DRUGS, POVERTY, CONFLICT AND ALIENATION

"A Community That Cares" Tackles Big Issues

HAWKESBURY - Drug abuse, severe poverty, alienation, rebellion -- those are
just some of the factors that can cause a young person to develop
behaviourial problems.

The task may appear daunting, however, a year-old initiative in Hawkesbury
is trying to help decrease the impact that these risk factors have on the
town's children, and the town in general.

The "Une communaute qui se prend en main" project aims to reduce drop-out
rates, violence, crime, teenage pregnancies and drug and alcohol use among
adolescents.

A key to coping with any problem is information, observes project
coordinator Jean-Clet Gosselin. "There are no quick or easy solutions to
problems such as poverty, for example. Our project does not have money to
give out to people, but there are existing resources, such as food banks,
to assist the poor. If people have access to information, if they know that
help is available, they can begin to help themselves," says Gosselin. With
a high illiteracy rate, Gosselin notes, "One of the challenges we face is
finding new ways of reaching the people in need."

Action Plan

"We want to include everyone in the process," adds Gosselin.

Founded at the beginning of the year, the project, based on the "Community
That Cares" concept, has arrived at the third phase, the formulation of an
action plan.

Gosselin, who works for the Services aux enfants et adultes de
Prescott-Russell, which initiated the project, explains that members of the
community are now being recruited.

In the previous phases, the project's committee, using 25 different data
sources, identified four main risk factors: access to alcohol and drugs,
family conflicts, extreme poverty and youth rebellion and alienation. "Now
that we have identified the risk factors, we need to reduce them," points
out Gosselin.

Many problems have been underlined in the past. For example, a 1996
Addiction Research Foundation concluded that illicit drug use was
abnormally high in Hawkesbury. A survey found that 13 per cent of
francophones in town have used cocaine. On a provincial scale, three per
cent of francophones have consumed cocaine.

The ARF also discovered that one out of ten francophones here has
considered committing suicided; that rate is three times higher the average
rate among Ontario francophones.

The Hawkesbury Ontario Provincial Police detachment reports that half of
the offences it investigates in Hawkesbury involve domestic violence and
illegal drugs.

Hawkesbury residents tend to smoke more, have lower levels of education and
earn less money than the Ontario average. There are more teen-aged mothers
in town than in other parts of Prescott County.

"We can do a lot of things with statistics," Gosselin points out. "While
the average income here is lower than it is in Toronto, the cost of living
is also lower here."

But, he stresses, "There is a link between income, education, poverty and
the other factors that lead to behaviourial problems."

"We have to change our approach. If a high percentage of people cannot
read, distributing a pamphlet is not going to reach these people," Gosselin
says.

The project is funded by the Trillium Foundation and the Canadian Crime
Prevention Centre.

For more information, call Jean-Clet Gosselin at 632-1101.