Regent Park Focus

“Francophonie” Episode Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with the General and Executive Director of the organization Canoraa Inc., Jacques Yamdjie. Canoraa is a francophone organization focused on offering services and resources to the young community of Toronto. They have dedicated their time to offering workshops, employment resources, volunteer experience, as well as advocating for the awareness and prevention of youth crime in communities. In the episode, we discussed Jacques Yamdjie’s personal experience integrating into Ontario as an immigrant, multiculturalism, francophone services and his thoughts on the changes within the francophone community. Additionally, we talked about their mission and future goals for Canoraa. This organization has done fantastic work in outreaching with the young francophone community of Toronto, allowing them to network with each other and develop more abilities with those learning experiences and the workshops. By: Anne-Julie Guerrier Dat...

April 19th Catch da Flava Blog On tonight’s Catch Da Flava, we spoke about the TTC’s decision to begin randomly testing TTC drivers for drugs and alcohol. This initiative is a response to the fifty-seven Toronto Transit Commission workers who tested positive for controlled substances and alcohol in 2015. The board hearing was held March 23 and employees were informed that funding would be released. The letter to the employees stated that the TTC would be asking the Ontario government to make random drug tests mandatory for all public transit agencies. Random Drug testing will be effective immediately and the penalties for filing one are steep. This week, we also held a discussion about occupy CNN. Occupy CNN is a protest that began April 17, 2016 to object to the media filtering tactics in regards the American Presidential election. The protesters believed that Bernie Sanders was receiving unequal coverage by CNN compared to his opponents. These media tactic are directly influenc...

On tonight’s Catch da Flava, we had a special 30minute segment with Parachute Canada. Parachute Canada is a national charitable organization dedicated to preventing injuries and saving lives. Alex Kelly, who is a senior program coordinator from parachute, came in to talk to us about the work parachute has done in Toronto, and also all across Canada. The main focus of our conversation was on parachutes #safe4life campaign which is a campaign centered on keeping young workers in the workplace. It educates on the rights that youth have in the workplace and also other things youth could do to protect themselves. One common theme that was mentioned was that at times, youth have a fear of speaking up in fear of losing their jobs. One key thing to remember is that youth and everybody else have the right to refuse unsafe work. I personally went through a situation like that at my first job, where I was afraid to say “no” when I was asked to do a precarious task. You Tuber Michael Rizzi who ...

Last week, the Divas Media Group met and focused on their Tobacco Awareness Public Service Announcements. The ladies finished writing the script to their third PSA and made a realistic outline for the fourth PSA. The ladies decided that they wanted to work on the Game Show as their finale project. Near the end of the meeting, the ladies and their youth mentors discussed what they liked about the program and why they joined. Some ladies spoke about how they wouldn’t have joined if their friends hadn’t recommended the place. Next week, we ae having guest speakers from the Canadian Women’s Foundation. The ladies had a group discussion and decided on a few questions to ask the guest speakers. The ladies are very excited to see and be apart of the new changes that may come to the Divas Media Group next year. By: Tusma Sulieman

On Monday March 14th 2016 Regent Park Focus had done a radio documentary on Jerry Martin. Mr. Martin runs a facility called Martin Medical Services in Saskatchewan, his facility focuses on the medical aspect of consuming cannabis but also working and building a connection between the people and his local community that access his services. Our guest Jerry also explained how his facility provides many different services that branch off and correlate to the main focus, which is medical cannabis and cannabis products. Martin Medical Service’s also offers advice with what you are buying and how that might help with your specific need. Jerry explained to us that depending on what type of Cannabis product you’re using it could help with chronic joint pain and cancer. We also got to learn what the actual term medical marijuana meant, which is the care people are taking of growing cannabis. Overall it was great learning experience about the many benefits medical Cannabis has and places like...

Annual General Meeting Blog Friday, April 1 st 2016 Last week, Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Center held The Annual General Meeting. Boards members met and discussed how programming was being implemented and any new changes to past initiatives. The members also received an update on completed project and ones that are in progress. The board members critically analyzed the challenges that have arisen with programming and voted on ways to eliminate the barriers. The board members held a recognition ceremony for those outstanding volunteer in the past year. Some recipients were from Catch da Flava youth radio, Divas Media Group, RPTV and Radio Regent radio show. Congratulations to all the outstanding volunteers who contributed their skills to Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre in the past year. The board acknowledged the highlights of the past year which included winning the National Award for Best Programming Strategies to reach marginalized groups. During the meet...

