Regent Park Focus

From Frankenfish to Robofish! From Newsweek of Obama being the first gay president to Times' Breastfeeding cover of a hot model breastfeeding a 5 year old boy! From Sports to entertainment... Kobe being taken out by Kevin Durant's entourage, while Miley Cyrus claiming that "Sex is magical and cool" . We also had updates of the Occupy movements, the EI policy reforms, and Rob Ford and his budget and his weekly weigh in cancellation adventures. These are just a few of the month of May's whackiest topics on our youth radio! Joining us with our youth radio groups from the "CatchdaFlava headquarters" is Jared, Isaac, Omar, Tresvonne, William, Bubba Africa, Nicole, and of course myself, Jerry z! Always blessed with riotous energy and youth wisdom. Come join us at catchdaflava radio at Radio Regent! jerry z

The May Last Friday was held at 246 Sackville Street and it was another fun evening with new talent. We had the Focus House Band kick off the night with what they do best as everyone ate Caribbean food. We also had Trevonne also known as 1 2 Tres read a poem he wrote. Trevonne is truly a Jack of all trades. He can produce beats, play the drums, the guitar and now write poetry? Wow! We had Isaac who is part of Catch da Flava Radio read a poem he wrote. Isaac was really nervous but as he said in his poem he, “came to finish what he started” and he did! I was so proud of him. Amazing talent from our youth in the Regent Park community! We had Sean Reyes perform who also came into the Radio Regent studios a few months ago on one of our Catch da Flava Youth Radio shows. You can check out his interview by visiting our archives on our website www.regentparkfocus.com. Sean has been through a lot after getting into a serious accident and having numerous brain surgeries. Music brings happines...

Today proved to be quite an interesting day for the boys. They were able to get some much needed excercise, thanks to Tadios, for bringing his basketball. We met at Regent Park Focus at 4:30pm and went to the basketball court across the street. At around 5:15pm, the boys were hungry, so we went across the street to Noor's Pizza to have a bite to eat. Jerry was kind enough to pay out of his own pocket for the pizzas. The boys got to choose from pepperoni and vegetarian. After the pizzas, we went to Freshco for drinks. at around 6:00, the boys came back to Regent Park Focus;we were able to watch the video recap of the boys to men program that we made a week earlier. It was all in good fun as the boys were able to see themselves in the third person. The boys were so enthusiastic about the boys to men program that they suggested extending the program though the summer. After watching the video, the boys did 30 minutes of comic art. Theme of this program was a self portrait. Many of th...

Today was a very productive and fun day for the boys. Teamwork was the theme of today. 8 boys showed up to the group today. Although we thought that it was going to thunderstorm, we planned 4:30 pm to 5:15 pm, for basketball, hoping that the sky would be clear. We were very fortunate that there was no storm, and managed to play some basketball on the basketball court across the street from Regent Park Focus. We managed to play 2 games. Not only did this teach the kids about teamwork, they got some exercise and had fun doing it. The Regent Park Community Centre across the street was nice enough to lend us their basketball for the boys. During snack time at 5:15 pm, Jerry and James talked to the boys about gang mentality and hip-hop cultures. It was interesting to hear what the boys had to say. Most of them believe that gang violence has really subsided in Regent Park; they thought that they didn't see much gang activities in Regent Park. They also seemed to stress on the impo...

Today, those that were in the boys to men program, around 7, went to Duke of York Public School to play a game of tag. The 3 staff members first present included James and Jerry; Raul joined a bit later. It seemed that James was particularly good at this game because of his speed. A life of running away from bullies, and responsibilities certainly paid off. Even though the slides and the structures on the playground were off limits to people aged 12 and over, we went on anyway. We formed two groups, consisting of 4-5 players each; it was good exercise. After a while, we went back to Regent Park Focus to have some snacks. There were tuna fish and turkey sandwiches; ham was avoided because it wasn’t halal. While having snacks, we watched a 15-minute youtube video called "Tough Guise" by Jackson Katz. He talked about the racialization of the masculine imagine in the media, and how couloured men are represented as "overly masculine" to compensate for a lack of privile...

