Hoodlinc founder works to escape his own past so he can help others

August 6, 2008 at 5:32 AM EDT

As Brian Henry lay handcuffed and facedown on the ground in his Malvern apartment in May, it occurred to the youth worker that he would never be able to escape his past.

“I’m still viewed in a certain light and that depiction of me for a very small period of my life is going to follow me for a lot longer than I ever wanted it to,” he said.

After spending several years of his life in and out of police custody, mostly on assault charges, Mr. Henry, 32, has been working tirelessly for the past six years trying to help youth affected by gang activity, crime and violence.

In 2004 he founded Hoodlinc, a support system for at-risk youth that has received several hundred thousand dollars of funding from a variety of private and public organizations, including the Toronto Police Services, Indigo Books & Music Inc., and the provincial government’s Youth Challenge Fund.

One of the program’s components, Project ROSE, is for youth who have trouble attending school and is in partnership with the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Yesterday, Project ROSE received an injection of additional funding from the Youth Challenge Fund.

But despite the promise of additional funding, the past three months have been trying for Mr. Henry.

On May 17, police raided his apartment on the strength of a search warrant stating they had reason to believe there was a gun in the apartment.

None was found, but he was charged with possession of marijuana and subsequently suspended from his job working with the Toronto Catholic District School Board, standard protocol for an employee facing charges.

At Mr. Henry’s first court appearance in June, the drug charge was dropped and he was restored to his position by early July.

“I have worked tirelessly to rid my community of that behaviour and so it was a shock they could come into my home believing they would find weapons,” he said in a telephone interview yesterday.

During the police raid, he said, officers broke down his apartment door just after midnight. His wife was upstairs with three of their children, one of whom was only three weeks old.

His other two children were downstairs watching television and screamed when police entered.

“It was an absolute mess,” he recalled.

Mr. Henry wonders why police, with whom he had been in regular contact during his community work, would go to such drastic measures to investigate what he called an anonymous tip.

“You can’t just get a phone call about somebody and go and kick in their door,” he said. “When that starts happening, this is no longer Canada.”

When called for comment yesterday, Toronto police corporate communications referred a reporter to 42 Division, but officers at 42 Division referred the reporter back to communications, which then did not return phone calls.

Yesterday, the provincial government’s Youth Challenge Fund announced that Project ROSE would be one of six inner-city initiatives approved to receive a portion of $4.8-million. The specific amount was not available yesterday but will be finalized in the coming weeks.

Executive director Pamela Grant said the fund was aware of Mr. Henry’s drug charge when it considered Hoodlinc’s application and waited until the charges were dropped to officially approve the submission.

“That was discussed very carefully at the board as it was making its decision,” she said.

Mr. Henry, who was also featured as a role model in EMPz 4 Life, a 2006 documentary about four teenagers in the Malvern neighbourhood around Empringham Drive, said the approved funds will help increase the space needed for Project ROSE by expanding the facilities at Monsignor Fraser Alternative School.

“To have that space there, to be able to draw youth from all those communities will have a fairly significant impact on the Scarborough community as a whole.”

While local gang members have made it clear to him he’s not appreciated for the work he does, Mr. Henry refuses to let up. One of the youth who helped prepare the submission to the fund was Keyon Campbell, a 16-year-old shot dead outside his home on Dec. 2.

“These are my kids that I’ve cried with, bled with – everything – for the last six years,” he said. “I don’t want to pick up and leave.”

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