“Minimum wage is not something to dismiss, but when your rent is $1,500 or more a month — and rents up here have gone through the roof lately — it won’t go very far,” he said.
His alternative school on Eby Street has 105 students, ages 14 to 18, and many of them fit the designation of being vulnerable and impoverished.
“They have got significant challenges in their lives, which makes it difficult for them to function in a regular school. There are lots of mental health challenges for our kids, everything from anxiety to depression and some substance abuse,” Axelson said.
Many of his students rely on the school for their basic needs of food, clothing and personal hygiene items, he says.
“Lots of our kids live below the poverty line and rely heavily on social services to make ends meet,” he explained.
And some live independently on ministry youth agreements while others use the school as a base as they go away for treatment.
A few students are technically homeless and couch surfing, and the school connects them with child and youth mental health services and other community resources.
It all adds up to a student population that needs a great deal of help, both while they are at school and also while they are not.
His students in need of winter clothes have been mostly relying on donated clothes, but sometimes the clothes don’t fit.
Adopt-A-School help would allow him to purchase new clothes, coats, gloves, toques, shoes and boots.
“We see kids coming to school in shoes with the bottoms coming off being duct-taped back on, or wearing the same clothes over and over again. We do offer in-house laundry for kids so we can help them wash their clothes.
“Also, our kids don’t have the funds at home for bus passes. There are no free bus passes to enable kids to get here on city buses.”
As this affects attendance, he wants to do whatever he can to get them into the building.
“For a lot of our kids, this school is the only stable environment they know. So, we try to do whatever we can to support them so they can come to school, get an education and hopefully improve their life circumstances.”