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Six Vancouver street youth offered second chance

Whistler-based charity Zero Ceiling helps youth find their way Holding his hands up with his fingers tightly crossed, 21-year-old Tyler is hoping with everything he’s got for the chance to start a new chapter in his young life.

Whistler-based charity Zero Ceiling helps youth find their way

Holding his hands up with his fingers tightly crossed, 21-year-old Tyler is hoping with everything he’s got for the chance to start a new chapter in his young life.

He has just come from an interview with Adam Schell, director of Whistler-Blackcomb Snowboard School, and for the time being at least, the future is out of his hands. All there is left to do now is wait... and hope.

"You can’t see it," grinned Tyler "but I’m crossing my toes too."

For Tyler and five other youths from Vancouver there’s a lot riding on this job interview, which took place last Sunday.

Only six days before the interview Tyler was living on Vancouver’s streets. He spent a lot of time trying to get by but getting nowhere instead.

Then he heard about Zero Ceiling. The Whistler-based charity has been helping Vancouver street youth experience the thrill of the mountains for the past seven years.

The Snowboard Instructor Program brings street youth to Whistler for a week to learn how to snowboard. It ultimately gives them the chance to work at Whistler-Blackcomb as a snowboard instructor, if they pass the interview and evaluation.

"We expect them to come here and basically be able to pass a Whistler-Blackcomb company interview," said Schell.

"We make sure that they are prepared to pass any of the things that any of our regular employees would be doing."

The charity isn’t a Whistler-Blackcomb initiative, although the company, like many other local companies, supports their work with passes and gear and opportunities.

Instead, Zero Ceiling is the brainchild of pro-skier Chris Winter.

Years ago Winter hoped to spread the magic of the mountains that had moulded his own life and the charity evolved from that idea.

"Skiing and the mountains have pretty much shaped me and given me every single opportunity I’ve had in life, thanks to my parents of course," said Winter.

"So we’re just taking that formula and sharing it with other people."

Before the six youths could come to Whistler though they had to prove to Robin Bennewith, a First Nations Liaison at Dusk to Dawn, that they were ready to get a job and handle the responsibility of working life.

Dusk to Dawn is a youth resource drop in centre in Vancouver that serves street youth from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. They can get food and a shower there, as well as counselling services.

Bennewith screened roughly 17 applicants for the Zero Ceiling program.

During the screening process Bennewith asked each applicant to teach him something. He wanted to see them start a process and take him through the basic steps to the end result. For example one of the youth taught him how to speak some French.

In fact each of the six who were ultimately chosen taught him something. More importantly, each of them showed him that they were ready to make the change from street life to working life in Whistler.

And so, Tyler and five others were invited to take part in Zero Ceiling’s rigorous weeklong Snowboard Instructor Training Program, and their lives began to take on another direction from that moment forward.

On Monday, Dec. 1 the group arrived in Whistler with their chaperones from Dusk to Dawn.

Some youths knew each other well, others only briefly. Regardless of how well they knew each other when they came, they were certainly going to get to know each other a lot better over the next week, spending almost every moment together as a group. Not only were they learning to snowboard on the mountains, they were also learning essential teaching skills for their evaluations, resume skills and interviewing skills, as well as learning to live with each other. There was a lot of work to do during the week.

"I don’t really have any expectations for them," said Bennewith, as he helped the six get fitted for their gear at Essentially Blackcomb that first morning.

"I’m just here to supervise. They’re here to make the most of the opportunity that they’ve been offered."

There was a lot of excitement and a few pangs of nerves as they all squeezed into snowboard boots, measured their boards and decided if they were regular or goofy that morning.

The helmets, boots and boards all came from Whistler-Blackcomb. The rest were odds and ends handed out by Zero Ceiling Program Manager Joanna Woods.

When one youth was left without a warm jacket minutes before heading up Blackcomb, Bennewith gave him his own jacket for the day.

Then they were almost ready to go but first a warning from their snowboard instructors, Alex Campbell and Chosan (Chewie) Cousins, who advised them that their smoke breaks would be few and far between this week, because as snowboard instructors they wouldn’t be able to smoke in uniform.

After a few final puffs, their first day officially began amid barely contained excitement.

"This is our first time ever on a mountain!" said Alan, who is originally from Toronto.

"Yo, they’re huge!"

Twenty-six youth have gone before them in the Zero Ceiling Snowboard Instructor Program over the past five years. Many have turned their lives around as a result of the experience.

"Those kids that stay part of the school and do a great job... down the road have all gone on to improve themselves in one way or the other," said Schell, adding that some have gone on to school, others to become resident advisors in Whistler-Blackcomb staff housing.

