East Vancouver teen gives back

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Most of us had a mentor at one point in our lives. For Frankie Joseph, he didn’t have one during the early years of his teenage years.

In Grade 8, he was on a bad path, but after joining programs to help kids from low income homes, he found a role model and it helped to turn his life around.

“I just really didn’t feel like going to class, hanging out with the wrong crowd and stuff like that. I had some troubles then,” says Joseph as he looks back on his early high school years.

He did a full 180 degree turn all because of Streetfront, an alternative school program for youth supported by Contributing to Lives of Inner City Kids (CLICK).

Joseph is now 17 and a senior at Britannia Secondary School. He tutors kids and tries to steer them in the right direction.

“Anything that they do wrong, I try to tell them how it’s going to affect them. I try to teach them that you get respect if you give respect.”

He adds he wouldn’t be where he is today without programs like CLICK.
    
“To have a role model that knows, that tells you, ‘you can do it,’ you have that assurance so you push towards it.”

The Vancouver Police Department and the City of Vancouver are celebrating CLICK’s 8th Annual Inner City Kids Week with fundraising events, including today’s Pulling for Inner City Kids Tug of War Competition at the Vancouver Art Gallery, which involves more than 100 high school students.

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