 Daughter, student, friend, mother, patient and kind were only some of the words that were used by our Diva Girls to describe themselves. In a society where everything is on the go, and there can be so much stress and frustration it’s always nice to take a step back an re-evaluate yourself and your qualities, and that is exactly what this group of young women were able to do. On April 20, the Diva Girls were asked to draw an illustration as they see themselves today. Instantly a group of young artists were born and characters were brought to life. What was most remarkable is that every character was drawn with a smile on their face. They were then asked to write describing words about themselves and where they are in their lives right now. Girls were able to compare their drawings and see that we really aren’t that different from one another. We were all daughters, we all had siblings and we were all currently or had been students. Discussions were raised and we began to find ...

Today, we had many things planned. We had a trust/obstacle game with the boys. The goal of the game is that the boys are supposed to go around obstacles with the instructions of their team members and obtain an item. If the participant were to touch any of the obstacles, he would have to start all over again. It became confusing when the boys were unsatisfied with the teams that were chosen. We didn’t allow them to pick their own teams because that would lead to some of the participants being left out. Jerry and I decided that we should talk to the kids about the topic of bullying. This was quite an interesting topic; first, we asked the boys what forms of bullying there were. We came to agree that there was physical bullying such as punching and kicking. There was a contemporary form of bullying called cyber bullying. It included the use of offensive remarks on web sites such as facebook, twitter, or the use of text messages. It’s remarkable that technology can bring such ...

Today was a very productive day for the boys. We had 5 boys show up for the workshop, but we had a lot of fun. We were able to get Dainty Smith to come and do a workshop with the boys; this was a workshop based on teaching the boys about the negative aspects that the mainstream media has on gender, deconstructing the status quo. At first, we played a game that Jerry brought to us. It involved passing an item around a circle, using only our legs. We first tried it with our eyes open. Then, we tried it with our eyes closed; each time the item was passed, it the participant was allowed to open his eyes and help with directions; this game taught the boys some leadership skills and teamwork sills. The game was fun; it took around 20 minutes. We had a brief introduction of ourselves, as we sat in a circle. Dainty started talking about the radicalized image given of masculinity in the media. Dainty asked each participant ‘what it takes to be a man’. One of the participants said the wor...

Hey it’s Paige, George Brown Student, and as the school year winds down, (the kids aren’t the only ones counting!) we are also winding down here at Diva girls. The program will end for the year in a few months and start back up in September. Since the program is ending soon, we needed to start thinking of something to do for an end of the year project. There has been a really good turn out and new girls joining us, so to start out we did a name game to make sure we knew everybody’s name. What happened was participant one would say their name and do an action. Then participant number 2 would say their name do an action, and then say the person’s name that just went and their action. The pattern repeats itself until everybody goes. It’s a good way to remember because there is a lot of repeating and trying to remember. After that, we played another game to get girls to think about who they are and also learn interesting things about themselves. I gave everybody a piece of paper and ever...

Today was a very productive day for the Boyz 2 Men program. The topic that we were trying to teach the youth was ‘chivalry’. This was a very important topic for the topic of ‘masculinity’. It was originally from the White Ribbon Campaign, at Ryerson University, and McClungs Magazine. Sub-topics included how chivalry should evolve rather than end. Because there were some chauvinistic undertones of the issue, the boys were taught how to act and how not to act. Placement student Paige was very helpful in the elaboration of the topic. After the lesson, the boys were given a quiz. Each time they answered the question correctly, they were given a candy. The boys literally ate it up. During break time, at 5:15, the boys had some snacks and juice. They were very intelligent and were able to retain much of the lesson taught to them. Afterward, the boys did some arts and crafts. Each of them made a collage with magazines, glue, and scissors given to them. The theme that the activi...

