Shifting Gears

Hours vary - for more information call (602) 850-6703

Shifting Gears, is a mentoring program for low-income youth. Students attend a workshop for six or more sessions to learn basic bike repair skills from adult volunteer supervisors. Students also attend a bike safety workshop. At the end of the program, participants may take home one of the bikes they've fixed. They are also provided with a helmet, lock and headlight.

The additional bikes that students repair are given to clients of the Ministry to the Homeless to assist them in employment transportation (after steady work is obtained).

This program also provides repaired bikes to other agencies that need them for their own clients, and partners with the City of Phoenix, which helps us collect donations of bikes needing repair via the police precinct offices around the city.

With participants from 10 to 18 years of age, Shifting Gears is a productive after school program that enables them to meet adult role models, make new friends and acquire new skills. Bikes donated to St. Vincent de Paul, in need of repair, no longer have to be discarded or sold as scrap. Homeless individuals with new jobs also have their own healthy, reliable and free transportation to work.