The Central NL region is blessed with many great volunteers dedicated to helping people and organizations in many ways. I have met and worked with many of them; passionate, caring, energetic, selfless people, committed to causes they feel strongly about. Still, there has been a decline in volunteerism across all sectors and levels of community in recent years. Finding these volunteers for the mental health and addictions world is not always easy. The stigma associated with mental health and addiction is still the number one reason individuals do not seek out treatment. The same stigma and fear limits volunteerism with this population as well. I have experienced food banks, shelters, church groups, community organizations and otherwise altruistic community volunteers turn their backs on someone with severe mental health and addiction challenges. To no fault of their own, it is sometimes a matter of safety, a lot of us are not equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to help effectively. I can say with 99.9% surety if I didn’t have the lived experience I have now I would find it awful hard to say yes to helping an IV drug user just released from prison for assault and robbery; the friend I am writing about today didn’t though. I came to where I am the hard way; although I can say I was more open than most even before my lived experience.
I remember the first week on the job as Manager at a social services government office, long before our family’s struggles started, I loaned a young single mom, known addict, $20 for gas to get back to her community where her children were left with a babysitter. She drove her car in for an appointment and ran out of gas while doing some errands in town. The department offered to put her in a cab and send her back to her community but had no way of giving her money for gas to put in her car. I know some of you reading are thinking…. “how does a single mom on income support even have a car?”…. that’s a whole other conversation! Anyway, she asked to see a Manager and presented her case to me quite rationally, obviously not inebriated in any way whatsoever; a cab to her community would cost a lot more than the $20 she needed for gas and her car would be stranded in Gander leaving her and her two kids with no transportation in a community with no public transit or taxi service. It was a Wednesday and her income support payment was due on Friday, so it was quite believable she was running out of money two days from payday, I took the $20 from my purse and loaned it to her; she promised she would return it Friday when she got her income support. Once she left the office, colleagues proceeded to tell me I was crazy, nuts, naive, stupid, never going to see that money again, do you really think she wanted $20 for gas, her kids are probably here in gander with her, etc etc. Friday morning before 10am that young mother returned my $20. It wasn’t the only time I took this chance, there were about a dozen clients I did similar for in my ten years there; only two came back looking the second time and only one failed to keep their commitment to pay me back.
I met the friend I wrote the piece below about shortly after this incident and she was a ray of sunshine in the ten years I spent working in community services; she really understood the reasons for social programs, the values such programs are based on and what, “it takes a village” is all about. She wasn’t only willing to work with what most of you would call “the worst or the worse”, she sought them out even when they weren’t looking for help. The same single mother from my first week of work I loaned the $20 to, interrupted Katty and I years later in the Department lobby ranting about her recent challenges of loosing her kids, having to do drug tests and her cheque being cut; I asked her politely to wait in the waiting area for me until I was finished talking to Katty; which she did. Even after this client’s aggressive rant which revealed a lot more than what I said here, as soon as she walked away, Katty says, “Oh my, who is that? I would love to work with her.” That type of longing to help is what is needed, not just by workers and volunteers in the community services sector but by all individuals in our communities.
Originally posted March 2018:
“Sitting here with a heavy heart and a few tears running down my cheek, I want to post a message about a dear friend, Katty Gallant, Youth Advocate and Community Leader, who lost her short battle with cancer tonight. I worked with Katty for many years and still remember the first day I met her. I remember thinking, “Who does she think she is coming in here to a government office telling us how we should be doing our jobs.” Well, it didn’t take me long to learn, if I wanted to be good at my job then I needed to listen to this lady more. I quickly grew to love Katty and looked forward to every project, proposal, application or grant that had her name attached to it. We ended up sitting around many tables together, on steering committees, focus groups, boards and working groups; but my favorite place to sit with Katty, was in my office, one on one, discussing the nitty gritty of the social challenges we face and how community and government need to come together more.
Katty’s passion and energy were second to none. She ran one of our community partner employment programs for at-risk (we both hate that term) youth, mostly in the Gambo area but on many occasions also in Gander, in that capacity and through countless other volunteer roles; she touched the lives of many. The Youth Centre in Gambo, the Library, the Town Council and the Community Advisory Board on Housing and Homelessness were just a few of the organizations she gave her time and effort to. Katty dreamed of healthier communities where barriers (or challenges, as we both preferred to say) could be eliminated and wanted us all to see the good in everyone. She welcomed the most challenging clients with open arms, gave them hope, restored their confidence and set them on the right path. She never gave up, went above and beyond and relentlessly fought the system to improve outcomes. A mutual friend said to me tonight, “… she did so much good in the time she had, more than most in a lifetime.” SO TRUE!
The last time I heard from Katty was Feb 19th, she was reaching out to me, apologizing for not making contact sooner to offer help and support with what was going on in my life, she had just learned about it that day… she had been in hospital for almost two weeks at that time but didn’t even mention what was going on with her… that’s Katty, always wanting to help others, reaching out to anyone going through hardship and offering “If you need to talk sometimes, I am here”. Unfortunately, I didn’t get in to see her, as I am still in Grand Falls dealing with what she offered to help me with; and I never got the news about how serious her Cancer was as I have been off work. Funny thing is, Monday night, having trouble falling asleep, tossing and turning, thinking about how I can help people like my son, at one point, in my head; I was planning a conversation I wanted to have with her to convince her to work on a project I want to see happen in Gander. If there’s one thing I’ve learned working in and dealing with social, community and health services it’s that the front-line workers are who make the most difference. So, if I was going to start a community project for people “at-risk” I wanted her to be part of it.
Katty’s energy, compassion, dedication and insight in to improving lives and community are something every one of us could learn a lot from. I, for one, feel very privileged to have known her and to have had the chance to talk extensively to her about this world we live in.
The times I witnessed the purse of her lips, along with raised “eyebrows” and a shrug of her shoulders when she was caught (although sometimes she just admitted it to me) breaking some “government rule” to help her clients were some of my favorite memories of her. The most favorite though was her smile and enthusiasm when she told success stories about the people she helped… and those are plentiful.”
Following Katty’s passing the Town of Gambo nominated her to NL’s Volunteer Hall of Fame; in which I am sure was an easy induction for any committee to make.
http://volunteerhalloffame.ca/the-hall/hall-inductees/2018-inductees/katty-gallant/
RIP my friend and thanks for all you did for so many of us while you were here!
https://www.journaldequebec.com/2018/04/05/cf5da3a28a/gallant-katty
Over Half Way 