Three youth from Vancouver have put a part of their summer towards meeting new people and solidifying the friendships they already had in the Strathcona neighbourhood.
Michelle, Jackie and Starling, all 20 years old, have participated in a unique internship that was community focused.
For six weeks, the trio made efforts to get out of the comfort zone, in order to build community. “ A thriving community is so important, especially at this time,” says Starling about the purpose of the internship.
The community building came in the form of visits to multiple friends in Strathcona. The goal was also to have “more tight-knit community groups”, shares Jackie.” We felt it was more stagnant”, he explains as he talked about bringing different friend groups together that previously seemed to be separated by “cliques”.
After studying different materials, like the Baha’i writings and the letters of the Universal House of Justice, these youths went out to put their learnings in action. This not only meant seeing friends, but also meeting new people in the park.
“The pandemic affected a lot of us “, shares Michelle, “ it’s really nice to get back to say hello. Very simple things can lead to such profound conversations with everyone that we meet.”
The goal of this internship was also to “encourage ourselves to have that courage, to talk to neighbors and lift our souls”, underlines Starling. She describes it as a “responsibility”. “ It made me realize how much more I wanted to be part of the community”, she comments, looking back at the internship.
For Michelle, the six weeks taught her that “we are never done learning” about creating community. “Even to an extent that we may think we can try to understand, there is still more to learn about it”, she adds.
Being of service and making an effort to strengthen the bonds between neighbors and friends also had an impact on Jackie: “ It made me stronger morally and a kinder person. It affected me to bring out this personality that I’m trying to grow and I’m trying to be.”
The idea of doing an intensive internship that was community-focused came from a need for building coherence in the lives of youths, as they were about to embark on new academic and professional paths.“If we want to learn about how to be these builders of community for the rest of our lives, we have to learn how to contribute to communities, to our families, [and we have to] think wisely about our careers”, states Yasmin, tutor for this internship.