By David P. Ball

Marika van Reeuwyk, with the Environmental Youth Alliance, talks about how youth are building relationships between Strathcona Community Garden and their new homeless neighbours.

While much Vancouver media attention lately has focused on homeowners and concerned residents of the city's Strathcona neighbourhood — largely complaining about a tent city that swelled to hundreds of dwellings this summer — growers in Stratchona Park's community gardens say they've worked hard at building healthier and respectful relationships with their new homeless neighbours.

Strathcona Community Garden found itself surrounded by the new encampment that was displaced from CRAB and Oppenheimer parks. One organization that uses the garden plots there for youth programming said its members have worked hard at building relationships and advocating for social housing for the homeless campers there.

Marika van Reeuwyk, a program director with the Environmental Youth Alliance, described a "gifting ceremony" this summer where some of the Indigenous youth participants in EYA programs in the garden made a drum by hand and offered it to the tent city community for use at the ongoing Sacred Fire there.

"We do have a lot of allyship between us and the community in Strathcona Park," said van Reeuwyk in an interview with The Pulse on CFRO. "The gardens we work out out — Strathcona and Cottonwood community gardens — have also invested a lot of energy to build positive relationships between our communities.

"To be honest, there have been a lot more challenges in the last few months due to the housing community moving next door to us, but we're trying to reach out to different levels of government for support with that … I just hope that soon we can find a more sustainable and long-term housing solution that meets the needs of people in Strathcona Park."

And the EYA has always focused on social justice, diversity, and the intersections of equity and a healthy environment. Being allies to those who are marginalized and vulnerable is a key part of that mandate, van Reeuwyk said.

"We meet at the intersection of environmental justice and social justice," she added.

The EYA recently launched its fall youth programming with a series of programs, including a paid youth internship, which had more interest than spaces and needed waitlists. The next round of applications will be held in January.

For more info, visit eya.caenvie