Charlie’s Freewheels
Youth build bikes, and community, through non-profit program
We all know that sense of freedom we felt when we learned to ride our first bike – a feeling that never really goes away, even as adults. Of course, there’s a price tag attached to that freedom. You need a bike. An organization in Toronto has been introducing some of the city’s youth to bikes since 2007 when Charlie’s Freewheels was born. A group of friends founded the program in memory of their friend Charles Prinsep, an avid cyclist and cycling advocate, whose life was cut short tragically at the age of 23 while he was riding across the continent.
When asked to describe the program, director Katherine Mcilveen-brown says: “Charlie’s Freewheels is a grassroots non-profit that offers bicycle education to youth. The goal of our program is to help them build new skills, confidence and relationships.”
Charlie’s Freewheels works with a number of social service agencies – such as Pathways to Education, Covenant House and ymca Sprott House – to recruit youth age 12 to 25, generally from the Moss Park and Regent Park neighbourhoods of Toronto, to participate in build-a-bike workshops.
All the bike parts and frames are donated and new parts are used, as necessary. The shop Yabikes! provides the space for Charlie’s Freewheels and those bike parts at wholesale rates. Yabikes! also donates 25 per cent of its profits to Charlie’s at the end of the year. The program receives funding through various agencies and personal donors. Three full-time staff work throughout the summer months. Mcilveen-brown says there are always volunteer opportunities available. The organization has also hosted corporate teams who come in to “unbuild” bikes to prep them for students. In October 2016, Charlie’s Freewheels hosted its first big fundraising event called Bikes & Beats.
As well as the bikes, safe-cycling workshops are offered. Students get their own helmets, locks and lights at the end of the program.
There have been more than 400 graduates of the program so far. At the end of last year, one in particular, Samira Jamily, was chosen to participate in tda Global Cycling’s challenging Ruta Maya, a 2,700-km bike expedition through Central America: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Belize. (tda is the founding company of the Tour d’afrique.)
Mcilveen-brown says Jamily came through the Girls and Trans program (offered to youth who identify as girls and transgender youth) three years ago, working in the program as a peer mechanic. “She was a superstar volunteer,” she says. Jamily was 16 when she first started at Charlie’s Freewheels and is now a student at Ryerson University. Her trip was fully sponsored by a scholarship made possible by a former tda client’s donation.
Videos on the Charlie’s Freewheels website featuring interviews with other past participants (referred to as youth advocates) show how much the program has resonated with them. They emphasize how comfortable the environment is. Besides producing some very adept bike mechanics, the program instills a sense of pride and empowerment, especially when the participants are able to give back to the community by building bikes for others. “The program makes them feel like they’re a part of the family,” says Mcilveen-brown. “Often it’s the community-building aspect that’s even more important to them than the bike at the end of the program.”