Today was the first day of the Boyz 2 Men program. Unfortunately, we only had one staff member present. The boys who showed up included Fataltal, Natnael, Tadios, Claude, Mousbah, Yacin, Canaan, and Kayden. We did a brief introduction exercise with the boys. We had a bag of skittles; each youth had 2 candies. The rule of the activity is that each colour represented something that the boys were to talk about: Lime represented favorite movie; grape was favorite place, lemon was favorite person; strawberry was favorite food, and orange was the wild card. The boys loved the part when they got to eat the candy. We were able to play a game called acrostics; this is a game in which you choose a person, and use the letters in their name to make a description of the person. Each boy was supposed to pick a male role model and use acrostics to describe him. We lost time of track when we were doing this activity because there was a lot of side talk that was going on. Many interesting c...

Hi everyone, My name is Maria and I've come to Toronto all the way from Ireland to work with Regent Park Focus for seven weeks as part of a cultural and training program. I'm into my second week of being in Toronto and working in Regent Park Focus. So far, I'm enjoying every minute of my time in Canada and of course working in Focus. I should maybe explain a little about how I ended up being here in Toronto and working for Focus. Back home in Ireland, I applied for a nineteen week program called, Springboard. The course name is 'Wider Horizons'. It's a program which is open to anyone interested in furthering their knowledge and experience. It offers the chance for a person to gain the crucial experience they need to hopefully be able to eventually have a career in an area of work which they love. Mine being film production, photography, editing & music. I got a perfect placement in terms of all those things, since Focus offers them all and more. There we...

Our April Last Friday was really fun. We had an incredible line up of performers. We had the Focus House Band who played some great lively songs. Speaking of Regent Park Focus House Band, we also had Subway Roy perform. He started the Focus House Band. Subway Roy was a placement student at Regent Park Focus and he taught the drumming group. Subway Roy fundraised and raised a lot of money to buy equipment for the band. When the band started Tejah was the original singer. Tejah is the little sister of Trevonne who is still in the Focus House Band. Subway Roy took the band to perform at many events and venues including The Hard Rock Café. Subway Roy rocked the crowd with his guitar skills. However, he did not play the drums. We also had Kush I Krown perform. Kush is an amazing young woman who sings reggae music. She stated that she is doing this for the kids. She has an amazing spirit. My favourite part was when Kush I Krown gave me a shout out. I love her lyrics. If you want to listen...

I was in class when Mr. Blue called Brandon, Abu and me. He informed us about a group called Focus and that it was a big group and there are many groups within it. Mr. Blue told us that we were going to join the radio group, we all got very excited. When we got to Focus we met Andrew, our leader, he gave us a tour of the place and told us our jobs. Mr. Blue assigned us our partners; Alexis and I, Brandon with Lam and Abu with Mr. Blue. First Andrew asked us to pick a topic for our radio show. So Alexis and I picked fashion as our topic, Lam and Brandon picked YouTube, and Abu and Mr. Blue picked drug addictions. Than Andrew advised us to make questions about our topic, we researched our topic every Tuesdays and Thursday, we also looked for a person to interview, and we got ready to interview Erin, Andrew informed us that we were going to do the interview on Tuesday 28. On that day everybody was thrilled, after we finished Andrew let us know that we did a good job. Next day, we starte...

Hi there! It’s Hani On March 21, 2012 the girls did workshop about teamwork. At the beginning we discussed about how their day went. We talked about school and any many new things that they wanted to share. Secondly, we did ice breaking games, such as the “Big Buddy” and the “Warp Speed” and the girls love it. Most girls said they had fun and enjoyed playing the games. They even ask me if they can continue to play. I told them the workshop is even better. Then, started the workshop with them. I asked them what a teamwork means to them. Some of the girls said,“Teamwork means the whole group work together”. Some other girls in the group said,“Teamwork meant that the group listens to each other’s opinions, cooporate with one other, and respect the whole group”. After that, I put the girls into small teams and gave them mini marshmallows and toothpicks to build a “Marshmallow Tower”. I told them which ever team wins gets a price. The girls competed and they each wanted their team to w...

