SOAR*

It might not be spring break for me- I'm stuck in classes- but for high school students in Manitoba they are running through the streets instead of being trapped in desks. lol
And for a group of students they are experiencing something very unique. It's called SOAR Heartland, and its a 10 missions trip in the inner city of Winnipeg. For many of them Winnipeg is their home, so experiencing the downtown core gives them a whole new perspective on the city and the issues. 
Over the 10 days I got the insane opportunity to head up a media team for SOAR. The team was designated the task of documenting the 10 days, producing same day edits montages of the days events, and posting them and more online. Like I said before, I was in school though- thankfully I had an amazing team that worked their butts off and did a fantastic job. 
you can see some of their amazing work here:


  
Interestingly enough I got a chance to do a streeter in Journalism class... and I was lucky enough to write about whatever I wanted to... so knowing that all these kids were spending the day running around the streets, I knew what i was going to write:
 
355 students are hitting the street today for a learning tour on the inner city of Winnipeg. They’ve given up their spring break to find out about core issued in the city, volunteer with local organizations, and more importantly build relationships with the people that live in the area. SOAR Heartland, the program that runs the spring break trip, uses the first few days to orientate the students to the communities they will spend time volunteering in.
“We hope to see students learn about the issues in the city and experience and interact with the people,” says Amber Hamm, one of the special event coordinators for SOAR.
“I love to see students learn about something new and see them get excited about it,” Hamm said on the phone while running in between two of the 23 different sites that students will be visiting today.
Peggy Abbott,volunteer support staff at Siloam Mission, waits for a stream of students to arrive. Siloam Mission is one of the learning tour sites and hopes that students will get not only an understanding of what Siloam Mission does, but what some of the challenges their patrons face.
“I find it exciting to give students an opportunity to know what the issues are. They can’t turn things around if they don’t see the issues,” says Abbott.
From 11 a.m. till 6 p.m. students will be walking around the inner city stopping at specific locations to learn about a different topics faced by Winnipeg's less fortunate. From homelessness, to prostitution, and mental illness the students learn about a world different from their own.
“They come from a different frame of reference and bring their questions and insight into the issues,” says Abbott, about the students who typically come from suburban and rural areas.
“Its good to immerse yourself in the culture before you go into help it,” says Shale Tweed, who came all the way from British Columbia to participate in SOAR.