We invite you to join Liberty For Youth as we host our Sixth Annual “Power of A Changed Life” Dinner and Silent Auction Fundraiser on Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010. Enjoy fantastic food and great silent auction gifts for your Christmas list. Best of all come and hear powerful testimonies from youth who are experiencing positive changes in their lives because of Liberty For Youth.

Our key note speaker will be Katy Hutchison from B.C. Katy is a concerned parent and restorative justice advocate with a compelling, real life story. She also is the author of Walking After Midnight. The intent of this event is to inspire and encourage the Hamilton community that a difference can and is being made among our marginalized youth.

Liberty For Youth along with the RBC is hosting their Second Annual Barbeque to help raise awareness of the RBC’s charitable initiatives within the community. Taking place this Friday, June 25th from 11:00AM to 3:00PM, this free event is being held at the RBC branch located on 545 Rymal Rd. East in Hamilton.

The barbeque will see the RBC Foundation present Liberty For Youth with a cash donation of $7,500 to help the organization continue its work within the community. “RBC’s financial support in the past has provided programming, transportation and scholarships for over 190 at-risk youth.” said Frederick Dryden, Executive Director of Liberty For Youth. “The donation being presented truly shows the RBC’s commitment to the work our organization is doing by helping to change the lives of at-risk youth.”

To date, the RBC Foundation has donated $25,000 to Liberty For Youth, “I have seen firsthand the tremendous positive impact Liberty For Youth is having on at-risk youth.” Said Ken Palmateer, the RBC’s Branch Manager, “Their focus is very grass roots when it comes to education, mentoring and personal support of these youth in any way that encourages the buy in and success of the youth.” The community and the media is invited to attend this free barbeque event. There will be a mini basketball tournament and prize draws.

About Liberty For Youth Liberty For Youth is a non-profit, charitable organization that has been successful in helping all types of youth. Our mission is to provide alternatives for youth who are influenced by a negative environment, and to inspire them to make positive decisions to escape and or avoid a life of poverty, drugs and criminal activities.

Media Advisory | July 10, 2010

Local Organization Hosts Community Basketball Fundraiser
The Liberty & Justice Unity Basketball Event 2010

As youth violence continues to grapple the streets of Hamilton, one organization hopes to bring city youth together with local Police for a community event. On Saturday, July 10th, 2010 from Noon until 4:00PM, Liberty For Youth host the 5^th Annual Police and Youth Unity Basketball Event Fundraiser. Taking place at Cathedral High School, 30 Wentworth Street North this event will help raise money to provide post secondary scholarships and programs for at-risk youth. For a cost of $10.00, the event includes a lunch; an All Star Dunk Contest; an All Star Three Point Contest, a half time dance show featuring Hamilton’s own Ill-usion Dance Crew and of course the main event, the Unity Basketball Game between the Hamilton Police and Liberty Prodigal Sonz. There will also be a draw for a family getaway package sponsored by Via Rail. The goal of this event is to strengthen the relationship between the Hamilton Police and youth within the community.

The Hamilton Police, led by former NBA Draft pick and Police Sgt. Barry Mungar, hope to win the best of five series with the score now tied at two a piece. Liberty For Youth’s Prodigal Sonz are a team of Hamilton All Star players that also includes formally incarcerated youth. Coached by the Principal of the Hamilton District Christian High school, George Van Kampen, their hope is to win the series but more importantly to establish reconciliation and respect for law enforcement.

All members of the media are invited to join the event. There will be one-on-one interview opportunities as well as video and photo ops.

About Liberty For Youth
Liberty For Youth is a non-profit, charitable organization that has been successful in helping all types of youth. Our mission is to provide alternatives for youth who are influenced by a negative environment, and to inspire them to make positive decisions to escape and or avoid a life of poverty, drugs and criminal activities. For more information please visit website www.libertyforyouth.org.

What: The 5^th Annual Liberty & Justice Unity Basketball Event
When: Saturday, July 10th – NOON to 4PM
Where: Cathedral High School – 30 Wentworth Street North

Media Contact
Frederick Dryden
Executive Director
Liberty For Youth
905-297-7929
frederick@libertyforyouth.org

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On the court, they are just a bunch of sweaty guys hoping to win a game.

Off the court, they are street kids. And cops.

“There are no shields. No street thugs in a game,” says a clean-cut 20-year-old named Stewart Cameron. “Everyone is in shorts and a T-shirt.”

Tomorrow, Stewart will play his third basketball game benefitting Liberty for Youth, a homegrown outreach program that gets youth out of jail, off the street and on the right path.

With his close-cropped hair, neatly pressed shirt and shined shoes, it would be easy to assume Stewart will wear a police jersey for the big game.

In fact, he’ll square off against some of the very officers who used to put him in jail.

“I hated cops. I called them pigs. I spat on them. I broke their car windows. Now I shake their hand and say, ‘Thank you.’ ”

Hard to imagine he was ever a badass. That it took Liberty, basketball and — most of all — Jesus Christ to turn things around.

Stewart struggles to remember the sordid details of his tough and troubled life. Much is a blur.

There was the dad. He liked to drink and rarely left their east Mountain house.

Mom was addicted to prescription drugs. Lived in a haze.

Stewart was the last of five kids. His early years were spent in his room. He wasn’t allowed outside much.

In Grade 7, Stewart made the wrong friends. He was angry and mouthy. There were suspensions and fights. When school called home, dad capped things off with “a whoopin’.”

When he was 13, Stewart punched a hole in the wall during an argument with his dad. Police were called and thus began his long relationship with them. He was escorted out of the house with his knapsack and a grocery bag stuffed with clothes. For a while, Stewart slept in the big plastic tubes attached to children’s playground structures. That was in December. It was a step up when he started couch surfing at friends’ houses.