Monday – Facilitator and blog author: James Chan March 12, 2012 was the first day in the March Break Fun Camp at Regent Park Focus. The first activity we did with the kids was a brief introduction. I introduced myself, and as an icebreaker, each of the kids told us their name, and told the group one true and two false attributes about themselves. The rest of us had to guess which attribute was true. A few of the ground rules were laid out by a brainstorm done by the youth. Some of the ground rules include the use of indoor voices, and, put downs were discouraged as well. At around 10:30 am, all fifteen of the youth were separated into 4 groups, and were taken out the take pictures. Unfortunately, we only had four cameras that worked. The session was self-themed. After lunchtime, at around 1:30 pm, Kim from Toronto Public Health was kind enough to come in and talk to us about “the birds and the bees”, which was rhetorical for reproductive health. The topics were inclusive of HIV, AID...

My experience volunteering with Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre Photography Workshop My journey with Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre began back in September when I attended a Regent Park Community Fair. Various grass roots and community organizations had gathered on that afternoon to solicit volunteers. Regretfully, I was not attending the fair voluntarily. As it happened, I had to complete 40 hours of volunteer work as part of my Bachelor of Education program through York University: Regent Park Satellite campus. Interestingly, as time went on, I became less and less compelled to volunteer based on the mandatory basis of my program and more and more motivated to go based on the great experiences I was having while volunteering with Focus. To paint a clearer picture, this volunteer experience was our Volunteer Practicum Placement and its purpose seemed two fold. On the one hand, this outreach was meant to support a variety of community organizations in Re...

Last Friday for February was awesome! Not only was it fun because Rainbow Cinemas and Rainbow Bear showed up for a surprise visit  but we also had incredible performers! We started off the night with some Sri Lankan food which included kothu roti, samosas, and noodles with veggies, shrimp and chicken. We had had some chocolate chip cookies courtesy of radio show host Paul Corby. The first performers were Projonmo. Projonmo, featuring Shawrov, Ka-Z,Tamim, Rahin and Ajhar is the newest craze to hit your speakers. Infusing both English and Bengali hip-hop/r&b/rock together to bring a new sensation to your ears. However, opportunity presented itself in the form of Re2uned. As time went on, he was introduced to Ka-Z, who was a fellow aspiring Bengali artist.With time, came new faces. Tamim, a classmate of Shawrov's was particularly impressive on the guitars. Ironically it worked out that Tamim somehow ended up being Ka-Z;s neighbor, completing the trio. In 2011, there was the ...

As a volunteer, I taught the Poster Design program during Fall 2011 and now the program has been partnered up with Comic Life. The children were designing posters digitally, using Adobe Illustrator and images from the internet. Some of the topics they covered were about healthy habits, safety, and people who inspired them. When I first started, I didn’t really know how to start introducing them to a program they had probably not encountered before so I let them choose what they wanted to make their posters of and then gave them themes to work with. In working with new media, the children that participate are learning a new program that can help them with future projects. Nicole Connors

My name is Hani; I am a student from George Brown College in the Community Worker Program.  I am a coordinator in training, with in the Divas Program at Regent Park focus.   The program is for girls between the ages of 11 to 16 years of age and it happens every Friday. We had a couple of new girls who were interested in the Divas program.  This Friday February 3, the girls came together and did educational workshops about healthy decision making with Public health Nurse (Tina). Before Tina began, the girls enjoyed a healthy snack.  Furthermore, they discussed how to make healthy decisions. The girls were very involved with activities that Tina created for them.  They discussed the six steps to decision making/problem solving.  For example, the first step they discussed was “ Identify and define the problem.  Consider what an optimal outcome or goal might be.”  Second step was to “list possible options/alternatives or choices.  Third s...

