‘Challenge

misconceptions about
teenagers and why kids find
it necessary to take refuge in
the arcades and restaurants.
Says Whitney: ‘‘l come
for social interaction if you
will, perhaps to play a video

game or two. It’s hke a
meeting place, a _ central
point where all the Lower

Lonsdale kids come and do
what they will.”’

Adds Rob: ‘‘l feel that a
lot of people come here to
escape from their parents
and the pressures of home,
they can come here and talk
to other people, sort of
make this a base of opera-
uions where they can meet,
then go off and da other
things.’ -

The two youths are ada-
mant that reports of teenage
alcoholism and drug abuse
are blown out of proportion,
but acknowledge that some

youths do rebel against
‘*moral rules.”’
‘“‘Even though I’m _ only

16, | am responsible. | hold
a driver’s licence and I real-
ize the responsibility that
that carries. I'd like to see
more people treating
teenagers as adults, because
we are responsible,’” Rob
says. ‘‘There’s a lack of
communication between the
parents and the teenagers
nd the parents seem [to
Jame it on things like
cohol and drugs, because
eir egos aren't willing to

>

@t them admit that they
aren't doing that good of a
job as they could have been
‘Aaung with their children."’

Whitney says Mortensen
perves a useful purpose in
trying toa deal with teenage
problems and in attempting
to guide youths along their
*‘paths of growth.”’

‘“He’s one of the
few who are out
there who
understand ?”’

“If Kelly was there for
me, | would turn to him. He

understands. He’s one of the
few who are out there who
understands the needs of
youth and that’s the key
problem, that lack of

understanding, not a lack of
communication, says
Whitney.

“When you become a
youth, especially when you
get into high school, social
cliques form. You have to be
something to be in. And

when someone doesn’t get
in, it leaves a scar that marks
them, | think it marks them,
for the rest of their life. And
I think that some of the kids
that come down here, come
here because of the rejec-
t10n, and need their
friends.’’

Working the
Lower Lonsdale, Mortensen
sees it all: young girls ap-
proached by pimps,
alcoholism and drug abuse
and, perhaps the most
heart-rending of all, the
child victims of physical and
sexual abuse.

He builds friendships with
the kids slowly

Streets of

their turf, this is their en-
vironment’? — establishing
eye contact, then just talking
to the kids.

“When you lve in a
beehive and your world is
12x24, it doesn’t look too
good,’’ Mortensen
says." You want something

to change your perspective.
Alcohol, drugs are tools that
change our perspective. But
when you're engaged and
challenged — being high and
being challenged just don’t
So one of the
things I try and do is to tap
into kids and find out what
challenges them. And then

go together.

(1) challenge them.”’

In part two of this article,
we'll look at what keeps him

going.

“This is

Al5 - Wednesday, October 31, 1984 - North Shore News

A North Shore News

special report

grr THE E EDGE

tans ‘ ‘ ae aes

BEY

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