Town Hall Report
Ward 1/Regional Councillor Maurice Brenner held another very valuable and worthwhile Town Hall at the Pickering Westshore Community Centre. Though attendance was sparse, the attendees learned a lot of valuable information.
The topics covered included:
- Youth Council
- DARS Community Services and
- Durham Youth Services
YOUTH COUNCIL
A young lady, barely in her teen years, reported young people and their involvement in the political affairs of the city. One would think young people have no interest in municipal politics, but today’s young people find the time to dig into topics we would not expect them to.
According to the guest speaker, Scarlett R., young people feel the state of municipal politics needs their attention, too. They feel the situation is one with little hope for optimism and a positive outlook. They fear their future may be very limited. Debt overload, little chance of owning a home independently.
Scarlett emphasized that there are small cells of youths who are interested in municipal affairs and though these youth have little impact on municipal policy, they are optimistic that they can add their views, comments and opinions to the City Council. They need to feel needed as they have contributions to make. Less than 10% of today’s youth are interested in municipal affairs. They should. After all, as Scarlett emphasized, these young people are the voters of tomorrow today.
DARS Community Services
DARS Community Services is a concrete and very active community service in Pickering, chaired by Margaret Shedden Eskins, who spoke about the major project being undertaken by the community service: an old house, renovated and being modernized by seven formerly homeless occupants. These people are learning skills and capabilities that will help them integrate back into the ‘normal’ world. They are developing skills to help them become constructive contributors in the real world. Carpentry, animal husbandry, and commercial enterprises are the skills that will help them become strong returnees to the world around them.
Eskins spoke about sponsorship of this project. The City seems to have contributed significantly to underwriting its expenses. The province has yet to join the support.
Like the food bank, the numbers do not favour the homeless. Their numbers continue to grow at a discouraging rate. But thanks to people like the Dars volunteers, there is hope that things will change and improve and that people will benefit from projects like this.
Durham Youth Services
Durham Youth Services is a community organization that works with homeless teens and teens from broken family environments and are trying to re-establish themselves as sound members of society.
Families break up for many reasons: poverty, differing life values, and conflicting principles. Be that as it may, teens in these situations need assistance and support to restore them to sound societal contributors.
“Nightstop” is a facet of Durham Youth Services that works to help teens in need. These teens are housed in temporary housing, giving them a stopover while they get helpful advice and guidance from the DYS counsellors.
Volunteers are badly needed to bolster the supply of temporary homes. People who may have extra space in their homes and feel they would like to make a difference in filling this need can volunteer occupancy space for DYS teens to use temporarily. Volunteer drivers are also needed to transport these teens to appointments, meetings and gatherings that aim to help these needy young people.
Spokesperson Leah Wall pleaded urgently for people to consider volunteering in some small way. These young people need help returning to their feet and reintegrating with their surrounding community.
Councillor Brenner
As always, Councillor Brenner is to be commended for creating these town halls where residents can learn about their City. We thank Councillor Brenner for his ongoing efforts and his relentless efforts to keep residents informed about the critical endeavours going on around them in the City of Pickering.
