22 - Sunday, September 16, 1990 - North Shore News

CHRIS FUOCO lends an ear to a youth at the West Vancouver YMCA.

West Van outreach worker
lends local youths a hand @& oo Q), DES)

THREE YEARS after a riotous West Vancouver party
resulted in the arrest of 27 youths and seven injured police

officers, West
outreach youth worker.

Richard Wagner, West Van-
couver District social planner, said
the decision to hire an outreach
worker was the culmination of
recommendations from the Youth
Parties Task Force (established
after the fateful 1987 party), the
West Vancouver Youth Advisory
Committee, and an ad hoc com-
mittee made up of several com-
munity groups and agencies that
deai with youths.

“The consensus was ... ‘Yes, we
definitely need an outreach youth
worker,”’’ Wagner said.

Hired in June, Chris Fuoco, 25,
said he sees his job as a way of
getting at-risk youths off the
streets and on a more positive
track.

Using his office in the YMCA
building as a base, Fuoco makes
contacts with youths during drop-
in sessions or when he goes out
onto the street.

He tries to establish some rap-
port or a level of trust with the
youths but says he is often ini-
tially met with skepticism.

**They’re testing mie. I did get
sized up,’’ Fuoco said of his first
contacts with youths.

If he is accepted, Fuoco said he
will then try to help the youth ad-
dress his or her immediate prob-
lems, whether that involves re-
enrolment in school or simply ex-
panding their recreational oppor-
tunities by introducing them to a
new sport.

For instance, Fuoco plans to
take kids rock climbing, canoeing
and camping.

Wagner describes Fuoco’s work
as “more of a big brother kind of
relationship as opposed to a pro-
fessional social worker.”

However, Fuoco will work with

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News Reporter

community agencies such as the
North Shore Family Services,
North Shore Counselling Centre,
and Sea View Alcohol and Drug
Programs, as well as with the
West Vancouver Police Depart-
ment if necessary.

Since he started his position two
months ago, Fuoco said he has
seen a wide variety of problems
among youths ranging from
substance abuse and suicide at-
tempts to family conflicts.

“The West Vancouver kids in
particular have lots of pressure
and the ones I deal with don’t
handle it well,’’ Fuoco said.

Gangs have not gained a toe-
hold in West Vancouver, he said,
but he sees conflicts arising when
North and East Vancouver gangs,
edged out of their own territory,
come over to Ambleside Park.

Fuoco agrees with a _ recent
survey report released from the
Youth Advisory Committee that
identifies drug and alcohol abuse
to be a riajor problem among

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