Mulgrave Park youth 'Spread the Love' in Halifax

Halifaxs Mulgrave Park was looking to improve the image of their neighbourhood Wednesday with the first ever Spread the Love Day.

Young people from the community took to the streets of downtown Halifax handing out candies and cards.

The cards were printed with inspiring messages and passed to many who walked along Spring Garden Road. Some of the cards read "life is better with you in it" and "you just made my day".

As a Halifax police officer wrote a ticket for a person who had been pulled over,Chanea Parsons approached and gave the driver and the officer a card.

He was very receptive to getting a card while he was getting a ticket, so that was kind of fun, she says. I hope I made a small impact on his day.

As the group made their way up Spring Garden Road, the teens put the cards under windshield wipers of parked cars.

DeRico Symonds is a community outreach worker with Phoenix Outreach Program and says the group wants to present a positive image of their community.

It started through summer program planning through Phoenix Youth Programs, he says. And thenfrom there we presented to the kids and every idea after that was basically theirs.

Jayce Forgeron agrees there is a negative stigma often attached to his neighbourhood

"Most people think that we're just a community that's more about the violence and all that, but we're more of a family and we more like help each other instead of just like against each other 24/7."

After the group finished handing out the treats, they posed for a photo and then went for pizza.

The group is already thinking about doing this again next year.