Beginning next week, twenty University of Winnipeg students will come together in Winnipeg's North End to spend the summer learning and working in community organizations, in an innovative program called YouthUnited@Winnipeg. In partnership with the City of Winnipeg, initiated by Winnipeg Councillor Brian Mayes and designed at UWinnipeg, the experiential learning program is based on the principles in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) Calls to Action.
The students come from a diversity of backgrounds, both suburban and inner-city, with the intent of fostering new relationships and the exchange of ideas and perspectives. Students spend one day a week in the classroom, and four days a week working in community-based organizations. The curriculum exposes them to a variety of community settings and cultural experiences.
For student Riley Black (Political Science), YouthUnited is a practical way to engage in community-building and reconciliation. "I'm hoping to gain a greater understanding of life in the inner-city and North End. I think these neighbourhoods are often misrepresented and misunderstood, and I want to be able to challenge these misrepresentations and misunderstandings. I also want to create relationships with a variety of people, so I can better understand and appreciate them and their experiences."
