SR Vol 27 No 3, July 2009 - Nova Scotia Barristers' Society

kudos
Sarah MacLaren,
Executive Director, LOVE NS
Sarah Bradfield
Nova Scotia Department of Justice
You’ve gotta have a
dream, to have a
dream come true.
Sarah MacLaren has a dream and she believes it can come true.
That belief has allowed her to take a model that started in Montreal
and make it work in Halifax. Leave Out ViolencE (LOVE) is a
violence prevention and intervention organization that works
with youth who have experienced any form of violence, be it as
victim, witness or perpetrator. LOVE strives to provide a voice
to youth, to help them find alternatives to violence and to end
the cycle of learned violence through youth educating youth.
Sarah launched the first LOVE Nova Scotia photojournalism program
in January 2000 with no staff, no office, just a handful of volunteers and
a strong belief in the work to be accomplished. As executive director of
LOVE Nova Scotia, she has taken that first group of 18 young people
and created one of the region’s most successful youth organizations.
She now has an office and staff to help her, but it’s not like most offices.
At LOVE, the staff are thrilled to be there, hugs are commonplace
and there is a palpable feeling of caring in the air. It is a place of
respect and trust for, and among, all those who enter. Under Sarah’s
guidance, LOVE NS allows young people to find their way through
the programs available, determine their own path and progress at
their own rate. She has absolute faith that the solutions to problems
faced by youth are held within young people themselves. In many
ways, it is Sarah’s perspective on youth that makes the difference.
“Every young person is gifted, not broken,” she says. LOVE is not
there to fix youth, but to help them better express their innate gifts.
Not only has Sarah helped create and sustain one of the area’s most
successful youth programs, she has also become an invaluable resource
to the youth justice community. Sarah and LOVE youth have been
involved with or spoken to many diverse organizations, from the
Mayor’s Roundtable on Violence and Public Safety to the Nunn
Commission of Inquiry and the Nova Scotia Youth Secretariat. They
have provided comment on the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Sarah is
also on the board of the Nova Scotia Criminal Justice Association,
a group that will be hosting a national congress on criminal justice
this October. Somehow she also finds time to facilitate successful
workshops and retreats focusing on youth issues and is on the Steering
Committee of Envision Halifax, a network of community leaders.
There can be no doubt that Sarah and LOVE have managed to
engage youth in need. LOVE has an exceptional retention rate,
with over 90 per cent of young people staying with the programs
on a fully voluntary basis. Beyond the programs that have been
provided to dozens and dozens of youth over the past nine years,
LOVE Youth Leaders have gone on to educate hundreds more
citizens, young and old, through LOVE Outreach sessions.
Outreach sessions are conducted through partnerships with
30 The Society Record