PAUL LATOUR superpower RENOVATING BUILDINGS TO HELP CHARITIES WORK MORE EFFICIENTLY SANDRA JARVIS-SELINGER superpower MENTORING ABORIGINAL STUDENTS

MIt all started very simply, says PAUL LATOUR. A friend with multiple sclerosis needed help fixing up her backyard so she could access and enjoy the overgrown garden she’d once loved so much. “I thought I could get 20 friends together, have a pizza party and help her out,” says Paul. Seven weeks later, about 70 volunteers and 27 businesses had contributed time and supplies to perform a one-day reno that would have cost his friend $25,000. “Not a single person I approached said no; not a single company I asked for supplies said no,” Paul recalls. It was then that the Victoria-based artist, writer and waiter realized he could tackle projects on a larger scale.

He soon founded Herowork (herowork.com), first as a private business and then as a nonprofit, and finally as a charity that renovates buildings for other charities in need. Herowork’s first project was a widely lauded reno valued at $100,000 for the Casa Maria Emergency Housing Society, which provides shelter for families in crisis. Now, the organization has completed its fifth renovation in the Victoria area, and plans for three more are underway. To be selected for a renovation, a charity has to own its building and contribute 20 percent of the value of the renovation, which is largely used to purchase the supplies needed for renos that include everything from electrical and plumbing overhauls to roofing repairs to structural work to landscaping. By 2017, Paul plans to roll out Herowork’s community construction model to other towns on Vancouver Island, and in 10 years, across the country. “It’s a franchise for social good.” any kids dream of being doctors or pharmacists or researchers. But by the time they’re in Grade 12 and applying for postsecondary education, poor grades or their choice of courses throughout high school may make it impossible to get accepted into a health-sciences program. And although The University of British Columbia’s outreach department encouraged Grade 12 aboriginal youth across the province to consider careers in medicine and health sciences, they were sometimes reaching students too late. That’s why SANDRA JARVIS-SELINGER, associate dean academic in the faculty of pharmaceutical sciences at UBC, and her team created Aboriginal ementoring BC (aboriginalementoringbc.ca).

Since 2010, the program has reached out to aboriginal youth as early as elementary school. Students work through a fun, interactive online curriculum called Personal Quest and communicate with mentors on an online discussion board, with the goal of helping participants explore possible career paths. To date, 189 youth and 119 mentors (34 percent of whom are aboriginal) have been enrolled in the program. Based on this initiative’s success, in 2016, the program will be expanded to include aboriginal and nonaboriginal youth in rural and remote areas of B.C. Sandra says this model could easily be applied to other areas such as engineering, education and humanities, and that it’s robust enough to help youth on any postsecondary career path. For her, the most important takeaway is that aboriginal youth understand that, when they graduate from high school, they have choices and feel empowered to make those choices. The positive impact on these young people is already evident. “E-mentoring changed my life,” says Rae-anne Lebrun, 19, now enrolled in the child and youth care counselling program at Douglas College in Coquitlam, B.C. “I was actually homeless when I was in the program. I got to learn who I was as a person, and also to talk about how I felt with people who accepted me and didn’t judge me. They wanted to help me along my journey.”