Some parents and teens in West Vancouver are questioning why a longtime youth outreach worker who developed a good rapport with at-risk boys was let go from the municipality's Ambleside Youth Centre recently - with only a few days notice.
Tennyson Wong worked as part of the youth outreach team at the centre for the past five years.
As an outreach worker, Wong said he spent a lot of time establishing rapport with many of the at-risk boys in the community and developed programs like "Gig Nights" to connect with teens. Many meetings with families of troubled boys took place discreetly after hours.
Wong said he loved his work and always had outstanding reviews. Wong said he worked on renewable one-year contracts for five years and was led to believe he would be hired when the option of a permanent position came available.
Instead, at the end of February, Wong said he was abruptly told his position would be ending in two days because the district had hired another person for the permanent youth worker job.
Essentially "they fired me," he said. "It all happened really quickly."
Besides being angry about losing his job, Wong said he's also concerned about the at-risk kids he spent so much time developing a bond with.
"None of them got any warning their youth worker is gone," he said. Wong added the outreach team has now been left with only one part-time male worker to help troubled boys. "We don't have enough male workers as it is," he said.
Jim Gatzke, head of West Vancouver's alternate school program, said he was surprised to learn Wong had been let go from the centre. Wong would often take kids on outings like ski trips or to an evening football game as a way of getting to know them, he said. "He was great with kids."
One West Vancouver mother - who asked that her name not be used to protect her children's privacy - said parents whose teens have used the centre are also questioning why Wong was let go.
"Why would you get rid of somebody who's made all these connections with these youth? These are really complex kids.. .," she said. "To form a relationship with them...it takes a lot of trust and a lot of respect."
She said parents she knows are all "baffled" by the decision.
The mother added she feels youth programs don't always get the backing they should in a community demographically dominated by an older population.
Wong also wonders if the municipality has the same appetite it once did for outreach programs. "I don't know if they want to take on the responsibility," he said.
Much of the work he did was hidden from the public, he said, and families feel a social stigma that serves to keep their problems private.
"There's a huge perception that people (in West Vancouver) don't have problems like kids that have oppositional defiant disorder, kids who run away or who go and deal drugs," he said. But he added that's not the case. "I'm working within that hidden community," he said. "What the hell's going to happen with these kids now?" Preston Carter, a young adult who was supported by Wong when he was bullied at school, said he's also been sad to see Wong go.
He first met Wong when he was in Grade 10, he said. "Me and him clicked right away." Wong encouraged him to pursue his musical talents, and helped get him a job, said Carter.
"He's helped my family through situations over the years," he said - including a period of time when Carter was living in the youth safe house. "Every day he kept me positive," he said. "He's the only person I confided in."
Carter added Wong was also the only youth worker he'd met who was a visible minority - making it easier for kids who were minorities themselves to talk to him.
"I do miss him," he said.
Jeff McDonald, spokesman for the District of West Vancouver, said there was little the municipality would say about the decision not to hire Wong after five years on the job.
"That's not something we'd comment on," he said. "The only thing I would say is we're confident the hiring process was fair and reasonable."
McDonald added the district is comfortable with the resources it dedicates to youth programs. McDonald said in 2012, the district spent about $540,000 on youth services and earned about $74,000 in revenue back, for net expenses of roughly $466,000. That figure includes support for youth programs at the Ambleside Youth Centre, Gleneagles Community Centre and the West Vancouver Community Centre as well as the Youth Outreach Program.
