Victoria Berrigan was reluctant at first but soon realized how much her candour could help other teenagers.
A few years ago, would she have imagined she’d graduate from Grade 12 at Citadel High School this spring? Negative!
When she was in junior high, did she think it possible she’d enter Nova Scotia Community College to work toward being a Child and Youth Care worker? Hardly!
But today, this teen looks back on the neighbourhood where she grew up and her association with kids constantly in trouble, and recalls that yes, she was one — and that she found salvation through meeting young people with goals. This 19-year-old has matured, become a person who recognized role models and followed her dream and their guidance.
It started in Grade 8 at St. Agnes Junior High. "I’d hang out at the Halifax Shopping Centre during lunch and after school," she says. "I discovered the teen centre there, more because of mall security who got on our case." Victoria was getting into fights, not doing well at school and was ready to drop out. But she met role models among leaders and her peers. "The positive vibes I received when I was here showed me I could make something of myself," she says.
And she has. Today, Victoria is a five-year member of the teen advisory board formed by the shopping centre administration to lead other teens on the right path by establishing activity programs for teens at risk, as Victoria was. "I really wasn’t sure if I could do it. I guess I lacked confidence in myself, but I made friends who encouraged me." And Victoria is also employed at the centre now. She’s a representative at the mall’s customer service desk, and she loves it. She enjoys helping people, having a responsible job and being paid for it.
"Victoria really came out of her shell," says Jacob MacIsaac, youth centre co-ordinator. "She was a youth on the edge, but after she started coming here it was phenomenal to see she’s been a consistently good kid. She’ll actually seek help to see how she can make better choices. I think I have a big-brother relationship with her. The centre has been a support network for Victoria."
Victoria smiles now, something she wasn’t doing regularly five years ago. "I had no idea where I was going. Junior high was a bad time for me. I was skipping school but when I started high school, I chose a different group of friends. By Grade 11, I learned to walk away from trouble when I had to." She says she saw people who were in their fourth and fifth year of high school, moving aimlessly. "I didn’t want that. I really matured, knowing I needed more from my life."
As she stands among her peers at the centre, enjoying pizza as they celebrate the fifth anniversary of the centre and eighth year of the teen advisory board, Victoria acknowledges the board showed her how she could become a better person. "I knew I made mistakes as a young teen, but I don’t have to dwell on those now. I can move forward. The fact that I’m productive and going to college really keeps me focused."
She sees her role now as helping teens who are the way she used to be a few years ago.
The teen centre, besides being a gathering place where young people can play video games in a controlled surrounding, watch television, study and do homework keeps them from creating problems for mall security and store owners. There are also workshops presented on job skills, resume preparation, community work (many sign up) and volunteering in advisory committee-sponsored programs such as community and graffiti cleanups.
The centre, a storefront on the second floor of the shopping centre, away from general customer traffic, is a place where teens can stay out of trouble and just hang out with other kids.
That suits Victoria just fine. "I’m now comfortable talking about what the centre has meant to me. It’s helped me grow, and I just hope by talking with other teens, I can be as positive an influence on them as the centre, and the people here, have been on me."
Joel Jacobson
13 April 2008
