Yul Hawkridge stands at the periphery of the press conference watching a smattering of reporters trail a provincial cabinet minister and the president of the BC Games Society through an East Vancouver warehouse.
The tour of the FabShop, run by the non-profit Tradeworks Training Society, is in honour of the unveiling of the podiums and medals that will be featured at the BC Games this coming February in Vernon. You cant beat the optics: Solid structures made from beetle-killed B.C. pine, designed in-house and constructed by a team of trainees comprised of at-risk youth. For participants like Hawkridge, the program is more than a photo op.
At 28, his story is not an atypical of the men and women who enter the program. Originally from Fort St. James, Hawkridge moved to Vancouver 10 years ago, got a job as a roofer even ran his own crew for a while but got into partying and ended up losing his home and bouncing from couch to couch. I took it too far, says the soft-spoken young man with inky brown eyes.
Tales of addiction, abuse, immigration and settlement issues, language barriers and child custody disputes are all too common among the cohorts that cycle through the FabShop for 26-week rotations of paid job training. In addition to vocational skills, the program provides basics like a free breakfast, lessons on personal hygiene, moral support and other life skills and an inclusive social community.
For Hawkridge, whos been working regularly at the FabShop since he graduated last year, the sense of accomplishment is compounded by the flashing cameras and official pomp and circumstance. Bending down to survey the podium he helped create, he says were gonna see those on TV one day.
