As a life-long resident of North Perth, I recognize that I grew up in this community from a place of privilege. I didn’t encounter adverse experiences during childhood, grew up in a healthy and wealthy household, and was provided with the support and coping tools to deal with challenges. Metaphorically, I was dealt good cards.
Reflecting on my privilege in this community is what led me to do a placement at It Takes A Village (ITAV or ‘The Village’) in Listowel. As a Queen’s University teacher candidate, I was required to pick a three-week long “alternative practicum,” which sways from the traditional teaching/classroom setting. My wish for this placement was to gain a better understanding of the diversity and need within my community, and see life through the many different lenses of our people.
As a person of privilege who is caught up in the busyness of everyday life, my time at The Village has made me realize how much I was overlooking the need that is present within North Perth. On my second day, I assisted in facilitating a Celebration of Life for a community member who passed away a few weeks prior. The celebration was hosted at The Village and was simple yet intimate – the food was prepared by the community members attending the event, and the space was decorated with items that represented the individual’s life.
I was helping set up for the event, when a community member asked me if we had any napkins to set out on the food table. I walked to the kitchen with this person, opened the cupboard door, and found a large stack of napkins that had the Domino’s Pizza logo plastered all over them.
“We have these ones, but they have the Domino’s logo on them so they probably won’t work,” I said without giving my words a second thought. “Why?” the community member responded to me, with sincere confusion. “A napkin is a napkin,” they stated. All I could respond with was “you’re right.” I was in shock for several minutes afterwards, in disbelief that my advantaged, privileged brain was innately picky about the types of napkins that were being used. To me, finding an appealing-looking stack of napkins was my automatic instinct. To this community member, finding something that would function as a napkin, regardless of its appearance, was their automatic instinct.
The napkin story was one of the first – of very many – situations that I have encountered which have stretched my thinking and opened my eyes to my own biases and privileges. I grew up here and my experiences in this community have led me to be picky about napkins.
However, there are other people that grew up here who have completely different experiences than I do, leading them to different needs.
Throughout my three weeks at The Village, I’ve had the opportunity to hear many eye-opening stories. Each evening, I went home and wrote down some of the dialogue I heard that day, in complete disbelief that I was hearing it in my own hometown.
“Living homeless for four years is nowhere near the worst thing I’ve experienced in my life. The stuff that led up to me living homeless is what hurts the most.”
“I’ll do anything to protect my recovery. I have to take the long way to get to the store so I don’t walk past my dealer’s house. I have to cut some of my closest friends out of my life. It’s hard, but I have to do it.”
“I can’t pay my cable bill this month because I need to pay for gas to drive my grandchild to school every day. I can’t afford both.”
“I don’t get paid until Friday and the only food I have left is three pieces of bread to feed my two young kids and I.”
“I sleep in my tent during the day and stay up walking around town at night so I don’t die in my sleep from the cold night-time temperatures.”
“My family and I just migrated to Canada because our home country isn’t safe, and we are really struggling to get by financially and socially. We can’t afford the basics. We feel like we don’t belong here.”
Behind each of these stories, a person exists. From the outside it’s so easy to look at other humans, pass judgement, and not give their life experiences a second thought. But once again, behind each person is a story, and behind each story is a person who loves, is loved, and deserves compassion.
Spending three weeks at The Village has shown me that we were all dealt different cards, encountered different risk factors, and given different protective factors. I came into this placement at ITAV recognizing my privilege as a community member, and I am leaving feeling even more privileged as I was given the opportunity to see my community through a different lens. Spending time at The Village has helped me humanize all people in our community. It has shown me that each individual driving, walking, or biking the streets of our town, has a story.
Building relationships with many North Perth citizens has been an amazing life experience. I feel closer to my community than I ever have before.
***
Courtney Gratton is a North Perth resident and a student at Queen’s University who recently completed an educational placement at It Takes A Village in Listowel.
