, but this government has consistently refused to
back those words up with policy shifts, or more importantly, dollars
for programs.
Nope, in Alberta poor folks are poor folks because they are stupid,
lazy, addicted (through weakness of character, not illness) and
just plain not responsible. They're poor because they deserve to
be poor?
Blood pressure rising yet? Mine is. I came here four years ago and
fell in love with this church and this city, but there are days when
I am ashamed to think of myself as an Albertan.
Six years ago a group of prominent volunteers came together because
they, too were appalled by the callousness of their government. Some
were ministers, some were social workers, some were activists, some
were business people. They formed the Quality of Life Commission. "The
Quality of Life Commission seeks to be a well-researched, effective
voice on behalf of Edmontonians who are living in poverty." reads
their literature.
Among the founders was Lois Hole, member of this congregation and
now the Lt. Governor of the province. Earlier this year I was privileged
to accept an invitation to join the Commission. I'm not exactly taking
Lois's place, but I am filling a vacancy created when her new office
forced her to leave the Commission.
A few years ago, the Commission delivered it's first major project,
a report entitled "Listen to Me". People in poverty were
interviewed by a professional researcher, and given voice in a new
and unique way. "Listen to Me" was a precursor to Mel Hurtig's
impactful book "Pay the Rent or Feed the Kids" which expanded
the approach to the national scale.
For its next project, the Commission decided to look at that part
of the population that had no say in their impoverished state. They
wanted to refute the idea of æthe undeserving poor by surveying
a part of society that has no say. They went to the poor children
of Edmonton. They hired Dr. Jane Hewes to conduct a series of small
group interviews with children aged 10 and 11 from several of Edmonton's
low-income neighborhoods, including this one. In December the 57
page report "Listen to the Children" was released.
Once again it gave the children the chance to define the problems
of poverty from the inside. To our surprise, their understanding
of their situation was very different from what we, a group of largely
white, middle aged and middle class professionals expected. From
our vantage point we look at poverty as being an inability to pay
the bills. We challenge the government on the creation of a two tier
health care system that we fear will give second quality medicine
to the marginalized. We focus on the proliferation of food banks,
and the rising cost of energy. But all of these are adult issues,
adult concerns. The children see poverty very differently. They are
less aware of health issues, and expressed few concerns about having
enough to eat. Let me share a few of the major findings of the report:
Neighborhood
" The most compelling finding of this piece of research is the impact
of poverty and low-income neighborhoods on children's feelings
of safety and security... Experiences with guns and knives, domestic
violence, police, theft, fire, drug and alcohol use were described
routinely by children in
all of the interviews. Safety is a big issue for these children.
Many of them describe not feeling safe in their neighbourhoods
and in some cases, in their homes and bedrooms. In one child's
words, "If
I could change my neighbourhood, I would just move away...cause it's
not safe here." (p. 22)
One child speaking for a friend who could not tell her own story
said, "Some guy almost took her away in his car, and another
girl helped her get out and took down the license plate and he
had to go to jail." (p. 23)
Another said, Three months ago, one night probably 10 p.m. we looked
outside, we could see all these red lights going on, and then we
saw ten ambulances and two fire trucks and police cars blocking our
back alley. We're like, Oh no. Somebody's lose and..then I got really
scared, cause like almost every three months something happens on
our block...They were trying to find the guy. I think he escaped
from jail and came on our block...cause it said on the news.ö (p.
28)
Chilling stories from 10 year olds. I can't imagine growing up in
an environment like that, one of coloured by fear of gangs, of pedophiles,
of violent parents, of drug and alcohol abuse. How in the name of
all that is good can we possibly blame these children when they grow
up and some of them repeat these patterns? It is the only life they
have ever known. It is the only way they know to be in the world
They may hate it and may fear it, but it is what they know as normal.
We all learn our first lessons about how the world works from our
parents and our childhood environments. We all live out patterns
we learn in those early years be they healthy or harmful. Why should
these children be any different?
