PERSONAL INTERVIEW SAMPLE - MALE NPS

The ten men in this group were extremely interesting. Four were from Vancouver Island locations, three from Vancouver, one from the Northwest, and two from the Selkirk region. Five of them were currently married. Four of the five had dependent children. The fifth had not yet had any children. Two were divorced with children and grandchildren. Two were single and one had a common-law relationship. One was Native; one had been born in England; two were born in the USA; the rest were born in Canada, but five of them were born in provinces other than British Columbia. Four of the men said they had been in and out of foster homes. Another two had "done time". Three of them had had substance abuse problems in the past. Two of them said they were dyslexic and four of them were left-handed.

Five of the men were working. Two of them had their own businesses in partnership with other men. One was a commercial fisherman. One was working as a janitor and his income was being "topped up" by the Ministry of Social Services and Housing (MSSH). One was a delivery truck driver. One of the men was on unemployment benefits as he was a seasonal worker in the fisheries. The other four men were on income assistance. All had worked in the past. The kinds of jobs they had had in the past included logging, ditch-digging, exterior painting, furniture moving, truck driving, ambulance attendant and janitorial work.

Two of the men left school to work on farms and these same two men fought in the Korean War. One had wanted to go into the Navy but was not accepted because a Grade 10 level of education was required, so he went into the army. Another man got around the Grade 10 requirement for a railway job by getting his friend to fill out the application form. Where "education level" was demanded he told his friend to put "half of Grade 12". (He had a Grade 6 education! But, he got the job and held it for three years.) One of the other men who had been installing office lights for a company was offered his own truck and a greater measure of job responsibility which entailed filling out order forms, invoicing and so on. He said, "I couldn't handle the success. I went on a three day drunk and disappeared." When he came out of it, he telephoned the company who urged him to come back and take the job, but his illiteracy was really the impediment. He refused the job.