ICYA Raw

In this episode we are joined by Cindy Molacek and and Aleah Isaak. Cindy will tell us a unique story about her trip to Jerusalem, while Aleah will continue the topic of good supports from last episode. 

In this episode we hear from John Vasili, Howard Jolly, and John Janzen. John Vasili speaks about his trip back to Africa and the importance of knowing your roots. Howard Jolly speaks in response to the bodies of 215 children found in Kamloops. John Janzen speaks about the importance of good support systems. 

Welcome to Season 2 of ICYA Raw! Enjoy stories told by our own Executive Director Kent Dueck, and both the familiar and new voices of ICYA Raw. 

It's the last day of 2020 so in this interview we talk to Emma J. who works in the ICYA Drop-In. We talk about her very eventful year - a year that included a 3-month sabbatical, the loss of a friend, the end of a relationship, along with some lessons learned and new energy for what is in store in 2021. 

Director of Development at ICYA, John Janzen, shares a sermon from a previous Christmas, about how Christmas itself reveals a God who doesn't avoid difficult situations, but instead, runs toward them. 

One of our Community Ministers, Jeremy Zehr,  sits down for an interview with Jonas, a young guy from the community that Jeremy has known for a decade.  About Jonas, Jeremy says:"I have known Jonas for 10 years.  He grew up in and lives in the North End.  Jonas has been a pillar for his family as a young man and continues to show perseverance and resilience as he continues to grow personally, relationally, vocationally, and spiritually."

This is the first in a series of ICYA Christmas Features, a few short podcast episodes to accompany you through your holiday isolation. First up we have Andrew Reimer, a long-time Community Minister at ICYA, who wrote a poem a few years ago called This Isn't Bethlehem. In it Andrew explores the collision of joyful "Christmas values" with the difficult situations and pain that are a daily reality in the inner city - a reality that doesn't go away at Christmas time. 

John and JJ sit down to talk about about John's life journey - from life as as a four-year-old escaping civil war in east Africa to the streets of Winnipeg and the ICYA drop-in. 

In this episode, recorded in August 2019, Ronald Traverse proposes a theory on why the gang life has become somewhat less attractive to the youth he works with - online gaming is better, and fills some similar need. 

Kent sits down for a chat with Sel Burrows who lives in Point Douglas and has spent his life advocating for social change in the inner city. 

This week Kent talks to Vern DeLaronde and Joe Munro, two long-time North Enders who formed a group called the First Nations Indigenous Warriors. FNIW can frequently be seen around the North End getting involved in situations where help is needed. 

Our Executive Director Kent Dueck sits down to speak with Lawrence Letander, an RCMP officer from Dauphin River, about his experience working as a police officer while many advocate to Defund the Police. 

Ronald and Harvey work at ICYA, Ronald in the drop-in and Harvey as a community outreach worker. Before his life went in a significantly different direction, Ronald ran with the Indian Posse , a well-known Winnipeg gang. Harvey has been connecting for years with gang members in our neighbourhood, on the streets, and in local correctional institutions. Here the two of them talk about snitching culture and the effect that it has on our community. Apologies for the poor audio in this one. The recording stopped and we were left with only the audio from an iphone we were using to record some of the video. Won't happen again (we hope)!

In March, just before COVID hit, Bob did a week-long training event at ICYA. This podcast is the message he gave at a public event we held at Canadian Mennonite University about the meth crisis in Winnipeg, and how it relates to what they do in Tierra Nueva, which is located in Burlington, WA. Bob and Gracie Ekblad are the Founders and Senior Leaders of Tierra Nueva. They pastor and teach locally and internationally, bridging divergent worlds inside and outside of the Church. Their calling is to help recruit, equip, and empower people to communicate good news about God's love that combines Word, Spirit, and Street perspectives at the service of people on the margins.

This episode features the life story of Melvina Guiboche. Melvina grew up surrounded by gangs, addiction, and the pain related to the issues of generational trauma. But God showed up and told her a different story about who she really is. Melvina now works as a community outreach worker at ICYA. 

Executive Director Kent Dueck sits down to chat with Jeremy Zehr and Harvey Rempel, community outreach workers at ICYA who spend a lot of time with at-risk and gang-affected youth in the North End of Winnipeg. Jeremy and Harvey describe some of their work and how it has been affected by the COVID crisis this year.