Adam Vernon (bottom r) used the Homeless World Cup to get his life on track, but director Scullion says he’s the exception

Homelessness is a hot topic these days. What causes homelessness? Do we have an obligation to help? How do we help? How much of our time and money do we spend? At what point do you consider an intervention a success or a failure?

In 2006, brothers Mike and Kevin Scullion were looking for a topic for a feature-length documentary when Kevin heard about the Homeless World Cup of soccer. Downtown Dawgs director Mike Scullion has a long soccer history, including having played for the Canadian national team, so the fact that he’d never heard of the HWC intrigued him. When their request to follow the U.S. team on their journey to the HWC was denied, the brothers decided to start a Calgary team, and film their progress.

About the same time last year, Adam Vernon was having a rough time. Reeling from a recent divorce, suffering from depression and some poor choices and worse luck, Vernon found himself living at the Calgary Drop-In Centre.

“I started two years ago as a player,” says Vernon, who is currently a Dawgs coach. “I met Kevin Scullion through the Drop-in Centre; I was homeless at the time, and I thought it would be a great way to keep me focused on getting out of the mess I had gotten into. The team was the critical catalyst to help me focus. I was involved in a rocky divorce and this helped who I was to come out again.”

Vernon credits this small but crucial shift in his life with creating enough momentum for him to change his circumstances. “I discovered leadership skills I never knew I had,” he says. “I found employment, started to make small, meaningful changes in my life. I got a job as an adult care worker for the Drop-In Centre. It’s funny, up till that point I’d always thought, ‘screw helping others, I’ve got myself to help first,’ but now I feel good offering something back to society.”

Regarding the usefulness of the soccer program as a catalyst to change lives, director Mike offers a different opinion.

“One of the reasons we thought this would be an interesting story is that the organization that founded the HWC claims that 77 per cent of players go on to better their lives,” he explains. “I don’t believe that; I think it’s a skewed statistic. We wanted to follow a group of guys to see if that stat proved out. We were a year filming — putting the team together and then following them for six months. (A team of) eight people evolved who made a quasi-commitment and went to Winnipeg for the national tryout. Three made it to South Africa and we’ve only had one guy better himself. That guy was Adam.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he continues, “I think it’s great what it did for Adam. But I think that Adam would have helped himself in the end anyway. This may have fast-tracked the process a bit, but I don’t think it really changed his future.”

Mike’s brother, Dawgs producer Kevin, continues to be a driving force behind the Dawgs, both in terms of vision and financing. Mike struggles with anger and frustration connected to this project, feelings that are tangled between the larger issues and protectiveness towards his brother.

“For Kevin this started out as a film, but it turned into something more,” Mike says. “He’s a big softie; he raised all the money for the national team to go to South Africa last year, and a bunch of these guys just took advantage of him. I’ve got a good nose for somebody who’s a user, and a bunch of these guys were just users.

“Adam was never a user,” he continues, “and some of (the other players) are genuinely nice guys. You can’t blame some of them for what they’ve been through. Some of them have been through years of abuse; you feel for them, but they have a hard time turning things around. It’s just a painful, draining experience to give people opportunity and then they don’t take it.”

He pauses, then adds, “Some would say the difference you make is in the long run, maybe. I don’t know. I honestly don’t know what I think about that. Would I do it again? No, I wouldn’t.”

Vernon, who is no longer homeless and is currently studying for a B.Sc., is passionately in the opposite corner. “Investing in humanity is never a bad thing,” he states. “At what price do we give up on another human being? It could be your children next, homeless from a string of bad choices. If we stop caring about these people, what does that make us as a society?

“These are people from all walks of life,” he says. “If people gave up on me, what if I could one day cure cancer? What do you lose when you write somebody off?”

Says Mike, “I truly don’t know what people are going to think when they watch the film. They may come away thinking it’s all a big con. They may come away thinking it’s an amazing and successful program. I just made the film. It’s up to the public to judge now.”