Last Friday for February was awesome! Not only was it fun because Rainbow Cinemas and Rainbow Bear showed up but we also had incredible performers! We started off the night with some Sri Lankan food which included kothu roti, samosas, and noodles with veggies, shrimp and chicken. We had had some chocolate chip cookies courtesy of radio show host Paul Corby. The first performers were Projonmo. Projonmo, featuring Shawrov, Ka-Z,Tamim, Rahin and Ajhar is the newest craze to hit your speakers. Infusing both English and Bengali hip-hop/r&b/rock together to bring a new sensation to your ears. However, opportunity presented itself in the form of Retuned. As time went on, he was introduced to Ka-Z, who was a fellow aspiring Bengali artist.With time, came new faces. Tamim, a classmate of Shawrov's was particularly impressive on the guitars. Ironically it worked out that Tamim somehow ended up being Ka-Z;s neighbor, completing the trio. In 2011, there was the add...

Hey it’s Paige here again, In case you missed my last blog, I am a George Brown Student, studying Community Work. I am doing my placement here at Regent Park Focus. This Friday at Diva Girls there was a pretty good turn out considering some of the girls were unable to make it. Due to the fact that it was a P.A day for the girls in middle school, we started the program at 2 and ended at 4; the downside being, the high school girls didn’t make it! Friday the 24 th , we are holding Last Friday and the Diva girls are going to be participating in it, by doing a poem or a skit. So to get the girls brains going, when they came in we got them to reflect in their journals about Black History Month and how it affects them, positively or negatively. They could also reflect on somebody who they feel should be recognized as a good role model or an important person within Black History Month. Once everybody arrived and wrote for a few minutes, we did a fun icebreaker activity to get to know ea...

I really enjoy volunteering for Catch da Flava Radio show. It’s a great way to discuss current events and to educate listeners on issues that matter. I think the group on Wednesday is a good group they offer a lot of variety and different p erspectives. Finding ways to explore the issues ways in which I had never thought. Even though I research the topics a head of time I feel like I learn more through our discussion. I am always impressed how remarkably creative and insightful are the youth that participate in the show always offering new and fresh perspective. Best of all, however, is when we have guest to interview. I always find our guest interesting and filled with knowledge and the issue we discuss are important to the community and youth the same. It’s always great to get a first hand perspective from those interviewed. David Cormier

My name is Xavier Luxenburg and I’ve been working with Regent Park Focus on the Catch Da Flava Magazine. I’m a Bachelor of Education student at York University Regent Park site. My job at Focus is to facilitate students in the program by helping them write articles and improve writing skills. Our current goal is to publish an issue on the topic of multiculturalism once we get enough articles from youths in the area. When I started in late September of 2011, I did not know what to expect. As part of my programs requirement, I needed to volunteer 40 hours in a community-run organization. I chose Focus because I liked the idea of making youths more knowledgeable on media arts.  Regardless, I needed the hours to graduate but I found myself in a welcoming environment. The staff is pretty chill and the youth I’ve worked with are really great.             However, the last few months have been a bit of a challenge. Overall, att...

Hi there, My name is Laura and through York University’s Regent Park teaching program, I’ve had the opportunity to volunteer in Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre computer lab. Here, I’ve had the chance to meet youth from the community in a more relaxed after-school setting and introduce them to interactive programs including Comic Life. In the computer lab, kids have the chance to build their own storyboards with both images and words using MAC software. Not only do they have the opportunity to learn skills using the latest technology and become more media literate, but they have the chance to share their personal stories and own ideas with their peers and community. Since September, we’ve grown the program and taught different aspects of technology to kids aged 7-18. In December, we launched a contest to reward kids for their efforts. The resulting entries were amazingly creative and all those who participated received movie tickets to the neighborhood cinema. The c...

Regent Park Radio,2011 in perspective! Starting October 2011, I signed up at Radio Regent as Volunteer coordinator. It was all new to me.  I was excited to be volunteering at an organization that used media to engage youth. A half an hour show on internet radio every Tuesday. Our core  participants are Jerry, Fatima, Tresvonne, Emmanuel and  Michele. I had much to learn from the pros.  The first few sessions we went with the flow.  The participants addressed a variety of issues they were interested in and spoke naturally and freely about these topics.  There is a great deal of energy in the sound booth, the jokes, the bloopers just add to the fun we have. Like they say it’s the journey that counts!   A few weeks into the show it was decided to change the format and give it a little more structure, yet keeping the openness and energy.  The format consisted of a Main Topic, something usually in International/National news that participants ...

