Carly Shorter received a $10,000 scholarship to study hairdressing from Cynthia Skabar, owner of Future Hair Training Centre, after studying at Pinnacle, an alternative high school program.
But Skabar dismissed Shorter in her second week. I could see that she was partying. I could see that she was on her cellphone all the time, Skabar said.
But Shorter returned a year later, ready to work. Now, the 21-year-old is an instructor at the training centre on West Broadway near Cambie Street. I love this. Its so much fun said Shorter, whos considering studying nursing after she has a baby in the new year. I dont come to work and hate it every day.
Kaylee Dufresne was also referred to Pinnacle, a program of the Vancouver School Board and the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD), by her probation officer.
She suffered difficulties at home, dropped out of school in Grade 9 and became addicted to drugs and alcohol. She completed six months of rehab before starting Pinnacle.
I was having a rough time while I was there with my addictions and they were supportive, Dufresne said. I would come to school and just look like crap and theyd make sure that I was well fed and helped me when I was feeling really not healthy.
Pinnacle teacher Susan Downing encouraged the creative teen to enrol in hair styling school after Dufresne, now 19, started attending Pinnacle and appointments consistently.
Pinnacle accommodates students aged 16 to 19 in Grades 11 and 12 in an MCFD Integrated Youth Services building with access to probation officers, social workers, drug and alcohol counsellors and mental health workers. Downing and the programs youth and family worker help students with educational, social and emotional needs.
[I] say to them, look, the world is very, very competitive Make sure that you have some hands-on skills that set you apart, said Downing, a former electrician.
Get yourself a hands-on skill and then if you would like to be an academic, use that hands-on skill to fund your academic pursuits I dont care what you want to do for the rest of your life, Im glad you have goals, what I really do care about is what youre going to do next.
Downing and Skabar met through the Cinderella Project, which provides underprivileged students with hairstyles, makeup and full outfits for their graduation festivities.
Skabar has given half a dozen students scholarships to complete training at Future Hair and helps them find jobs.
Since Ive been here [at Future Hair] Ive been sober, Dufresne said. After I got out of treatment I was doing certain things, but since Ive been here its like such an atmosphere where you have no time to make excuses or be late or be hung over Its made it a lot easier to stay away from that sort of life.
Current Pinnacle students include one who struggles with mental health and addiction problems, another with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and another who is gifted but was shipped off to school in another country where he didnt speak the language.
Pinnacle graduates have gone on to become a mortgage broker, study diesel mechanics, automotive collision repair and culinary arts, many with the help of scholarships from the local STAND, or Step Towards a New Direction, Foundation.
Eleven Pinnacle students graduate June 13.
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