Reflection by Corey Dunn :: Year 9 :: Bentleigh Secondary College
Today we went to Urban Seed in the city. We left at recess and met at the Bentleigh Station, we caught the train to flinders street station and had an hour or so to get lunch (Maccas and Nando’s ice cream). We met Miss Santos outside the station, and when we were all there, we walked down to a church where we met Ashley (an ex Bentleigh student), and she told us about Urban Seed and what they do. She asked us about how we feel in the city and what types of people we think live around here. She told us a story of how the church told three homeless guys that they could live in one of their empty floors, but they had to get to know the locals, this meant everyone, from the local hobos and druggies to the businessmen and commuters.
Ashley then took us on a walk around the local area; It was amazing how quickly the scenery changed, from quaint little side streets with tiny shops to wide open shopping centres with huge shops and all the big brands. First we stopped in one of the graffiti streets and Ashley told us about how they played cricket in this street during summer.
We walked for a while till we stopped in a dirty little dead end alley where Ashley told us about how this was one of the Heroin “hot spots” when it was big in the city. She then told us a story of how a man she knew ran away and became addicted to Heroin when he was twelve and found a girlfriend who died in his arms on New Years Day, it was a really sad story, we walked around the corner to a place where Ashley said people still shot up Heroin and how Urban Seed tried to minimise the harm Heroin addicts did to themselves, not by trying to stopping it but by putting a sharps waste bin and a tap with clean water.
Finally we went to the Credo Cafe, the Credo Cafe is a small cafe deep in the city which is open to everyone, from the homeless to well known businessmen; Ashley told us stories of what goes on around the Cafe and the friends she’d met over the years.
Urban Seed does an amazing job and i really admire what they do.