“I’d eat as much as I could while I was there.”

He was drinking and smoking weed. By 15, he was shoplifting. Shoes, laptops, Xboxes, food.

Some loot was for his own use. Most was to sell on the street.

“I found out I was good at it,” he says. “I know that’s bad.”

It took a year of stealing before he got caught. From then on he was in and out of jail, serving time for everything from theft to possession of marijuana to impaired driving to assault.

He was expelled from Grade 10. When he was 17, his mom died.

At the hospital, the day she died, Stewart met his mom’s sister for the very first time. She is a God-fearing woman with God-fearing children. Stewart liked this newfound family. He moved in with them. Went to church with them.

“I thought it was whack,” he says. “All that hand clapping and stuff … I was hung over every time. There was alcohol on my breath. Sometimes I was still drunk.”

This was at Victory International, a Pentecostal church. One Sunday, a preacher from the U.S. paid a visit. He pulled Stewart out of the pews. Talked about his life as if he knew him. Laid hands on him.

“And I felt the power of the Holy Spirit and I accepted Jesus into my heart,” Stewart says.

He was 18.

After that, he still got into trouble. Went to jail a few more times. Possession of marijuana with the intent to traffic, among other things.

“I was just trying to party up.”

When he was 19, and on bail, he went to the gym for some pickup basketball. A guy he played took exception to his cussing. Told him to watch his mouth. After the game that guy introduced himself as Brother Frederick Dryden. He led a group called Liberty for Youth. He helped kids like Stewart. He passed on his phone number.

“Stewart was a smart-mouthed street kid,” Frederick says. “I could see the anger and aggression he was expressing on the court.”

The next time Stewart was in jail he phoned Brother Frederick. They started talking twice a week. When he got out, Brother Frederick was there for him. Indeed, he’s been there for more than 150 Hamilton boys he’s helped pull out of jail or gangs.

Stewart got his high school diploma. Quit drinking and drugs. Stopped breaking the law. Now he’s doing Bible studies full time and plans to go to Bible college.

“I’ve grown in my relationship with Christ. I’m called to be a pastor.”

He says his church will not be a fancy cathedral with stained glass windows. “It will be real.”

Tomorrow, though, he will be on a basketball court. Taking on the cops, and — he grins — winning.

THE GAME

Liberty Prodigal Sonz vs. Hamilton Police

at Cathedral High School

Tomorrow, 12:30 p.m.

Tickets are $10 with proceeds benefitting Liberty for Youth

Susan Clairmont’s commentary appears regularly in The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com 905-526-3539

The Hamilton Spectator | Suzanne Bourret (Oct 9, 2008)

Two groups of guys get together every summer for a basketball game at Cathedral High School.

In the Liberty & Justice Unity Basketball, the bad guys play the good guys — young offenders against police officers, some of whom were their arresting officers.

The score isn’t important. Hamilton Police versus Liberty Prodigal Sonz is a game that promotes respect and reconciliation and breaks down barriers.

The event is part of Liberty for Youth, an organization providing outreach programs for young men who have experienced turmoil and setbacks in their lives.

Launched by Frederick Dryden in 2003, the organization has already garnered national attention. Last November, Brother Frederick, as he is known, received the Canadian Living Me To We Award, given to those whose compassion and commitment have made a real difference in the lives of Canadians. He won in the social action category, which celebrates people who are attacking the causes of social, economic or political issues.

Frederick was nominated by Hamilton school principal Mary Kelly and gave his award money of $5,000 to Victory International Church on Barton Street East, for expansion of its children’s ministry.

Liberty for Youth provides free leadership training, character development, life skills and community involvement to young men struggling with drugs, gangs, family problems or incarceration. Frederick attends court hearings with youth and sometimes even turns them in.

The former education investment counsellor knows what his young charges go through. He came from Jamaica in the mid-1980s when he was 13 and the youngest of seven. His father worked two jobs and slowly, one by one, sent for his children.

When abuse by a babysitter became too tough, he took off and lived on Toronto streets for 10 years. He wanted a better life and eventually worked at a number of jobs and started going to church. He saved his money and studied economics at York University and business management at Ryerson University.

Frederick found a good job and was inspired by a sermon on human behaviour, lawlessness and the need to assume responsibility in life. That, and meeting the woman who would become his wife, changed his life.

He became a counsellor and Bible-study teacher at youth detention centres. Five years ago, he met a 15-year-old who had come to a session at the Barton Street jail because he was bored. He talked, and Frederick listened.

“I heard and saw myself and realized how fortunate I was. He was the one who fuelled my passion to found Liberty for Youth,” he says.

They became friends and when the teen was released from prison at 17, Frederick encouraged him to finish high school and return to his family. The teen received a scholarship from Liberty for Youth last year and is studying aviation at a community college.

“When I came from Jamaica, I was so fortunate to receive so much as an immigrant,” Frederick says. “My role as a Christian is to give back and put my faith in action.”

He becomes emotional when he describes seeing the high fives on the court between cops and young offenders and especially one young offender who has cleaned himself up.

“Seeing this guy and the cop do a tough grab-and-squeeze handshake and hearing the officer telling the youth, ‘I knew you had it in you,’ was the best moment for me,” says Frederick.

His goal is to build a residential home in the country for at-risk youth 16 to 21 years old. He and his team have raised $57,000 through three benefits and a $12,500 donations from RBC Foundation.

The fourth Power of a Changed Life fundraising dinner is Friday, Nov. 7, at the Festival Banquet Centre, 747 King St. E. Guest speaker is Ellen Campbell, founder and executive director of the Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness. Tickets are $30. Call 905-297-7929.

sbourret@thespec.com

905-526-3305

http://www.thespec.com/article/447706