on youth violence

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If you wanted to write a recipe for a lethal spike in youth violence, it might look something like this:

1. Slash funding for after-school programs, leaving kids in high-risk neighbourhoods with no place to go and nothing to do in the evenings, on weekends and in the summer.
2. Skimp on English-as-a-second-language classes, raising the frustration level and failure rate among kids struggling to adjust to a new culture.
3. Lay off school youth counsellors, depriving troubled kids of a ready source of help.
4. Impose a zero tolerance policy in the province's schools, mandating teachers to expel kids they can't discipline.
5. And throw in cutbacks to municipal recreation programs and social services.

"What shocks me," says Cathy Dandy of the Toronto Parent Network, "is that people are shocked that we're having problems in this city."

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the opinion piece in the toronto star is especially poignant not only because of the recent spate of gun violence in the city, but because of things i've come across in my work this summer... and as disasters and catastrophes take hold of media attention, it's easier to forget the issues right here in our own backyard... as school starts for kids across the country, i hope the policymakers and budget balancers take seriously their responsiblity to help create and support a social fabric that puts opportunities -- instead of guns -- within the reach of our youth...

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