"It’s just a good gateway to a different lifestyle which then leads them on to make a few different choices."

One of their snowboard instructors this week, Alex Campbell, was also a fellow Zero Ceiling grad.

He remembers what it was like to be transplanted from Vancouver’s streets to the slopes of Whistler.

Before Zero Ceiling Campbell was living in the back of a Volkswagen Rabbit and squeegeeing cars in downtown Vancouver to get by.

He can remember microwaving stale bread and eating it as fast as possible before it hardened again.

"We got up here and we were eating good food for once," said Campbell.

Now, he lives in Whistler. He has food in his fridge and a warm bed. He has a couple of jobs, teaching snowboarding in winter, skateboarding in summer and also working as a mover.

"I love it," he said.

"It’s expensive but I love it."

Of the 26 youth who have participated in the program, 12 including Campbell work and live in Whistler, many of them year-round.

There is a network of support to help them set up their new lives once they move here. There are youth workers and past grads to turn to when they need help.

But the program wasn’t always like this. It had its share of hurdles and obstacles to overcome in its early years.

"So many times in the first five years of operation I was inches from throwing in the towel," said Winter.

"I was doing it all on my own. It was just very, very difficult. I felt as if I was as broke as they were.

"The reason why it’s a success is hard work. It definitely hasn’t just appeared the way it is... Part of it was luck too. Who would have thought that Whistler, being one end of the spectrum economically, and then street youth, that there would ever be any kind of way to link those two?"

Though the links aren’t perhaps obvious to everyone, Winter said there are things in Whistler that make the transition from street life to snowboarding a little easier.

"Living in a resort town is an alternative way of living, as street living is," he said.

"I moved here 12 years ago because I didn’t fit into the normal mainstream... in a way we do have similarities."

The way Whistler-Blackcomb is set up also helps. Their infrastructure, from staff housing to the rent being automatically taken off the paycheque to the social get-togethers, works well for the ski bum from out east as well as the street youth from Vancouver.

"We’re definitely taking advantage of that," said Winter.

Now more than ever he is confident of the success of Zero Ceiling, especially after the latest week of training.

During the week of the Snowboard Instructor Program, which is Zero Ceiling’ busiest week of the year, Winter was in Quebec checking out the possibility of setting up a Zero Ceiling program with Mont Tremblant.

"Tremblant has given us a green light to start the program," he said.

"But it’s not easy of course.

"You can start a program but it’s hard to make it sustainable without the total dedication and passion of a few people who are willing to commit 20 hours a week for nothing."

While he was away he saw the Zero Ceiling network running smoothly. This will now leave Winter to concentrate on strategic planning and community relations, and ultimately growing the program.

"I’m still overwhelmed," said Winter, every time he sees a new group come up and excel through Zero Ceiling.

"I’m blown away. I love doing this because it’s potentially one of the few things in life where it’s a win-win for everyone involved.

"We’re not trying to change the world but we’re focusing a lot of our energies on helping certain people. But over the year six (people) becomes 12 (people) and it grows."

After three days living in Whistler and focusing on their snowboarding skills, there was a different vibe to the newest group of recruits last week.

They were solely focused on the goal of making it as snowboard instructors.

They were all linking turns, controlling their boards, and looking confident as they made their way down to the Catskinner Chair.

They had become a cohesive group, as the first ones down to the chair cheered and encouraged the last snowboarder into the lift line. Their snowboarding had improved by leaps and bounds from day one.

"In the past they’ve excelled compared to the other instructors at the Snowboard School," said Winter.

"That blows my mind because they’re just so keen, you know. They don’t take it for granted like the rest of us might."

Six days after Tyler left Vancouver he, like all the others, is feeling more athletic and positive, confident and friendly. His life has flipped upside down and so far he has landed firmly on his feet.

Tyler said he hasn’t just learned to snowboard this week. He has also learned a crucial thing about himself.

"(I realized) how much determination I really have when I apply myself," he said.

All six youth were offered jobs at Whistler-Blackcomb’s Snowboard School on Monday.

"Most of the time when I hire folks for the school I say, ‘Hey, we’ve now made a decision to hire you so you show us now what you’re capable of,’" said Schell.

They will be coming back to Whistler this weekend, when they will move into staff housing, shadow snowboard classes and eventually start working on their own.

"Every single person that’s touched by what we do is learning and growing," said Winter.

"And this year more than ever I’m seeing and I’m feeling that beyond those six youths. And that really gets me excited!"