Riguerre Antoine, pioneer of Rivière-des-Prairies

“Do you want fries? ” During lunch time at Jean-Grou High School in Rivière-des-Prairies, many people met Antoine Riguerre and greeted him. Some even offer him a taste of what they have just bought at the IGA in front of the school.

The Converse presents “The wisdom of Hood ”, a series that gives voice to pillars that embody the living memory of Montreal's various neighborhoods. If Riguerre is known to young people in his part of the island, it is not for nothing: he has more than 25 years of experience working with young people in Rivière-des-Prairies.

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Simple citizen

A Wednesday noon like any other. The bell at Jean-Grou High School rings, indicating lunch break. Very close to the school, Riguerre Antoine puts on his fluorescent yellow safety vest that makes him visible among the crowd of teenagers who go out to eat.

The patrol begins. Occasionally, young people greet him or nod their heads when they see him. “I like to describe myself as a simple citizen of Rivière-des-Prairies,” said Riguerre as he walked. Arriving in Montreal in 1985 from Haiti, the 47-year-old man grew up in the neighborhood. “I am a young man from here. I did my elementary, high school and college in the neighborhood,” he describes.

At the beginning of adulthood, Riguerre assisted and participated in the founding ofTeam RDP, an organization dedicated to social development and to improving the quality of life of the population of Montreal and its surroundings by offering recreation and social intervention programs. He participates in several prevention projects where young people are placed at the heart of the organization's goals.

Intervening with young people, a pioneer of Équipe RDP, former high school coordinator and rapper in his spare time, Riguerre wears many hats. Today, he presents himself as a simple individual from his neighborhood. Too humble to admit it, however, he is perceived here by some as a “legend”, a man who has the streets of the North-East of the Island in his heart.

For Riguerre, it is important to understand that his career in the community has trained him to be an intermediary between young people and the street. “It is above all the connections I have with the people in my neighborhood that have made me where I am today. It's not my background at school or anything, it's really who I am to these people,” he explains.

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The reality of the east of the island

It is by knowing its community that Riguerre reaches her and has a real influence. “I know the difficulties that young people here will go through, especially young people who come from immigrant families and young people who, like me, come from public housing in Rivière-des-Prairies,” he says. When you know your people, you know how to help them. You know what they need, and you know how to adapt your intervention with them.”

What distinguishes his neighborhood from the rest of the city, according to the speaker, is the erroneous perception that we have of it. “RDP is a rich neighborhood. If you go to Gouin, there are huge huts on the edge of the water, and if you go a little further, there are public housing. It's a rich neighborhood with pockets of poverty,” he explains. “When you look at the average wage per neighborhood, it doesn't reflect the inequalities that exist between the richest and the poorest,” he said.

In love with his neighborhood, he is however not unaware of the problems that plague the streets where he lived as a teenager.

“During the 1990s, the ideal meeting place was the street,” recalls Le Prairivois. “There were problems related to young people. I don't want to use the term “street gang” because I think it was primarily a lack of activities and opportunities for young people that created some problems,” he adds.

Another reality of the neighborhood is that it is a “dormant neighborhood,” says the forty-year-old. “It's like a kind of residential suburb. People who earn a lot of money don't work in the neighborhood, they go to work in Laval, across the bridge, or downtown, and then come back here to relax and spend the night. They don't Live not here,” he explains.

But what about the other residents in the neighborhood? “There is another “clientele”, believes Riguerre. There are those who live here, who send their children to neighborhood public schools. Maybe they are the ones who are experiencing some difficulties.”

“There is almost nothing for our young people. It's a suburban neighborhood, he repeats. There is little or no infrastructure for young people. You're going to sleep, you have your pool, you have your own business, but you don't have arcade games, you don't have a movie theater, you don't have these places and the spaces that exist.”

It is therefore becoming normal, according to the speaker, for young people who have no access to outside the neighborhood to feel isolated and abandoned.

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Prevention is better than cure

After having been at the forefront of observing what is happening to young people for more than twenty years, Riguerre believes that they are poorly represented when it comes to issues in the neighborhood. “It's like in a high school. If there are 5% of children who cause problems, from the outside, we will think that all the children in the school are the ones who are problem,” he compares.

In other words, the speaker believes that this generalization is one of the causes of the isolation of young people and their distrust of the institutions that are supposed to serve and protect them.

“There are some young people who are in some way supported by sports or other extracurricular activities, but there are still a small portion of adolescents who do not feel involved in this,” he continues. “It is clear that those who are not interested in anything else end up with a lot of free time. How do we manage these young people?” he asks.

You have to be realistic: some do not want to be supervised, says the Montrealer. “Neither by a youth center, nor by a sports team, nor by the school,” he lists. Drawing on his personal experience, he adds that he knew a lot of young people who lacked motivation. “It has always been a minority, but by involving them with all the young people in the neighborhood, you marginalize them. All young people in the neighborhood,” he insists.

How can we remedy this situation and help this “at-risk” minority? The citizen recalls that certain negative stereotypes should not be generalized. For example, when activities are organized, stakeholders pay attention to making them for all young people, not just some of them. “We do activities for young people, period. Not for vulnerable young people, not for disadvantaged young people, but for young people at all. It promotes inclusion and prevents the isolation of some,” he explains.

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A stopover between school and home

“The strength of organizations is the proximity to people,” he said, having noticed over the years. “It is more difficult for officials who work with the City, for example, to understand the needs of people in neighborhoods, because there is a certain distance that exists.” As mentioned above, the greater presence of stakeholders in the community makes it possible to establish a healthier relationship between organizations and the street. “We wants to create opportunities for young people who the community has difficulty integrating in its activities”, he declares.

Riguerre explains that, in a young person's life, there are two places where they spend the majority of their time: school and home. “School is a living environment with significant adults who should be able to determine the potential of young people and adapt the school program accordingly. That's why we need to find a way to make it appealing to them, he explains. It should be the Fun to go to school”, he says in a falsely ironic tone, when we know that school is perceived as a chore by many young people.

“I am thinking of young people I know personally, who are not interested in school. For these young people who have nowhere to spend their free time between school and home, Chiller Outside, it's becoming almost mandatory. By being in the field and on patrol after school and at lunchtime, the responders create a kind of bridge in the street, a stopover,” he says.

Identity as a solution

“Each young person will have to do personal work”, he finally announces. Being fascinated by the question of identity himself, the resident of Rivière-des-Prairies has only one piece of advice to give to the youngest: you should try to “find your identity”.

These words are not trivial, especially coming from a second-generation immigrant. Even though he only arrived here at the age of nine, Riguerre understands the issues related to immigration and the search for identity when one is part of a visible minority.

There is no age limit in trying to understand who you are and where you come from. At 47, Riguerre says it loud and clear: “Social evil means that, if society is sick, it has an impact on young people.”

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