“Marion House is a second chance community committed to social, spiritual and moral formation. We are a learning community and our core values are honour, discipline and respect.”

These were Fr Jason Gordon's words about the vision of Living Water Community's home for socially displaced boys for which he is responsible.

Marion House was established in 1987 on request of a government task force. The task force had been set up to focus on the plight of young street dwellers. A few months after the request, Marion House opened its doors to 75 young male adolescent street dwellers.

The government provided the building, a former hospital at the corner of Henry and New Streets in Port of Spain , as well as a subvention for the programme. Now, in 2005, the financing from Government falls short by about $15,000 for the monthly running of the home.

Recently Marion House received a grant of $1.3 million from Republic Bank to repair and renovate the old building. The structure had been vacant for twenty years before Marion House started operating there and is in serious need of repair.

Three things will be done with the money; putting the infrastructure right, which has never been done, designing the building to suit the programme, and finishing it – painting, beautifying etc. Construction work should begin by mid-April and end by July.

Right now the administrators are looking at the structure. They have been calling in professionals to assess the plumbing, the electrical systems, basic infrastructure. “We don't want to make the building look really pretty, spend the money there and then there are problems with it,” says Judy Rampersad, Project Manager at Marion House.

Life at Marion House

Ms Rampersad has been at Marion House since May 2004. She came there after 16 years of working with SERVOL. Rampersad says the experience at SERVOL, though good preparation for her present position, was very different. Marion House is a 24-hour project, as compared with a 8.00-to-5.00 job.

When she arrived she met 23 young men living there, most between the ages of 19 and 23. She immediately got to work on preparing these young men for going out on their own. She sourced jobs and apartments and helped about ten of them get on their feet.

She also made it a stipulation that those living at Marion House should either be studying, working, or both. The entire programme of Marion House is changing along with the structure, or more accurately, the structure is being changed to suit the new programme.

Judy Rampersad, project manager at Marion House

There are to be three main sections of the building. One will be a halfway house for those who are on the streets and not settled or comfortable with structure as yet. The main section will be the living area for those who have settled in and are going to school.

The third section will be for the older ones who are preparing to move on. The young men will learn how to budget, cook and live independently.

Presently Marion House's method involves giving newcomers a medical and dental check up. If drugs are found in their bloodstream they are sent to New Life Ministry, a drug rehabilitation ministry run by Living Water. There they do a three-month drug rehabilitation programme before they are allowed to come back to Marion House.

The intake age is 14 to 17years. The in-house educator assesses the new arrival's educational needs and from there the youngsters are channelled into vocational or academic education.

The day starts early at Marion House with a wake-up call at 5 a.m. to start Morning Prayer. After the young men pray they do their chores, then come down for breakfast. They leave to go to their various schools or jobs at around 7:30 a.m.

When the guys get back in the evening they relax until about 5 p.m. Gym and sports is part of their daily routine and at 6:45 they all gather downstairs to watch the News.

After news they have dinner and clean up. For the rest of the evening until 9:30 p.m., under supervision of the educator, they study, do homework, and prepare for school the next day.

Many times parents would come to Marion House with a son because they cannot afford to care for him or they cannot deal with his behaviour. “You find more and more parents are giving up their responsibility of taking care of their kids.” Other times one parent may be dead and the other either on drugs or mentally ill.

The boys who come to the house from the street tend to be much more restless. They find it hard to settle into a structured environment so they come and go. “A lot of them like the streets. They like the roaming. If you want to offer them a bath, clothes, they are comfortable with that and just going back out again.

I think what gives them comfort is that it is not just one of them. A lot of times it is numbers and they sleep together, they huddle together, they play together, so that is their family now. So if you are going to bring them in you have to bring all together. They may not feel comfortable if they separate.”

There are often whole families on the streets. All of the child's siblings may be there and they do not want to leave them. It is a very serious situation that Judy says, “wakes you up, and you ask what is going on in Trinidad ? Why are we heading in that direction? Once this age group is lost, what happens later on?”

The workers at Marion House are tightly stretched and, as in most other such institutions, underpaid for the service they give. Judy said she would love to see more volunteers come in and spend time with the boys.

More families should come and take the boys out for the weekend, take them for pizza, to the movies, mall etc so they can have a sense of family life. A mentor who chooses to spend quality time with one of the boys can have a greater effect than the staff.

Ongoing financial issues

Fundraising for the home continues since the money from Republic Bank will be used up quickly on the structural improvements. The cost of running Marion House remains an ongoing issue. The government subvention does not correspond to the present cost of living.

On April 24 there will be a Fund Raising Lunch at Cascadia Hotel in St Ann 's. Tickets cost $200 for adults and $125 for children 12 years and under. Tickets are available by calling Kamini at 675-8581.

A CHAT WITH THE BOYS

I had a chance to speak with four boys who were at Marion House when I visited.

Twelve-year-old Arnold and fifteen-year-old Kyron are cousins, one from Sangre Grande and one from Valencia. Arnold, the more talkative one, said he has run away from home several times. He likes the town and being able to hustle and buy things for himself.

Kyron speaks less but has also run away from home, though not intending to stay away. They would pop in at Marion House from time to time, have a bath, some food, change clothes, but they do not seem interested in settling.

Shane is sixteen. He and his brothers came to Marion House through another Living Water ministry. He has been under Living Water care since he was a baby and is now in Form Four. Like many other students, he is not too crazy about school. He likes cars though, and would like to get into mechanics. He eventually wants to own a mechanics business.

Clint, nineteen, has moved out of Marion House after spending two years there. He is studying on scholarship at Roytec. Very independent and self-sufficient, Clint considers himself an entrepreneur. He wants to own his own business, a club, and is working towards it. He has a clear idea of his goal and remains focussed.