Over the past year, the need for and the power of our SOYL (Sustainable Opportunities for Youth Leadership) program has become so clear with critical opportunities for youth to connect with their peers and mentors in person severely limited for the past 14 plus months due to the ongoing pandemic.
This spring, we saw a much higher demand for the SOYL (Sustainable Opportunities for Youth Leadership) program in Vancouver alone. 130 youth applied for 25 spots in our unique SOYL program for 2021. We need extra support to pay for an increased cost for supplies and workshops this summer and to grow the program to meet the overwhelming demand for next year.
The Problem
- In British Columbia, 1 in 6 kids lives in households experiencing food insecurity.
- Canadians spend more time indoors than ever before—approximately 90% of each day—and most of that time is spent sitting in front of a screen.
- B.C. youth are reporting an increase in mental health conditions, including anxiety disorders, depression, and PTSD. The COVID-19 pandemic has made these numbers even worse.
- With so many opportunities and programs for young people cut or canceled this past year, we’ve become acutely aware of Fresh Roots’ unique position to fill the gap with much-needed time spent outside on the schoolyard farms we steward.
How You Can Help
- Sponsor an item (or two!) from our wishlist
- Register as an individual or a team to spread the word with your own sub-campaign
- Contribute a one-time donation with a custom amount
- Become a MONTHLY DONOR and provide steady & predictable income to ensure we can consistently run our programming in addition to being able to plan ahead and grow our existing offerings.
- Share with your friends and family, tagging us @freshrootsfarms and using the hashtag #makeitsow
Help us GROW!
WHAT WE DO
Together, we:
- Create and steward Schoolyard Farms
- Facilitate outdoor experiential learning with teachers and students
- Mentor youth through field trips and classes on the schoolyard farms, after school clubs and summer programming,
- Host work experience opportunities for high school-aged youth and young adults
- Connect community to growing food through our volunteer opportunities
- Share food with the community —through food-access programs and to our neighbours and community through farmers markets and our CSA veggie box program
- Provide support for school gardens and associated programming through summer support and teacher professional development