Yo Bro Yo Girl co-founder Joe Calendino is working to prevent young people from leading the life he used to live.
A few decades back, Calendino was a full patch member of the Hell’s Angels. Dealing with drug addiction, and involved in a high profile fight in a Kelowna casino in 2005, he was kicked out of the club.
After a period experiencing homelessness and addiction in the lower mainland, a connection with a police sergeant he went to high school with helped set Calendino on the path to turning his life around and sharing his story with youth.
He would meet Brenda, a former district principal whom he would go on to marry. The pair would found Yo Bro Yo Girl, an initiative that runs programming for youth on the lower mainland aimed at preventing them from gang involvement and other harmful outcomes.
Calendino visited Nanaimo in May to share his story with local students. Following a presentation at John Barsby Secondary School, he spoke with People First Radio host Joe Pugh at White Rabbit Cafe.
“ Every child needs to know they’re not alone, right? Everybody faces adversity. Everybody has a struggle, right?” Said Calendino.
“When I was growing up, I felt like I was all alone, right? I had a father who struggled with mental health, schizophrenia to be exact…and in the 70s, there are not the supports that there are today for families and children.”
Calendino says while some elements of the gang life may seem cool to youth, prison, addiction, and death are the likely outcomes.
“Anybody that thinks they’re gonna live the vida loca when you’re in that life, think about when you gotta walk out that door,” he said.
Calendino says Yo Bro Yo Girl brings students together for activities like Qigong meditation or the sharing of a meal. He says it provides an opportunity for youth to build trust with mentors running the programming.
“ That two-hour window is where our opportunity starts to develop that connection, relationship, in turn trust,” he said.
“We wanna see kids graduate, right? From there…just seeing a child achieve whatever they wanna achieve, and not getting involved with negative peer groups.”
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