Providence Care

In third semester, our writing and documentary class joined together for our Location Feature (writing) and Sense of Place (documentary) and arranged a day or two of shooting where we visited a Providence Care Long Term facility. Pictures and article are below.

KINGSTON, Ont. (03/11/10)-VOCEC (Voices, Opportunities & Choices Employment Club) is an employment agency for people involved with Providence Care's mental health services. It offers a broad range of employment including the Card Factory, Hands on Car Wash and the Kibble Klub. Photos by Leah Myers.

In a large pot in an industrial kitchen, several potatoes are boiling. Four people, two men and two women, who had worked hard peeling the sack of potatoes, take a break. Shortly following, a late lunch or early supper is served to employees of VOCEC (Voices, Opportunities and Choices Employment Club) after they’re finished work for the day. The kitchen is well equipped with utensils and supplies, and the smell of cooking and the clanging of dishes being set on the tables lets employees know their food is almost ready.

Several people line up and drop a toonie in the lunch tin, and a server hands people a meal of pork chops, mashed potatoes and baked beans, topped with pie for desert.

Down the hall from the dining room, there’s a poem hanging on the wall by a woman named of Carol A. Mieras,  who was sexually assaulted at the age of nine, and suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result. The poem is surrounded by many masks, all painted in different colours and styles. The first paragraph of the poem reads:

‘Please do not judge me by the mask I wear

For it covers my soul

It hides the part of that laughs out loud,

Runs in the rain

And loves with an unimagined intensity’

VOCEC is a social enterprise at 525 Montreal St, Kingston that runs several small businesses. Earlier in the day, across the way at 525 Montreal St., four men, employees of ‘Hands On Carwash’ are cleaning a blue SUV. The men clean the car until it’s so shiny they are watching themselves in the reflection of the car. The men work in blue, one-piece uniforms. One man cleans a car window with a cloth while another man hoses down the car on the opposite side, allowing the mist of the spray to disperse as it falls on the vehicle. They follow a basic strategy to clean the car in a way they know pleases customers, using the mechanical portion of their brains.

The second verse of the poem by Carol A. Mieras reads-

‘Please do not judge me by the mask I wear

For I cannot always see without it

As it has become a part of who I am

A shield from the things that scare me

That invade my world so few understand‘

The Card Factory is another small business managed through VOCEC. This business specializes in producing creative, handmade cards from recycled materials. A quiet woman with blonde-hair, working at the Card Factory, sits behind a large desk, littered with old Christmas bags, sparkle, glitter, glue and bristol board. She spends time doing repetitive actions, such as cutting out the rectangular shapes from cardboard, relying on a mechanical part of her brain. Sometimes, however, she is making decisions, such as which colours to put together... and this uses a creative portion of her brain. When the woman finishes a card, she stops for a few moments and admires her work.

The third verse of the poem by Carol A. Mieras reads-

‘Please do not judge me by the mask I wear

For we all have masks that guard us

Hide our insecurities

Protect us from those that might hurt us

And shields our inner soul from the burning sun”

In another lot, across from VOCEC’s employment agencies, there are art and hobbyist rooms as well as the dining area. This is not a small business, but there are crafts rooms where people can do their own artwork and then are encouraged to sell their work during garage sales.

One man sits in the art room, cluttered with painting, sculptures and posters. There are art supplies sprawled on desks; paint brushes, canvases, beads, wood workings. The man sits before a white canvas, and after eating an orange, starts his painting with a single, rugged-looking man’s hand. He works from a part of the brain that stimulates creativity, and he expresses himself through the free flow of his paintbrush.

The last paragraph of the poem hanging the wall, surrounded by masks, reads-

“Please do not judge me for the mask I wear
For it is only my illness
And it is not who I am” The author of this poem suffered from PTSD, and like her, most of the individuals employed with Voices, Opportunities and Choices Employment Club have suffered a trauma in their lifetime that’s triggered a defense mechanism to kick in and affect their everyday thoughts and behaviours. VOCEC, managed through Providence care, provides employment for consumers of mental health and curbs unemployment and homelessness as a result of mental illness.