Orientation Day:

Today 355 students hit the streets for a learning tour on the inner city of Winnipeg. They’ve given up their spring break to find out about core issued in the city, volunteer with local organizations, and more importantly see God at work in and through them. SOAR Heartland focuses the first few days to orientate the students to the communities they will spend time volunteering in.
“We hope to see students learn about the issues in the city and experience and interact with the people, and pray about it,” says Amber Hamm, one of the special event coordinators for SOAR.
“I love to see students learn about something new and see them get excited about what I'm passionate about,” Hamm said on the phone while running in between two of the 23 different sites that students will be visiting today.
Peggy Abbott,volunteer support staff at Siloam Mission, waits for a stream of students to arrive. Siloam Mission is one of the learning tour sites and hopes that students will get not only an understanding of what Siloam Mission does, but what some of the challenges their patrons face.
“I find it exciting to give students an opportunity to know what the issues are. They can’t turn things around if they don’t see the issues,” says Abbott.
From 11 a.m. till 6 p.m. students walked around the inner city stopping at specific locations to learn about a different topics faced by Winnipeg's less fortunate. From homelessness, to prostitution, and mental illness the students learn about a world different from their own.
“They come from a different frame of reference and bring their questions and insight into the issues,” says Abbott, about the students who typically come from suburban and rural areas.
“Its good to immerse yourself in the culture before you go into help it,” says Shale Tweed, who came all the way from British Columbia to participate in SOAR. Tweed will be spending the week volunteering at Living Bible Explorers and thinks the learning tour is a good way to start off the opportunity. 
Students ended off the tour with a $2 supper. They were encouraged to find somewhere in the area to purchase a meal with only $2 and see how far it could get them. Needless to say, some were still hungry after the meal, but some began to understand a little of what life was like for those who called this area home.