"None of the volunteers complained. They were all eager to help out, and a lot of them had never gardened before. They'd never gotten their hands dirty," Wallace said. "No one wanted to stop- they were very dedicated."
Karma Connections ran with minimal costs. Teens provided their own transit fares and lunches, so the neighbourhood house only had to worry about staff supervision.
It hopes to extend the program to other periods when students could potentially participate in "risky behaviour," including on professional development days at schools, weekends and over the summer.
"A lot of the youth have very wicked, idealistic values. They want to do something good to change the world and karma's really fitting with that belief," Wallace said. "We really wanted them to establish new connections with new organizations- and to have the ability to then go forward and make their own new volunteer connections and know how to volunteer in the future, on their own."
Zeng expects she and her friends would participate again.
"Our butts are kind of stuck to the chairs in front of [computer] screens, so sometimes we want to get out," she said. "While it benefits us, it benefits other people as well."
[email protected] Twitter: @Cheryl_Rossi
