The following is an excerpt from the Toronto Star - Wednesday March 21, 2001
Passionate Volunteer lauded for youth work; shelter champion honoured with Macphail Award
Grace Stephens is passion.
Incredible passion for everything in which she becomes involved her church, her community and particularly youth in distress. It's a passion that has won her many friends, many more admirers and this year's Agnes Macphail Award for selfish service to East New York.
The award, to be presented Saturday at the East York Civic Centre, honours Macphail, who became Canada's first female member of Parliament in 1921 and championed women's rights long before the cause became fashionable.
"I think we are kindred spirits" Stephens 51, said of Macphail, who died in 1954. "I have a passion for doing things and making sure that they get done. And I am a rights person rights for everybody," she said . "I believe in equality, not just gender, but equality of all peoples."
Stephens came to Canada in 1973 from the Caribbean island of St. Vincent to study at the University of Toronto. Since then, she has worn many hats, toiling as a mentor and counsellor for youth and, for a time, as a volunteer probation officer. She's now a programs and services officer for the federal Human Resources Development Commission.
"I am getting this award for doing things I enjoy," she said.
Much of her time and energy over the past decade has been spent at Touchstone Youth Center, a Pape Ave. shelter for homeless youth. Selling the idea to the neighbourhood was among her hardest tasks.
The NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) crowd appeared swiftly.
"I went around, knocked on the doors and talked to neighbours to let them know it wasn't the end of the world. It was a wonderful thing that was happening. people has visions of jailbirds and all that kind of thing coming here. But that simply isn't the case.
"Young people are our future, and how they turn out is our responsibility too."
Kids don't just turn out bad, says Stephens, who sees a need to address the root causes. "No kid would just leave a perfect home and run away," she said. There's often abuse, whether it's physical, psychological, emotional, whatever. "Sometimes kids just need a hug, somebody to listen to them. Maybe sometimes they just need to be talked to and given advice, instead of being shouted at."
That's what Touchstone offers youth a bed, a meal, a place to talk. Sabine Wood, Touchstone's executive director, admires Stephens' humble approach. "I can pick up a telephone and whether it is something I need for immediately or in three weeks, she doesn't say no," Wood said. "And whether she is meeting Hillary Weston or a homeless kid, she treats everybody with equality.
"If there's a crisis in the community, Grace will be there. She will call everybody and will say, " All hands on deck," and that means we have got to be here to help," she said.
"I love this lady."
Though Stephens is still a ball of fire, a heart attack two years ago forced her to cool it a little. "I just got worn out," she said. "I was doing too much and I think God wanted me to slow down." "Life is an education," she said; "And I am still learning."
ILLUSTRATION BUILDING A PLACE FOR YOUTH: Grace Stephens hangs out in the games room of the Touchstone Youth Centre, to which she has devoted much of the past decade.
