In any given year, Hollyburn Family Services Society’s North Shore Youth Safe House welcomes as many as 150 kids fleeing abuse, neglect, or instability and gets them connected with services that will make it easier for them in the next critical steps of their life.
But this critical service for keeping kids off the street has never in its 10-year history had sustainable funding from any level of government.
That changed this week with the province’s announcement of $100,000 per year for the next five years. It means they can keep the lights on, literally and figuratively, for the next kid in trouble.
For reasons we cannot fathom, under the previous provincial government, funding for operations like this was just not a priority. The most the B.C. Liberals ever contributed to the $500,000 per year cost was a one-time $150,000 grant.
The federal government also botched their role in helping vulnerable youth by cutting the safe house out of eligibility for funding in 2016. Thankfully for the kids, that too has been changed.
Hollyburn had to go hat-in-hand to local philanthropists to keep the safe house operating.
We ache when we see stories from south of the border of children being separated from their parents, kept in cages and marched into court for reasons they could not possibly understand.
Our parental instincts tell us every child deserves a full tummy, a warm bed and assurance that they are loved.
But right here in our own well-to-do town, we have youth who, for a variety of reasons, don’t have those basics.
For them, we thank Hollyburn and everyone who has contributed to the safe house for leaving the porch light on.
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