'I can't do it on my own': inmates in need of mentors face a long wait list

Tony Vanderwal fondly remembers one of the inmates he first began to mentor 30 years ago. 

"Joe was only a teenager when I first got him," the 86-year-old farmer said over the phone from his home in Abbotsford, B.C.

Vanderwal says Joe became a drug mule to pay off some debts he had incurred to help out his mother. 

He was busted, along with three other men in the same situation, as soon as he landed in Vancouver on a flight from his home in Macau. 

Like all the men he works with, Vanderwal met with Joe about once a week while he was in jail, and later helped him as he integrated back into regular society in Vancouver. 

The mentoring is volunteer work he's been doing with non-profit organization M2W2 for 50 years now. 

"There's no use throwing them in the trash can because we as a community are responsible for those, well what do you say, have-nots," he said.

"They've made bad decisions in their life. And how do you change them so they make good decisions?"

Volunteers aging out

Vanderwal reckons he has helped more than a dozen inmates during his time. But he's one of many volunteers now aging out of M2W2.

"When most of my volunteers have been doing this for 20 years, it means that they are moving more into the senior range," said the organization's executive director Raymond Robyn. 

"And so that does create a concern for me."

Robyn says since he took over the helm of M2W2 three years ago, he has made a strategic push to boost the number of new volunteers. Since then, the numbers have more than doubled to 275.

But the organization still has a list of 254 incarcerated offenders looking for mentors to help them prepare for life in the community. 

Other organizations like the John Howard and Elizabeth Fry societies provide similar assistance for prisoners and ex-convicts. 

"We are seeing more and more offenders saying, 'I need mentorship,'" he said.

'A big bunch of bitterness'

Part of the issue, according to Robyn, is a lack of individualized services and support from Correctional Services Canada (CSC).

"I think they are completely swamped. Corrections Canada provides the corrections. They do not provide community support," he said.

One-on-one mentorship is a need M2W2 volunteer coordinator Pascal Adam, 62, is familiar with. 

Adam is a recovering alcoholic, 23 years sober, who first began volunteering with M2W2 20 years ago and now works in a paid position. 

"I was a product of the residential school, of sexual abuse, of physical abuse, and because of my very short time in residential school I was very bitter towards society," Adam said. 

"There was a big bunch of bitterness that really pushed me into doing violent things and drinking and all that kind of stuff."

It was a mentor who helped Adam get sober and turn his life around, and then who later got him involved with M2W2. 

"Somebody took the time to actually give me a direction, you know, to mentor me in a certain way. And I think that was the key for me," he said. 

'Normal, easy-going people'

Adam now uses his experience to guide his work with the thousands of inmates he has helped over the years. 

He says by the time the inmates apply for a mentor, most of them have already taken part in some of the many programs offered by CSC. 

"Usually once these guys start to get their heads cleared of the cobwebs of addictions and stuff like that, most of them are normal, easy going people," he said.

The help volunteers offer usually comes in the form of meeting with inmates to chat, to go over any training they have gotten, and to prepare them for life outside. 

"So many of the guys that are incarcerated end up losing touch with society as a whole," Adam said. 

Not all those who apply are accepted into the program, according to Robyn. Only those who have come to terms with their crime, the harm it has caused, and their impact on society become successful candidates. 

'I can't do it on my own'

That's a policy Darrel Feldtman agrees with. 

He's been living in Vancouver for about a year after working with an M2W2 mentor while serving an 18-month sentence for assault. 

"I thought about why I was there and what I've got to do different for myself," Feldtman said.

"And that was to ask other people for help, and sometimes I can't do it on my own."

While he was in jail, Feldtman lost his girlfriend, his home and all of his belongings. But M2W2 helped him put together a "starter kit" that included work clothes, work boots and furniture. 

He got started in construction a week later and is now looking to get additional certification to work his way up. 

His advice for anyone curious about volunteering is simple. 

"A lot of it is just being able to help another human being and help them get back on their feet," he said.