Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 24, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press Tempo Section Maureen Houston 6977373 c1 debt second from and Estelle Brown with summer program Tina chats with Friend Anne by Mike Maunder free press correspondent along a Street that been the Birthplace of so Many cultures in Winnipeg another culture is now struggling to find its own unique Selkirk Avenue has seen them All All arrived As the poorest of the All suffered discrimination from win Nipges and All went on to join those elites and add their own unique contribution to the cites their magnificent churches holy ghost and Vladimirs Anchor both ends of Selkirk and there Are still Many Babas like Anne Babin who shop every Day along the but the faces on Selkirk Avenue Are the next chapter of Selkirk Avenue needs to be says Stephen Wal Ter a Winnipeg police officer who is chairman of the Selkirk Avenue Biz business improvement social problems and it needs to be written by Sborigi they have to take their since the up rail tracks first slashed the face of the the Railroad strip Point Selkirk All the Way out to Burrow Keewatin has been considered the wrong Side of the like immigrant groups before the Large native population along both sides of the tracks today faces discrimination and horrendous social the face Avenue storied streets next chapter to be written by aboriginals but members of the native Community Are beginning to take control of these problems in their own the major Way there doing according to Debi a longtime Community worker in the is that Community members themselves Are starting to solve the not professional social More and the emphasis is to provide Community people with training and so they can organize them selves and manage their own she Spence gives several examples ten ants in the Gilbert Park hous ing forming an association to run kids programs in the project and negotiating with the province to take Over More aspects of managing their own Homes the increasing Community input at Turtle Island Community Centre the increasing role of local Parent councils in inner City at her own childrens the Par ent Council struggled last year with the problem of youth they worked with police to develop strategies that successfully stopped older kids from recruiting elementary aged kids into the Over at Turtle Island Community Centre Treyve work with the Indian Metis Friendship Centre to Field two baseball teams this one went on to the provincial which ended not bad for a club that Hast fielded a team in two years since one of their players was killed in a gang Spence has held Volunteer jobs with dozens of frontline Community organizations such As which helps Young and the main Street which deals with drugs and sniff she grew up on Selkirk i went to Aberdeen school with All the polish and ukrainian she i remember them telling me about their parents and about the War and concentration i guess i next thought us natives had it so Josie Hill is another experienced campaigner in the inner was a native growing up on Selkirk Avenue in the when it was virtually an Eastern european Street that could have been lifted out of Shes director of the Andrews Street family at Andrews and Manitoba an area that could be lifted out of any Northern she says that a key to social programs now is that people Are learning How to take control of their at the Cen tres first annual meeting last Community residents were elected to fill All executive control i remember one Young mom in Dan Ger of losing her child because she went on drinking Hill i arranged for regular babysitting so she could go out it want Long before she could Start planning her and then she began to have some control Over her she didst need to so she i bumped into her a few Days ago on the Shes enrolled at University and got All Chris Tetlock of the North end women Centre on Selkirk Avenue also believes in giving people time to find their she was a single mom growing up in a Burrows and Keewatin housing project when she formed the women Centre 11 years i told one Volunteer who wanted to work Here that there was no sense wait ing for people to line up and Tell her their if youre looking to work in a place where appointments Are this int sometimes the Best Way i can help someone is to sit Down and have a drink with when you get to know a you find that under this Tough prostitute there women with the same problems and concerns that we but some times the Only Way they can survive is through or through you cant keep trying to social work you dont know what the real Sto Ries Tetlock has spent the last 11 years Liv ing and working on Selkirk this area is still its own unique comm she people still know one agencies Are and people look out for one people around the City Only talk about the crime and poverty but i still feel More comfortable Here than any other part of the ;