Kamloops youth advocate at the centre of new documentary

Katherine McParland is the executive director of A Way Home Kamloops. (via Contributed/Facebook)

When Katherine McParland turned 19, she didn't experience the milestone year like many of her peers.

She wasn't off to university or saving up for a trip to Australia. 

She was aging out of B.C.'s foster care system, a transition that would result in her living on the streets of Kamloops for a number of years.

"I honestly don't know how I made it out," McParland, executive director of A Way Home Kamloops, tells KamloopsMatters.

McParland's story of resiliency (more on that in a bit) is the subject of a new documentary local filmmakers CJ Boisclair and Jennifer Spitman are trying to get to production. The pair have applied for a $50,000 Telus Storyhive grant, and are looking to the community to help win it. Grants are awarded to projects that receive the most votes.

"It's a super important story that needs to be told," says Spitman. 

'So often, the voices of youth are silenced'

McParland was born in Halifax, N.S.

At five years old, she experienced family violence and found herself living in an Ontario shelter.

At 13, McParland became a permanent ward of the foster care system and within her time in care, she was put through 28 moves between placements in the foster care system.

"I feel like I really learned homelessness as a youth in care," she says. "Just some of those abrupt transitional moves with garbage bags (of belongings), and sometimes being placed in unsafe situations, or running away from the foster care system, hitchhiking to other communities and living on the streets with other youth."

When she was 16, McParland was put in an independent living program. As the name suggests, the program was for youth who were preparing to transition to an independent lifestyle. But McParland wasn't ready. She was put in the program because the Ministry of Children and Family Development couldn't find her another placement. 

"I ended up being evicted and experiencing homelessness."

At 19, when she cut ties with the ministry, McParland moved into a basement suite and into a "very unsafe situation." 

"I met a really abusive predator that ended up kicking in my door and severely violently assaulted me and duct taped me up. Based on that experience, the door was not fixed by the landlord and so this predator could kind of enter the house whenever he wanted. I received an eviction notice, and at the time as a young person coming out of care, I always had the ministry to respond and support, and at that point in time, there was no ministry. It was such an abrupt drop-off of support. I knew I had this eviction notice but I had this belief that they’d find another place."

McParland's things were removed from her apartment and put out on the front lawn, she recalls. 

"It was the first snowfall in November... I had nowhere to put those items. That night, I actually ended up on the street," she says.

McParland's situation began to turn around for the better in 2011 when she was provided secure housing.

With a drive to ensure other youth wouldn't have to suffer the same fate as she had, McParland applied to Thompson Rivers University and was accepted into the school's bachelor of social work program. (She completed her high school diploma at an alternative school prior to aging out of the system; she was also named the class valedictorian.)

In 2013, three years before graduating from TRU, she launched a community collective called A Way Home Kamloops (the organization only recently received non-profit status). Since its inception, A Way Home Kamloops has worked hard to end youth homelessness by providing housing and other services to kids.

Its Safe Suites initiative is expected to be rolled out in the next year, according to McParland. The initiative will take seven youth (aged 18 to 24) off the streets and provide low-barrier housing to them. Staff will work with the youth to develop a life plan and give them the 24/7 supports they need.

A Way Home Kamloops also organized the first youth homeless count in all of Canada, in 2016. A second count was held in May 2018 (a full report about last year's count will be released on May 30). Preliminary data shows that 136 youth in Kamloops experienced homelessness that year; of the 136, 92 said they were homeless at the time of the count. Of the 92, 57 shared they were experiencing absolute homelessness, meaning they had absolutely nowhere to go, McParland told KamloopsMatters in an earlier interview. They could have been sleeping in public spaces, outside, at a shelter or in a public institution.

"So often, the voices of youth are silenced. They don’t have services or the supports that they need. Young people need distinct services that will move them out of homelessness and respond to it in a quick way. We know the longer a young person is homeless, the more trauma and victimization they experience," explains McParland.

The local advocate, who's currently working on a master's degree at the University of Calgary, is the first to tell you she's one of the lucky ones.

"My friend Samantha Paul... was murdered."

Paul's remains were found 20 kilometres southeast of Kamloops in June 2014. She was reported missing in September 2013.

"Even just the other day, I was sitting here in my office and there was somebody in the alleyway who looked like they could be at risk of overdosing. I went and spoke to them and realized it was someone I had grown up with. Sometimes, it’s just the parallel. I’m sitting in my office trying to create change, and then you just see people in such pain and devastation."

Voting starts next week

If the documentary gets the necessary funding and is able to move forward, Boisclair and Spitman hope the film opens people's eyes.

"You don’t realize how many homeless youth are in your own city and why they become homeless," says Boisclair. "A lot of people figure, ‘Well, they got into drugs.’ In reality, they probably got into drugs because they’re homeless and because it is horrifying being out there on the street – being a child, a youth and not having anybody at your side. You use drugs and alcohol to make it livable. It’s the only thing that can make you go day-to-day sometimes."

Boisclair speaks from experience; she was homeless for three years, starting in Grade 9.

"It's so easy for this to happen," adds Spitman. "It's more apparent than people think it is."

Telus Storyhive voting is open May 28 to 31. Follow this Facebook page to learn where to cast your ballot.

Winners will be announced in late June.

If the pitch wins the $50,000, a portion of the prize will be donated to A Way Home Kamloops. Due to legalities, the exact amount can’t be disclosed at this time, but Boisclair and Spitman say it’s significant.