Even if the violent events cause concern in Montreal-North, the only street worker program in the neighborhood no longer receives municipal funding, and must rely on private foundations to ensure its survival.
“We lost our borough grant and I am very angry. In the situation we are in, with the violence that rages in Montreal-North, it is incomprehensible! », Denounces Slim Hammami, coordinator of the Multicultural Café-Jeunesse.
The organization has had a street worker program for 19 years in this red light district. He normally received $ 70,000 per year to pay the two employees in this role.
But from July 2021, the district authorities offered her only $ 25,000 to pay a street worker who works with young girls.
Furious, Slim Hammami refused this sum. “It did not even allow to pay a salary,” he argues.
With his neighborhood partners, he turned to the private sector and succeeded in obtaining financial assistance at the last minute to maintain, and even improve, his street workers program.
Two charities, the Mirella and Lino Saputo Foundation and the Lucie and André Chagnon Foundation, donated $ 360,000 for one year to the Multicultural Café-Jeunesse, to pay six street workers.
But this funding is not assured beyond July 2022, worries Mr. Hammami.
We almost lost this expertise that we have developed over the years. It is an asset, and it allows us to ease tensions.
Slim Hammami, coordinator of the Multicultural Youth Café
Slim Hammami points out that Montreal-North seems spared by violent events for several months. Perhaps the street workers are contributing to this relative peace, with the police from neighborhood station 39, argues the speaker.
“Our work is not always visible, it’s difficult to measure the impact, but when there is a crisis, we are called to calm things down, so we have to be useful! », Observes Roberson Berlus, street worker for 17 years in the district.
Importance of street work
In a report commissioned by the borough on violence committed and suffered by young people, that Press obtained last week the importance of street work to prevent violent events.
By creating close links with young people and working on various risk factors, street workers help “to recreate a social net around these young people, to provide them with various forms of support and to find with them answers to their needs and their aspirations, ”the report says.
Instead of the Multicultural Café-Jeunesse, two other organizations, Hoodstock and L’Escale, received funding from the borough, through the new program “Prevention of violence committed and suffered among young people”, for other types of projects.
More “equity between organizations”, pleads the mayor
The mayoress of the borough, Christine Black, does not deny the importance of street work to prevent violence in the neighborhood. But according to her, the new allocation policy, through an independent committee, offers “more equity between organizations.”
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, PRESS ARCHIVES
Christine Black, Mayor of Montréal-Nord
“We have so many priorities and so many emergencies that we find ourselves in situations where we unfortunately have to say no to some,” she explains. Our community organizations are underfunded in Montreal North, and there is a lack of sports and recreation infrastructure. ”
Mme Black assures us that the borough does not want organizations to feel in competition with each other for funding.
But at the same time, she underlines that some, like the Café-Jeunesse Multiculturel, must learn to diversify their sources of funding. “You have to have the instinct to go and look for money elsewhere,” she said.