Hello everyone, First of all, I would like to start by saying how much I enjoy and feel proud to be a part of the Regent Park Focus programs. Ever since I set my foot on the Focus door back when it was at the Dundas street location 6 years ago, and I was a placement student, I knew then that this is the place I want to work in and grow with the organization as well. I had pictured a great environment to help the kids at risk with great mentoring and assisting them with their creative talents and teamwork skills. I was put in charge with the Media Lab supervision, Comic Arts instruction, and my most favorite of all, the Radio program in which I was the Radio Coordinator of the 'Catchdaflava radio'. Catchdaflava radio has been delivering as always the topics of global, social, political, and entertaining issues . In this program I had the privilege to work with the youth and the volunteers to coordinate with the radio show as well. Working with Zeebe and David is ...

My name is Paige, and I am a student at George Brown College. I am studying to become a community worker, and right now I am doing my placement here, at Regent Park Focus. Today is my first day on the job, and tonight is my first night being apart of the Diva’s girls group.  Many girls showed up for the group, and even though all the girls faces were new to me; there were a few girls that were new to Regent Park Focus, Diva Girls Group.  The girls enjoyed snacks and drinks while out volunteer Heidi taught them how to knit scarfs, one at a time. Heidi put together a bag for each girl to take home; it included knitting needles and different types of yarn. A few of the girls blew me away and knew exactly what they were doing, and many of the girls (un like myself), caught on to knitting and the technique right away. Everybody enjoyed knitting and the time they spent with Heidi so much that Heidi was asked to come back next week for the first hour and continue to help the girls...

My name is Hani. I am a student from George Brown College in the Community Worker Program. I am a coordinator in training, with in the Divas Program at Regent Park Focus. The program is for girls between the ages of 11 to 16 years of age and it happens every Friday. We had a couple of new girls who were interested in the Divas program. This Friday, the girls came together and did educational workshops about healthy decision making with Public health Nurse (Tina). Before Tina began, the girls enjoyed a healthy snack.  Furthermore, they discussed how to make healthy decisions. The girls were very involved with activities that Tina created for them. They discussed the six steps to decision making/problem solving. For example, the first step they discussed was “ Identify and define the problem. Consider what an optimal outcome or goal might be.” Second step was to “list possible options/alternatives or choices. Third step was to “evaluate the options and gather information...

Hello, my name is Melanie and I am currently a student from George Brown College, doing my field placement here at Regent Park Focus Media Arts. The last Friday event that was held on January 27 th 2012 was my very first last Friday event that I went to. The event was good I enjoyed every minute of it. The food was great, they had Chinese food with noodles and vegetables, stir fry chicken and chicken cutlets. The performances biography is listed below: Sonny Pathirana - I have been in the entertainment industry for over 25 years. A multi-talented entertainer, sings, plays piano, guitar, drums and Indian flute. I have performed in a number of countries including, Singapore, Dubai, Maldive Isalnds, Sri Lanka and Canada showcasing both my one man show and my band, "Think Red". My other interests include music, poetry and writing. I am also a budding street magic performer and an illusionist. Owner of Black-Art Entertainment, Sonny's one stop shopping center for all you...

Over 20 Years of Regent Park Focus. Isn’t it hard to believe?! Our anniversary celebrations may be over. However, making meaningful media productions with youth in Regent Park is continuing. If anyone does not already know who we are, Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre - commonly known as Focus - is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1990 as part of a provincial government initiative to promote healthy communities. Now entering its 21st year, Focus has just moved into a new facility as part of the Regent Park revitalization project, and despite provincial and city funding cutbacks, it continues to provide young people with the space, equipment and training needed to use radio, photography, print, video, and music to bring their voices into the community. To honor its involvement in Regent Park, Focus invited the publi...