Inner City Youth Alive is inviting Manitobans to look beyond headlines and assumptions with the release of its second annual Think Piece. "It's kind of deep, we hope, that's our goal," says Kent Dueck, founder of Inner City Youth Alive (ICYA). "Think Piece is essentially, we want people to think deeper about really important issues in our city." ICYA's second annual Think Piece is available for people to read online. It includes three stories from staff and volunteers at ICYA, including the light they witness amongst sometimes dark situations. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } "You can have orthodoxy, the way you think about things. But that produces orthopraxy, the way you act on the things you think about. Sometimes people just have a view of things, and they should reverse engineer, and go, 'How did I come to that view?' That's what we shot for." RELATED STORIES: Step Up Construction creates pathways to employment and hope Smile Cookie campaign raised over $35,000 for ICYA's Meals for Kids program Building relationships at heart of ICYA's work Diving deeper Dueck says when he came up with the Think Piece newsletters, the heart behind it was to give people a snap shot of real life in the North End, including the complexities it comes with. "Often people have what we call 'luxury views.' Those are views that you can have from a distance. There's views that sometimes give you social status, with certain beliefs about crime, beliefs about violence, addiction. Until you're faced with it, until you're close to it, you don't get those views pressure tested." Dueck says that he has been noticing people want to talk about difficult things, rather than just avoid them. Dueck responds to every email and message from people responding to the Think Piece, with many voicing support, concern, or simply wanting to know more. "The reality is that, a lot of times our conversation don't match the darkness of the moment," says Dueck, referring to a murder of a teenager in the North End. "So we have very curated conversations about something so we don't step over any lines. But I think it's time to put on our big person pants, and have hard conversations." Bringing hope amidst pain ICYA offers many programs to the community in the North End, including day camps and their ssummer camp for kids. "We have Step-Up Construction. They're out there working on bridges. Those are formerly gang-involved youth. You can have that feeling that it's just darkness. But last year, we had four of the guys in our program that might have been candidates for homelessness, actually purchase homes." Much of ICYA's work is creating relationships with incredible people in the community, and walking through life together. "We're trying to shine a light on some of the challenges, but we also want to highlight the fact that there's so much beauty, and so much strength in our community."