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April 27, 2020
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Job loss, housing instability, and social isolation. These have been some of the top challenges that youth organizations like Zero Ceiling have been tackling during this pandemic. For more than two decades, Zero Ceiling has been supporting youth in the Lower Mainland and the Sea-to-Sky region to...
December 1, 2014
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You may have seen the picture or read the story: homeless youth from foster care, huddled in a needle-strewn alley, dirty and helpless. Youth in foster care have seen it – often. And it’s this damaging “foster-care porn” that they want off the table. Stories and images have the power to either...
November 22, 2013
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Lovable is a photography program for young women. Organized by two young photographers – Nicola Hodges and Sylvia McFadden – its goal is to empower women to fight back against unrealistic beauty standards and the ad campaigns aimed at women’s bodies. According to Hodges and McFadden, Lovable will...
October 30, 2013
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Taking the pulse of young people in metro Vancouver Like many young people starting out, Rahul Walia is charting his career course. The 20-year-old Vancouver resident, who is studying life sciences at the University of British Columbia, is hoping for a career in medicine. But until he’s licensed to...
October 29, 2013
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Azza Rojbi moved to Vancouver from Tunisia in 2010 Azza Rojbi moved to Vancouver from Tunisia in 2010. She and her parents and two brothers left behind friends, careers and their extended family in search of a better life. Rojbi, in particular, had her own dreams of a new beginning and a new way of...
June 17, 2013
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Throughout the year, visitors flock to parks in British Columbia for the fresh air and lush greenery, along with the opportunity to walk, hike, camp, swim and reconnect with nature. But now, our parks are also becoming a popular stomping ground for a growing trend called “geocaching” – a high-tech...
June 3, 2013
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One of Alexandra O’Donaghey’s first memories is of her drug-addicted and alcoholic parents splitting up. She was only four, but already smart enough to know she would be staying with her grandmother. Not long after the split, her father gave up drugs and drink. But the party went on for her mother...
December 17, 2012
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The summer sun streams into the Teen Lounge at Surrey’s City Centre Library. The “hangout” room is designed specifically for youth. It’s a fitting location to interview Saad Al-Samarrai, a participant in Vancouver Foundation’s youth engagement work. With his dark eyes and round cheeks, Saad has the...
December 17, 2012
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When Yosef Spivak laughs, he makes a sound like warm wind, and his eyes completely disappear behind red, round cheeks. He’s a cheerful guy. It’s his nature, even though, at 22, he’s had a lifetime’s worth of hardship. Spivak first went into foster care when he was seven years old. He’s a little...
June 18, 2012
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When Diego Cardona was four, his father went to a meeting... and never came back. The meeting was with members of a Colombian insurgent group to discuss a parcel of family land the insurgents had appropriated. His father is presumed to have been murdered. Cardona’s remaining family moved to another...
December 17, 2011
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It’s hard to believe that Cia Ramirez is 23 years old, much less the mother of a seven-year-old girl. With her wide, cherub face, warm eyes and infectious giggle, Ramirez could easily be mistaken for a high school student. “My mom is Cree, from Saskatchewan and my dad was Mayan, from Guatemala,”...
December 18, 2010
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By the time Nicole reached Grade 11, she was “completely out of control.” There was the drinking and the drugs; there was the binging and purging; and there was her dysfunctional family who put padlocks on the fridge in a misguided attempt to save her from herself. By the time she was 18, she was...
December 17, 2010
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Young women face enormous pressure to be thin, to be sexy, to be beautiful. “We are bombarded by media images from a very young age,” says Carly Geistlinger, who has been through it all and is now trying to help other young girls avoid the pitfalls of adolescence as a volunteer for Go Girls!...
December 17, 2010
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Alleys are the back end of urban life. Unlike the shiny, clean-scrubbed storefronts they serve, alleys are places rubbed raw by delivery and transport: goods in and garbage out. They’re full of wires, poles and mysterious containers; the sounds of exhaust fans and dripping water – the haunts of...
December 14, 2010
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“Our Kulture,” a duet by local rapper Discreet Da Chosen 1 and the Sto:lo band Ostwelve, blares in the background as 27-year-old Orene Askew gets everything in order behind the scenes, preparing to go live for her weekly show Sne’waylh on Vancouver’s Co-op Radio. Unlike the song, Askew doesn’t belt...
December 17, 2009
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Customs for Urban Teens (CUT) “We brought a perfectly good car in here,” says Mark McKim. “And then we cut it up.” McKim is pointing to a hulking piece of dark blue metal. It’s a car alright – a 1965 Impala SS – but only just. The rear end is propped in the air, there are large pieces missing, the...
December 17, 2009
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Broadway Youth Resource Centre Time was running out. Seventeen-year-old Vanessa (not her real name) had overstayed the limit at a temporary shelter in East Vancouver and her options were dwindling. Vanessa had left home at 16, depressed and worn down by constant conflict with her eastern European...
December 18, 2008
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What do California Bighorn Sheep, the Western Screech-Owl, Nuttall's Cottontail, and rock climbers in Penticton have in common? They're all species-at-risk. At least, they were until January 2008. That's when a group headed by The Land Conservancy of British Columbia (TLC) finalized the purchase of...
December 18, 2008
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There are many myths and misconceptions about HIV/AIDS (for example, half of Grade 9 students in Vancouver believe there’s a cure for AIDS). This segment features “Project Stitch” - an HIV/AIDS awareness project co-presented by AIDS Vancouver and Youthco AIDS Society, and supported by Vancouver...
December 18, 2008
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“The baby was two weeks old, and we were staying with one friend, then another, at my grandma’s place, all over. Nick couldn’t stay with the baby and me; he had to stay somewhere else. Our stuff was all over too, stored at different people’s places . . . “The baby was waking up every few hours,...
December 17, 2008
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Power of Hope Society They’ve got beat-boxing, rhyme writing and the rhythm. This music camp gives disadvantaged teens a chance to work side-by-side with hip hop artists and music producers. It’s a chance for them to express themselves and realize their potential, thanks to funding from Vancouver...
December 17, 2008
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Everyone has a story to tell. Some are more dramatic than others. Some tell their story easily. Others, you have to draw it out of them. A pilot project for immigrant youth on Vancouver's east side is doing just that. "Illustrated Journey" is teaching 20 immigrant and refugee youth how to draw...
December 17, 2008
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“There’s one part of the brake that squeaks really bad,” he says with a shy smile. “That’s not supposed to happen. I did everything you can do to make that stop and it still does it. That’s taken up my whole day.” Jordan swapped out the brakes, used steel wool to take a layer off the metal rim, and...
December 17, 2008
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Nada Anati and Illy Auerbach both live in the same country – only about 115 kilometres apart in fact – yet they had to travel halfway round the world to talk. The geography of peace doesn’t always make sense. Nada is Palestinian, Illy is Israeli. Ordinarily, they would never meet. Now they are fast...