One obvious response from our compassionate have side of the populace
would be to provide the children with different ways of understanding
the world. We want our teachers to show them a different way to succeed,
but school is only part of the day. There is a lot of learning that
goes on outside the classroom. The children showed that when their
comments led another major finding:
"The second striking theme in this data is around children's
limited participation in organized recreation and cultural activities...
In this sample of children, participation in organized recreational
activities is minimal. None of these children described having had
experiences of playing on organized community sport teams. None of
them described having taken music or drama or dance lessons...Even
swimming lessons were rare..." (p.29-30)
As someone who did participate broadly in such activities growing
up, I know that these kinds of programs helped me more about how
society works. They taught me how to play, what discipline was, what
good manners were...heck, even what it meant just to show up on time.
More fun and less structured than school, the children learn values
from adults who are not their parents at a time when they are starting
to look beyond their own families.
Having talked about this in the past, I know most of you can name
a coach or a teacher of art or music who had a powerful influence
on your development, who helped you learn how to move about successfully
in the world and who respected you for the person you were becoming.
To be sure there are people who abuse such positions of trust and
there are some horror stories out there, but for the most part, contact
with these mentoring adults helps us discover our abilities and our
confidence.
The Commission's interviews show us that poor children do not get
to these mentors. Why? In some cases the cost of lessons or memberships
is beyond the familiy's means. In other cases, the parent or parents
never had access to such activities and so don't value them. And
finally, some children can't get such programs because they don't
happen nearby or because they aren't easy to access. About the time
the report was released I came across a pamphlet from City Hall about
low cost swim programs for these children. To get information or
to register, you have to reach City Hall in person, through a complicated
phone system or through web site access. Sounds easy, but if you
are not used to working in the system or distrustful of it, that's
harder than it sounds.
We need to find ways to bring these programs to the children so
that they are free, take place in their neighborhood and easy to
get at.
The study was initially framed around the question of hunger, but
the children answered differently from expected. Dr. Hewes suggested, "hunger
may be a very personal issue for children, one which reflects badly
on their families and which they are unwilling to discuss.." She
also suggested that pursuant to the findings of "Listen to Me" parents
will tend to deprive themselves of food before the children go hungry.
There are hungry children in Edmonton, but their hunger tends to
be sporadic and occasional. As one child said, "Sometimes
we don't have enough food in our house, so we have like sandwiches
or something for supper and maybe nothing for breakfast sometimes...It's
not bad, but when I'm hungry ... sometimes my dad can take us to
the store, but not all the time, cause he doesn't have lots of
food. But if he hasn't, I just like grab a slice of bread and go
outside." (p.33)
But again, the lack of food came home to the children not so much
as hunger, but more often as one of security. A child coming to
school with no lunch is marked out as different and often ridiculed. "There
was one kid, his family didn't have lots of money...and it was
pretty bad for him because everyone would make fun of him. They
called him names because .. like it's not his fault...it was really
hard for him. It isn't his fault. It isn't anybody's fault." (p.
32)
For children, the issue of poverty hits home because it makes them
unsafe. They feel physically unsafe from harm in their homes and
neighborhoods, and they feel subject to ridicule and abuse at school
and play. Not the soundest platform on which to build a productive
adult life.
Our report offered several recommendations concerning safety and
recreation, but I won't rehearse them here. They are printed at the
end of this sermon. Instead, I'll let the children tell you how they
would make things better. As is often the case, they said it more
simply and more purely than we did.
"I wish every second block there was a police so there were
more people to protect us," said one.
"I would have a lot more block parents - like who could walk
around and check for people outside and that," said another.
"I wish I could get quality time with my family but I can't
because my parents are on late shifts and we don't have enough
money to like get a new car."
"No drinking, smokes or drugs..."
And finally,
" I want to be Mayor... I'd make less taxes ... it costs
too damn much ... and I'd make everything fair ... like if there's
people on the
streets, I'd put them in homes .. and make sure everybody had
food."
We couldn't say it any better.
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