From Lawrence Heights to the Great Outdoors
For many young people in Lawrence Heights, life unfolds within familiar streets. School, friends, daily routines, and learning opportunities rarely stretch beyond the neighbourhood.
Sewit Tamene, Pathways Lawrence Heights’ Program Director, knows this reality well. “Having grown up here and also working with youth, I know a lot of the students don’t often get to see outside the community due to socioeconomic barriers. Everything from elementary to high school stays within the neighbourhood.”
Years ago, while working as a Youth Development Worker in the program, Sewit began thinking about how to give students experiences that could broaden their world. When she discovered that Outward Bound Canada offered outdoor education programs that included high school credits, she saw an opportunity to create a new type of learning environment.
Through this partnership, students have embarked on day trips and multi-week expeditions like portaging in Algonquin Park that would otherwise be financially out of reach. Each student completing the course earns a high school credit, bringing them one step closer to graduation.
Students who struggle with traditional learning environments can now reach the same goal through hands-on learning, with the addition of building teamwork and healthy risk-taking skills that are much more difficult to achieve in the classroom setting. “It’s been helping students come out of their shell. Students get to learn without the pressure of tests. Because it builds in room for error where everyone is new to the experience, they feel comfortable making mistakes and participating in new activities,” Sewit explains. Beyond building confidence, these experiential learning activities have also fostered friendships between students from the Lawrence Heights and Jane & Finch neighbourhoods, helping to bridge broader community connections.
This year, the team has adapted to seasonal changes and safety considerations with early fall trips to Evergreen Brick Works and experiential walks in the community as daylight shortens. Supporting these activities is Lachlan Douglas, their placement student from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Bachelor of Social Work program. A fan of the outdoors, Lachlan has been able to create meaningful opportunities for students to connect with nature and each other. Most recently, students completed their first overnight trip of the school year: carrying their gear from Don Valley Park to the ferry to Snake Island, cooking meals outdoors, and camping overnight under the stars. This was the first camping experience for more than half of the students in the group, and with nothing but positive feedback, another overnight trip is now planned for winter.
For Sewit, these experiences echo a lesson she learned years ago. She recalls a Pathways student who had attended a campus tour and later graduated from and is now working for that same university. “He told me that up to that point, he had never considered it was something he could be a part of because he hadn’t ever left the community. Through that one trip, he was able to open up a lens to the world.”
The same is true for outdoor education. “I was never an outdoors person. But after chaperoning those trips, I started hiking myself. And that’s my experience as an adult,” Sewit reflects. “lmagine the impact on youth who’ve never left the community. These trips are a catalyst to all the doors that could possibly open in the future.”
