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From Burnaby street thug to social worker

By Admin - Posted on 22 June 2009

helping hands By the age of 15, Anthony Hutchinson was shooting at people with a modified .22-calibre starting pistol, robbing Korean grocery stores, selling drugs, stealing cars, being beaten daily at home and settling into the dubious brotherhood of a Burnaby street gang.

Despite having a mother and stepfather who were teachers, he was still functionally illiterate by Grade 9.

He was a problem kid who went to a dozen Burnaby schools and a kid of East Indian and African ancestry who suffered racial abuse and bullying until he learned that pointing a gun at a tormentor brought it to a halt. Today, he holds a PhD degree, is a professor of social work, and has been named as a top young academic. How is it that a thug morphed into the executive director of Brampton Neighbourhood Resource Centre, controlling a budget of $4.7 million and running the largest federal program in the country aimed at reducing recidivism among Afro-Canadian youth offenders living in Ontario?

TEACHER CHANGED HIS LIFE

Hutchinson's answer is simple: his life changed when he met Fred Lepkin, an English and social studies teacher and Brian Turko, a Christian youth worker who taught him to play guitar. "Mr. Lepkin took me from being functionally illiterate to being able to read and write," said Hutchinson, who met Lepkin in Grade 10 at Burnaby South secondary, where Lepkin taught for 33 years. "He showed me how to read by using lyrics from songs I knew. I'd memorize the words from listening to songs and I compared them to what was written on the song sheets. He'd use graffiti, cartoons -- anything to get me to read and understand. "I owe him so much I've dedicated both my master's and Phd theses to him. Of course, if you ask him, he'll tell you I'm a wacko." Lepkin, retired and living in Richmond, is embarrassed by the attention. "To tell the truth, I don't recall much about Tony's background," he said. "But I know I didn't treat him any different than other students." Among his other students were radio personality and former B.C. cabinet minister Christy Clark, TV reporter Keith Baldrey and journalist and author Terry Glavin. "Teachers ... never know when they are working with a youngster what their impact is going to be," Lepkin said. Nine years ago when Hutchinson sought out Turko to thank him, he got a similar response. "Brian looked at me and said, 'I was just helping a kid. It was nothing special.' "

A STREET-GANG EXPERT

How special it was will be apparent on Wednesday when Hutchinson speaks at a conference called Creating a Culture of Prevention, hosted by the City of Vancouver at the Segal School of Business, 500 Granville Street. The one-day conference comes as Metro Vancouver is experiencing an unprecedented wave of gang violence with murders and shootings occurring almost daily. As an expert on street gangs, Hutchinson will bring his own perspective on how to prevent young males joining criminal fraternities: street level gangs, the lowest echelon of organized crime. Canada, he says, has to develop its own strategy and not base its approach on "outdated U.S. models" that have no relevance. "Gangs in Los Angeles wouldn't last a day in South America, gangs in South America wouldn't last a day in Mogadishu and gangs in Mogadishu wouldn't last an afternoon in Sri Lanka, if you get my drift," he said. Hutchinson advocates what he calls the 7-M approach as a prevention model. "The first M is money. These kids need jobs -- not McJobs but proper jobs so they can earn money. The average kid in a street gang makes between $800 to $1,200 a month. Okay, they might earn it for only an hour or two's work, but they are often risking their lives for not much money.

HOLD PARENTS RESPONSIBLE

"The next is Meaning. These kids have no source of hope and no meaning in their lives. It's about holding parents responsible for how they are bringing them up. For instance, Indo-Canadian mothers have got to stop treating their sons as if they can do no wrong. And I can tell them this because my mother's family was from Bombay. "Third is Mental Health. I was depressed growing up and it wasn't diagnosed until I was in my 20s, but I can assure you every single gang member suffers from anxiety or depression or both. A lot of students are angry or pissed off, and we know the route to depression is anger. "Meals. A hungry child doesn't do well in school and will end up angry. We need to make sure we have breakfast programs, snack programs, after-school snack programs for kids that aren't getting enough to eat at home. "Models. Talk to a lot of bad-ass kids and they are pissed off because they can't become basketball players or hip-hop singers. These kids need to see lawyers, stockbrokers, doctors, or whatever from their own ethnic group. These are the models they need, not guys playing basketball. "Mentors. They all need mentors. I can speak to that from experience.

LACK CANADIAN IDENTITY

"The final M is Media. It's all about the perspective these events of gang violence should be given. They are not the most important things that happen every day. They have to be put in context. "Unfortunately no one wants to speak out. Political correctness and so-called multiculturalism prevents it. "I think the perversion of multiculturalism has led to gang warfare in Vancouver because multiculturalism has caused us to suffer a loss of what it means to be Canadian. "Most immigrants coming here want to be Canadian, but if we don't know what that is, if there has been a national loss of identity, then we shouldn't be surprised that their kids don't know who they are and what values they are expected to uphold," Hutchinson said.

http://www.canada.com/news/From+Burnaby+street+thug+social+worker/142171...

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