On a bitterly cold Winnipeg night, with the windchill nearing -36 C, the Wind Walkers head out into the night, as they do every Tuesday.
The group walks along Selkirk Avenue and down to Main Street, handing out food and warm clothing to those in need.
“It’s a way to get our youth involved in doing community work and lateral empathy,” Whistling Wind action therapist Grace Laing told Global News.
“We just spread love in the community and give back in that way and show that to our youth.”
The group is part of Whistling Wind, an organization focused on helping male youth overcome addictions and trauma through action-based therapy or hands-on, real-life experience.
Many working in the group have walked down the same path as many of the youth in the program.
“I didn’t always have the best role models growing up,” said Lukas Sutton-Scarlett, a residential wellness worker with Whistling Wind.
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Sutton-Scarlett says the program helped him in his early teens and now uses his lived experience to connect with youth and let them know they’re not alone.
“It just feels like a full-circle moment, just to grow up as a youth in the program,” he said.
“I come from a place where I shouldn’t even really be here, you know. A lot of my friends, they’re either locked up or in jail or something like that. So the fact that I am able to stay out of trouble and do good for my community and help kids that were in my position when I was younger, it makes me feel really content.”
In October, Whistling Wind opened a wellness home in St. Boniface, a 16-week, nine-bed recovery home for male youth.
“In our home, relationship is an important piece. We really strive to partner with youth in their recovery,” said wellness home program co-ordinator Dan Neault.
“There’s a saying they have in recovery circles … you can’t think your way into right living, you have to live your way into right thinking. So one of the things we do is we take the youth and we kind of facilitate that process and connect them with community.”
Neault says the organization also puts a focus on land-based learning.
“We had one time this fall where we took them fishing, and we were out by the water and had a nice fire, and we were fishing all day, and one of the boys was kind of talking to himself on the way out and said, ‘I’m gonna leave my addiction right here today,’” Neault recalled.
“A lot of youth come to us and they come from environments and experiences that aren’t … necessarily positive, and they identify themselves with that experience. We try to walk with them in changing that and helping them tap into their own resiliency and wisdom and experiences and kind of rewriting that script for them.”
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