A voice for the marginalized
By Jared Lindzon
jlindzo@uwo.ca
After a fight with his family early last year caused him to leave home, Ruben Delgado was living on Toronto’s streets, selling drugs to get by.
“Me and my family weren’t too happy with each other, mostly because I was kind of a rebellious youth,” said the 18-year-old. “I wasn’t doing positive things, and I was being a really bad role model for my brother and sister.”
To escape, Delgado started writing every day about his struggles and his inability to find happiness. He said he felt lost and confused until one day he stumbled across a call for submissions to a creative writing contest for people living on or near the street. At first he ignored the sign, which had been posted by a Toronto-based Jewish charity called Ve’Ahavta
“Every time I was walking I kept seeing this newsletter until about a week later I saw it again and I said to myself ‘maybe I should do this,’ so I decided to submit one of my pieces,” he said in a phone interview.
He did more than just submit; he came in first. “I was surprised that I won. It really opened my eyes. It gave me a lot of confidence, a lot of hope and a lot of encouragement to actually follow my dreams. It really changed my life, in a positive way.”
.jpg) |
| Courtesy of Ve'Ahavta |
| Ve’Ahavta president Avrum Rosensweig awards top prize to Ruben Delgado, winner of the 2010 creative writing contest. |
Delgado is just one of the hundreds of contestants who have participated in Ve’Ahavta’s creative writing contest, which is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary. Over 100 submissions were received before the March 15 deadline, and a panel of high-profile judges will determine the winner of the $2,000 grand prize — raised through donations — by the last week of May. Awards will be distributed at the annual Coffee House event on June 12, at which point applicants will be called upon to read their submissions aloud.
Since winning the contest last summer, Delgado has been working to get his life on track. He began his first job coaching children’s basketball at the Syme Woolner Neighbourhood and Family Centre and has passed all of his classes for the first time.
“I went back to my family, and we spoke, and we realized that both of us did things wrong but we can still work things out,” he said. “I feel like a better person. I’ve grown a lot, and I feel different now.”
Theresa Schrader, who is in charge of organizing this year’s competition, explains that writing can be an important tool for self-expression as well as building self-confidence, especially for those experiencing hardship.
“From a social work perspective now and having worked in that field for a while I see that a lot of people are silenced and lot of people are forced into the margins of society, and they lose their voice,” she said.
“I think that writing can be an empowerment tool. You can write down your experiences and empower yourself not to hold that inside or not to reduce yourself to the stereotypes people place on you by writing about who you are as a person.”
Like Delgado, Schrader has also worked her way out of extreme circumstances through her writing, with the help of Ve’Ahavta. Before winning the 2005 creative writing contest, Schrader was living on the streets of Toronto, working as a prostitute to support a crack addiction.
“I wrote about a sexual assault that happened to me while I was living on the street, and it was probably one of the bigger skeletons living in my closet… I guess writing it out was the first part of that therapeutic journey of getting through the trauma,” she said. “After winning the contest I saw that there was some inherent value inside myself, and I started working on getting clean.”
Since winning the creative writing contest Schrader has enrolled in the Social Service Working Program at George Brown College. Schrader said her mother got emotional when she told her she would be accepting her diploma on June 14 of this year.
“She started crying, and I said ‘why are you crying mom?’ and she said, ‘that’s your dad and my wedding anniversary,’” Schrader said. “I’m sure they were tears of joy, but my dad’s been dead for over 20 years, and here I’m going to graduate on his wedding anniversary. She said he would be really proud of me.”
While working on her degree Schrader spent much of her time volunteering with Ve’Ahavta, and was recently named its Community Poverty Relief Associate. Her new responsibilities now include organizing the creative writing contest that helped turned her life around six years ago.
After being exclusive to Toronto for nine years the contest was opened to submissions from Vancouver last year and has expanded once again this year to include entries from Halifax, near Schrader’s hometown.
“That was very symbolic for me as well because part of my addiction before I came to Toronto started in Halifax,” she said.
 |
| Courtesy of Ve'Ahavta |
| Theresa Schrader addresses contestants from last year’s writing contest at the annual Coffee House event. |
Her recent visit to Halifax to publicize the contest reminded Schrader about what she’s accomplished since moving to Toronto. While there, Schrader met with the mayor, was interviewed on CBC radio and created partnerships with local community outreach programs.
When Schrader first pitched the idea of bringing the competition to Halifax, Ve’Ahavta’s president Avrum Rosensweig liked the idea of reaching out to the homeless communities on each coast.
“I wanted to go into Vancouver last year because I know of the homeless situation there, and it’s pretty abysmal,” he said. “Halifax being at the other end of the country, there’s some poetry to that. Almost like bookends.”
Rosensweig, who also works as a columnist for the Canadian Jewish News, has always maintained a personal connection with creative writing. The 50-year-old said he was raised “on the spines of books,” including 10,000 his father left him after he died.
“I like to see myself as a creative person, and I’ve always believed that one of the ways of strengthening our world, making our planet better for the people who live in it, is by tapping into their creativity. The idea being that if somebody writes a piece it’s almost like a window into their own soul. I’ve always thought that in itself is a solution to homelessness.”
Rosensweig got the idea to hold the creative writing contest after speaking with people living on the street and discovering that many had interesting and inspiring stories to share.
Rosensweig said he derived the Toronto-based charity’s name from a verse in the Torah, “Ve’Ahavta L’recha C’Mocha,” which is Hebrew for “love your neighbour as you love yourself.” The term is not only used as the mission statement of the organization, but as a philosophy that Rosensweig says he lives by as well.
Last summer Rosensweig and Schrader introduced the Ve’Ahavta Street Academy, which aimed to teach 10 homeless people, including Delgado, the skills they needed to get off the streets. Among the guest lecturers was CBC’s Ron MacLean, who has volunteered his time to Ve’Ahavta again this year as one of the judges of the creative writing contest.
“Ron came in and he spoke to the class and I’ll tell you something, he was just so inspiring,” said Rosensweig. “He was talking at one point about how it was important to have mentors and support, and while he was talking about that he wrote his number down on the blackboard, and he said to the class ‘if anyone ever needs support please feel free to call me or my wife.’”
 |
| Courtesy of Ve'Ahavta |
| Students of Ve’Ahavta’s Street Academy give thumbs up with Ron MacLean to show their appreciation for his visit. |
MacLean said he got the idea from the book When All You Have is Hope by Frank O’Dea.
“Frank's the co-founder of Second Cup,” explained MacLean, in an email interview. “In 1971, Frank was on the street and a social worker gave him his phone number and a handful of dimes.” The social worker told O’Dea to call the number anytime he felt like drinking, added MacLean.
“Frank did call… In my case no one has called. But I think they felt a similar benefit without having to dial.”
Delgado agrees, adding that MacLean’s presence in the classroom was inspiring.
“At first I didn’t know who he was, but when he started speaking I really liked the way he made his words sound poetic,” said Delgado. “He’s a very good storyteller. He kind of hypnotizes people when he talks. Him being there was a big thing for me, even though I didn’t know who he was at the time.”
Like many who work with Ve’Ahavta, MacLean believes in the importance of retaining a voice through writing.
“Writing is a sanctuary in which you offer others something to hold, but really you are validating your own experience,” he said. “We deserve that. A life is an individual story, and writing is its history and its guarantee.”
