The name Five/Fourteen is a dual nod to May 14, which is recognized as Children and Youth In Care Day, and also to May 14, 2019, which marks the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexual acts in Canada. It also happens to be Lucas’s birthday. He remembers being in the system and feeling a sense of doom on each birthday. For he and many others in the system, birthdays represent a countdown to when they will age-out of the system and be left to fend for themselves. Canada’s first and only foster care agency geared to LGBTQ youth. It currently operates in London and Windsor. The agency offers placement services in these two cities because of the medical programs available there for transgender youth. Five/Fourteen has licensing to offer 60 beds for LGBTQ foster youth from the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services. Studies have shown LGBTQ foster youth are at greater risk for sexual abuse, physical and verbal assault and suicide. Revealing their sexual identity can lead to emotional upheaval in their foster home. Anyone interested in being a foster parent with Five/Fourteen or interested in learningmore can go to their website at fivefourteen.ca .
Lucas Medina grew up in foster care provided through a Catholic- based children’s aid society in Toronto. His foster family forced him to get baptized at 10 even though he wasn’t Catholic. His foster mom would rent out his room to foreign exchange students for months at a time, leaving him to sleep on the floor. Never a warm, friendly environment, the worst came when he was 16 and they learned he was gay. His foster mom told him he was no longer part of the family and to stop calling her mom. A year later, he was out on his own. “I had to leave, I honestly didn’t feel safe there,” he said. “Every day I wondered if I would come home and find my stuff at the curb. It was pretty overwhelming. I had a lot of depression.”says Lucas. Medina says toomany LGBTQ youth experience similar emotional abuse when they come out to either parents or foster parents. Lucas Medina – Co-Founder and Executive Director and Chad Craig – Co-Founder and Operations Director are changing the lives of foster children who fall along what Medina calls the rainbow spectrum. Five/Fourteen— is a foster placement agency focused on providing a safe space for youth who identify under any part of the LGBTQ2A acronym.
“When we heard about Five Fourteen we were very impressed with goals of the agency especially as we learned of the risk factors faced by LGBTQ youth in the foster care system. We are fortunate to have a larger home and we felt we could provide a safe, supportive and comfortable home environment.” “We have had great support from Lucas and Chad from Five Fourteen. They are very invested in the success of youth involved it the program and supporting the parents.”
David Heaton and Pat Shanahan have been foster Dads through Five Four- teen since December 2017:
Juno Award Winner Jeremy Dutcher – Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa
Nominated for Indigenous Music Album of the Year 2019 at this year’s Juno’s, Jeremy Dutcher is a performer, composer, activist and musicologist. These roles are all infused into Jeremy Dutcher’s art. His music, too, transcends boundaries: unapologetically playful in its incorporation of classical influences, full of reverence for the traditional songs of his home and teeming with the urgency of modern-day struggles of resistance. If you’re not traveling to Spain, France, New York or the U.K. where Jeremy has upcoming tour dates, maybe you can catch him at the Stan Rogers Folk Festival in Canso, Ontario in July, at Westben in Campbellford Ontario in August or the Woody Point Heritage Theatre in Bon Bay, Newfoundland in August or visit https://jeremydutcher.com
PRIDE Villager
Page 11 Issue 2 • Spring 2019
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