Pathfinder Youth Centre Society

I was apart of this program in 2020, and I have a lot of things to say about how awful it was. During my time partaking in the program at Bean Around Books in Maple Ridge, I was constantly treated like I didn’t matter. The main leader of the program, Tara Malanik, was no stranger to making me feel worse about myself than I already did. Throughout my 3 months she never called me by the right name (always another participants name), and put me down everyday by telling me I would never find a job, that I would live with my parents until I was 50, and say she didn’t think I would be successful in the program. She told me to my face, she didn’t think I would last past the first day. The worst part for me was, Tara knew I was very uncomfortable with touching from the very beginning, but once I got an interview she was excited and hugged me and shook me back and forth, afterwards she saw that I was uncomfortable and said to me “oh yeah, you don’t like touching. It’s okay”. No it’s not okay! Why is it okay? Because she said so? That’s not how that works. I was very anxious joining this program, especially at the end when we started applying to jobs. Tara made me feel so poorly about myself and I believed her words, because I thought she knew what she was talking about. She did not. Everyone in my program either were kicked out, fired or quit their jobs. It wasn’t until AFTER the program ended that I got a job and stayed for more than a year now. I did this without the program. If anyone is reading this, scared to apply for jobs and think this program will help, please just wait, a job will come to you on your own terms. I wouldn’t wish this program on my greatest enemy. If you have any respect for yourself, do NOT apply for this program. Zero stars