Divas Media Group Blog Last week, the Divas Media Group met and had the opportunity to attend the Annual General Meeting. The ladies had the opportunity to discuss the format of programming and any changes that they wished to implement. The ladies learned about governance and applied concepts such as consensus and majority rule throughout the meeting. The ladies actively participated in the discussions regarding new opportunities in regards to The Divas Media Group. The Tobacco youth mentors were present and shared the progress of the segments. Maesha, a youth mentor, was the recipient of the Outstanding Volunteer Award. She was acknowledged for her involvement in facilitating and organizing workshops on Tobacco for the Divas Media Group. She has been an amazing addition to the Divas Media Group and the ladies congratulated her. The ladies seem excited for the new initiatives that will be implemented in the next year. Next week, the ladies will be finishing up their second To...

On tonight’s Catch da Flava, we talked about the Black Lives Matter movement in Toronto. It is a movement that begun with the goal of extending Afro-fests music event to two days rather than one, and most importantly they marched on the streets to fight for justice for 45-year old Andrew Loku, who was gunned down by police after he allegedly lunged at an officer with a hammer in his hands. This is just another instance of death caused by police, another black life taken away. One major issue I have is the fact that the SIU is the only governing body that investigates situations involving issues where police are involved in major injuries to civilians, sexual assault or death. The SIU rarely releases any details of any officers involved in a situation with a civilian. A lot of the time, all the media tells us is that the SIU are “looking into the matter”. There is a large amount of secrecy and understandably so, it is to protect their police officers. The BLM wanted the name of the off...

On tonight’s Catch da Flava, we talked about the recent string of violence that has hit Toronto in the past week and a half; there have been incidents ranging from stabbings, shootings and bodies being found in places of worship. It is still early in 2016, at least in my opinion it is, I personally thought the violence in Toronto had slowed down since the huge burst earlier in January, where Toronto saw over 20 gun related incidents take place which resulted in 10 deaths. On a similar topic, we talked about the Toronto Police’s plan to ban random instances of carding. The plan is to make sure every civilian is informed of the situation before being carded, and to ensure that Police Officers write a report about the reason for carding. Many of us at Catch da Flava have had incidents where we were carded without reason so naturally we would be in favour of this. However there is always a downside because it makes the police officers job a little more difficult and some real criminals ...

This past week was probably one of the most sad and violent weeks of 2016. First off, there were the bombings in Brussels, which is a city in Belgium, which claimed the lives of 35 people and injured over 250. ISIS claimed responsibility and it was linked to the same group that carried out the Paris attacks. Secondly there was the death of Toronto mayor Rob Ford after his long battle with cancer. Personally it affected me greatly because I’ve met him before he became mayor and got to see what a kind person he is. He had done great things for the city of Toronto and the citizens who do not have a voice. Sadly during his term as mayor, he got more attention for the wrongs in his life rather than the good things he had done but he will always be appreciated as a down to earth and fearless person who just wanted fairness and equality. We talked about culture appropriation and culture vultures in popular media. We talked about the difference between being inspired by other cultures or art...

Divas Media Group Blog Last week the Divas Media Group met and the ladies had Muna from Gashanti Unity guest speak. The ladies participated in a “Bingo” activity based on Black History Month. The ladies learned new terms and took turns facilitating the activity. Later, the ladies along with Muna had a group discussion on how their social identities would be different if black people were not granted civil rights. The girls reflected on their lives and identified privileges that they have that were not granted to females and black people during the slave trade. At the end of the meeting, the ladies spoke with Muna about shadeism and its origin. The ladies are excited to watch the short documentary Shadeism in the next couple of weeks. By: Tusma Sulieman Date: February 25, 2016

Last Week, here at Regent Park Focus we had seven students come from the University of Toronto – involved in the Alternative Reading Week Program. These students participated in the collaboration for three days; each day different tasks were assigned to the students. On day one we welcomed the students to the space by introducing them to the two programs: RPTV and Radio Regent. They were shown what happens behind the close doors in terms of production. After the walk through we had an icebreaker called snowball to get better acquainted with each other. After the warm up, we went through the agenda for the day. On the same day we had the students create and research topics related to community media access, they were told that this material would be used on Catch Da Flava, and that they also would be hosting the segment for that week. It went GREAT and the students were complete naturals at hosting their own radio segment. On the second day, we distributed pre-made poster of each of ou...

