Spring is beckoning and things are heating up at Streetfront, literally. We are really proud of the partnership we have developed with the Environmental Youth Alliance (EYA) over the past three years. We went from a conceptual phase where we helped design the current garden outside of Streetfront. Then we helped to build the current; plant the garden and care for the garden. Along the way we named the garden through a traditional naming ceremony; built four compost bins; planted apple trees; built 3 sets of indoor growing structures; designed and made a paving stone project to complement the garden; harvest the plants we grew and then create a brand new crop of seedlings that will be planted in April.

One thing about Streetfront – if you want something done, ask us and we’ll get it finished. I’m proud that we are a program always willing to tackle any project or help out with any task.

The photo you see is one of the indoor growing structures we built. We then inserted fluorescent lights to create the ideal growing environment for our seedlings.

In other news – Streetfront hosted the annual Vancouver Alternative Schools Indoor Soccer Tournament. We’ve been hosting this tournament for six years and its always the most anticipated of all the tournaments we run. There were eight teams vying for alternative school supremacy. We divided the teams into 2 pools: senior and junior. The quality of play was excellent and most games came right down to the wire. The semi finals had Streetfront vs. Take-A-Hike and 8J9J vs. Outreach. Streetfront lost a heartbreaker in penalty kicks, while Outreach Sneaked by 8J9J. The 3rd place game was decided with penalty kicks, as was the final – which was eventually won by Take A Hike in the 9th round. It was a wonderful tournament with good sportsmanship and an unbelievable level of play.

Streetfront is piloting a program led under the leadership of Joe Calendino. Its called “Taking It To the Streets”. Joe and the Vancouver Police Department developed this curriculum in order to teach students the means to keep away from bad influences. He’s had a great impact on many of the students and has worked with Streetfront for three years.

A number of our students are participating in an after school outreach program hosted by Coastal Squash. The goal is to get kids exposed to the sport of squash but also benefit from a mentoring and tutoring component that is built in. We have 6 kids who are participating weekly.

Streetfront decided to enter into the world of art this week. Instead of having a class here and there, in traditional Streetfront style, we went at it full-on. We spent 7 straight hours developing; building and creating these wonderful mosaics.

The kids were really energetic about the project. Barry and Gord provided the technical know-how and the kids did the rest. After the 7 hours, we were left with 22 beautiful mosaics that will now adorn the garden outside. Nice work kids!!

Streetfront once again hosted the Vancouver Alternative Schools Volleyball Tournament. This is an amazing sporting event with over a hundred kids playing volleyball for over 5 hours. 3 courts are packed with teams, doing their very best for their respective teams. We had two divisions (Jr’s – grades 8,9 and 10 and Sr’s – grades 11 and 12) competing and the winners met in the ultimate final. 8J9J won the Jr’s division and Spectrum won both the Sr division and the ultimate final.

Streetfront and the Environmental Youth Alliance (EYA) celebrated Thanksgiving with an amazing celebration. The students harvested food from our garden (rye which was separated and then milled; carrots; kale; spinach; chamomille; herbs) which was turned into bread; chips; tea and muffins.

It was wonderful for the students to see their efforts come to this beautiful fruition. To actually eat the food that you grow and care for is something that very few of can claim.