On tonight’s catch da flava, we talked about one of the biggest issues that impact everyone young and old. Online harassment is one of the most serious types of bullying in the entire world. It has lead to many young teens taking their own lives as well as taking the lives of others on a large scale (school shootings). Online Harassment or cyber bullying is not the same as face-to-face bullying. Online Harassment opens up the door for literally everyone in the world with access to the Internet, to either be bullies or heroes. The Internet is a place for people to express themselves and their thoughts but obviously everyone will not agree with everyone else. It is a place for people to express their right to freedom of speech which extends to the internet world however at times, freedom of speech allows people to say the nastiest things imaginable without facing much prosecution other than that of the internet world. Recently employers have been making it a habit to filter out cyber b...

Last week, the girls from the Diva Media Group had to concentrate on writing a journal entry in honor of black history month. The girls had the choice to write either about their favorite black history role model or why black history is important to them. This exercise allowed the girls to reflect upon historic facts and the significance of black leaders that have positively influenced the movement of human rights for minorities. The ladies participated in a brief discussion to share their thoughts and views about this revolutionary month. The diva’s underlined some stimulating opinions about history and included some thoughts on inspirational leaders such as Martin Luther King. Additionally, the ladies also participated in a Regent Park Focus meeting about the progression of the Mobile Media Bike, in which two special guests were invite to share their ideas and experiences working with media mobility on bicycles. By: Anne-Julie Guerrier

On tonight’s Catch da Flava, we talked about the crisis currently going on in Toronto and the GTA. It has only been a month since the New Year and there have already been 12 homicides with the youngest victim being a 17-year-old boy. It is frightening that there have been this many homicides so early into the year. What could be causing this? One CBC article talks about the weather and how it may be to blame. This isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds, since more people are outside on the streets when it is warm outside. Speaking of weather, Super Bowl 50 was hot this year. Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos defeated Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers 24-10; It was a good day for most fans. However what really caught fire was Beyoncé’s halftime performance. The two previous performances by Bruno Mars and Coldplay were pretty solid, however Beyoncé caught the world’s attention. She performed her newest song called “Formation” and the song basically highlighted the issues many black p...

Last week the Divas Media Group met and the ladies outlined their goals/objectives for the next couple of months. The ladies participated in a “time capsule” workshop where they wrote letters to themselves. The letters were then sealed and will be opened at the end of the program. The ladies and the tobacco youth mentors printed multiple copies of the Tobacco prevention PSA. The ladies then got into their characters and practiced their lines. At the end of the meeting, the ladies lead a small group discussion surrounding Black History Month and its importance. By: Tusma Sulieman and Julie Guerrier January 29, 2016

On tonights catch da flava, we discuss a couple of very interesting topics, few but interesting. We found a story about a woman who had been keeping two children as slaves for the past 6 years. I guess most children feel like slaves when their parents tell them to clean the dishes or take out the trash. The case in New York was a case of actual slavery where the children's freedoms and liberty were taken away. It raises questions at to how much of that is actually going on? We also talked about the environment and how it is drastically changing for the worse. We talked about a massive glacier in the western region of Antarctica that could potentially cause global distress. Vice news claims that if this giant piece of ice melts, it could increase water levels up to 10 feet. Meaning many island nations and coastal towns will be left underwater. Finally we talked about the $1.3bn powerball in the U.S.A. and the hysteria it has caused. It is the highest payout on US history and ha...

Divas in Media Group Blog Last week, the Divas Media Group met and discussed the Tobacco PSA radio segment. The ladies made a few changes and focused on assigning roles to each of its members. We had two past Divas (now youth leaders) visit and give guidance to the ladies while leading the discussion. The ladies are enthusiastic and eager to begin taping. At the end of the meeting the ladies engaged each other in a conversation around the upcoming Black History Month. The ladies have brainstormed various activities/videos that they would like to be apart of in honour of their Black heritage. Next week, the ladies will expand more on their brainstorms. Stay tuned for some more exciting and creative projects from the Divas Media Group. By: Tusma Sulieman Date: January 22, 2016

This past week, The Divas in Media Group met and finalized their roles and obligations in the upcoming PSA’s. The ladies made a realistic timeline and created steps to ensure that they remain on track. They discussed possible future career choices and aspirations. Their career choices ranged from science related to arts based. The ladies were interested in having a speaker in each of their chosen career fields hold a workshop. The ladies partook in an opinion activity based on current social trends in the media. The ladies made concise statements and gave examples from the media when arguing their choices. They eventually went on to lead the discussion themselves and come up with social issues that they regard to be controversial. The ladies finished the day off with a peer lead discussion on activities they wish to do throughout the year. By: Tusma S.

Last week, the ladies of the Diva's Media Group gathered together to discuss and brainstorm their upcoming media project. The goal was to underline an important topic for a public service announcement. There were recurring subjects such as the Muslim religion, Isis, hijabs, radicalization etc. Accordingly, the girls decided to narrow their public service announcement on the misleading perception and preconceived notions of Muslims. Their intentions were to highlight the current issues of radicalization within communities. The PSA is a scenario that shows the negative influence that the media and the community has had on the younger generation, leading them to follow in others footsteps by mistreating Muslims. The PSA will express the issues of this new epidemic. The Divas had the opportunity to share and add their input to the scenario. As we discussed and developed the screenplay, different character roles were separated within the group. As an initiative, the girls thought it wo...

With today being the final Catch da Flava radio show of the year, the team decided to keep things light and enjoyable. We chose not to focus on negative news, we chose to freestyle the show and it turned out great. We shared a lot of laughs and laughter is always good. We spoke about UFC 194: Connor McGregor vs Jose Aldo and whether it was a waste of money for people who paid to watch it. McGregor and Aldo were the main event and their fight only lasted about 13 seconds. Do people pay for a good fight? Or a quick 10-second knock out? Today was also the first day that grocery stores in Ontario could sell alcohol. Not all groceries stores are participating, however having alcohol available at grocery stores could be convenient for people as well as damaging to store owners and the surrounding communities. On a similar note, Premier Kathleen Wynne believes that marijuana should be legalized and only sold by the LCBO. Is this a good or bad decision? What will legalization mean for the t...

Catch Da Flava On tonights Catch Da Flava, we had a special 30-minute interview for our Youth at Work Safety segment. We had two guests; Catherine is a lawyer with the injured workers consultants and Heather who is a victim of workplace injury and also works with and advocates for injured workers. Heather actually had a very unique injury due to the fact that she has an invisible injury. Heather had a tough experience with workers compensation because it is hard to prove that her injury was something that came from her place of work. It is usually easier to receive compensation if you have a visible injury such as, a broken arm or leg. Catherine explained some of the hidden details in workers compensations rules/policies and what is being done to change workers comp to accommodate invisible injuries. Later on in the show, we talked about more Donald trump! Usually the only time we talk about the same topic nearly everyweek was with Uber, but these days news on uber has been quiete...

The Crossroads Punjabi Cultural Show Blog On December 8th we had our first Crossroads with Punjabi Cultural show take place. We had a guest on our show who calls himself SB, who is upcoming musician within the Punjabi community. The music SB creates in the category of Rap/Hip-Hop music. SB has been making music for a few years as he was explaining his story of high school having a huge influence on him creating music. SB is from the Punjabi descent and emphasized that his diverse cultural had a huge impact on his music in a positive way. SB told us a story about his first musical experiences with his friends which lead him to record his first song. We also discussed the current issues of the state of Punjab in India. SB mentioned how music can be empowering and in sense advocate for social issues in India. Later on in the show we talked about how the government in India started funding programs that supported arts & culture programs. We concluded on how powerful music can be and ...

DIVA’S MEDIA GROUP This week the girls from the Diva’s Media Group focused on enforcing positive affirmations and images through the creation of unique vision boards. This activity motivated the girls to strengthen their self-esteem. The idea of a vision board allows the girls to be surround themselves with positive images of who they want to become, where they want to travel, their desires, dream careers and much more. In order to create this vision board, the girls had to cut out pictures in magazines, newspapers and create drawings. They were able to extend their creative abilities and critically think of their future aspirations. The girls will also have the opportunity to apply this activity to their upcoming Girls Talk video, where they will engage in discussion and present their vision boards.  The divas were able to enjoy creating and developing their own unique vision boards. By: Anne-Julie Guerrier

Last week, the ladies from the Diva’s Media Group attended the second meeting involving members who are actively working with Regent Park Focus, to discuss the upcoming project of the Mobile Media Bike. This project will encourage the development of new media ideas that will promote Regent Park Focus. The meeting allowed members to underline the main advantages and disadvantages that were listed at the previous meeting, to now form concrete ideas that will narrow down the Mobile Media Bike’s purpose. The Divas were able to participate and give ideas on the focus of the utility of the bike within the community. The girls chose to present a specific event, in which the bike can be utilized. The “Sunday In The Park” is an event in July that occurs in the Regent Park community, was an excellent choice for the girls as they recognized the volume of families and young girls that participate at the annual fair. The girls explained the ways the Mobile Media Bike could be used with the parti...

This week in Diva’s Media Group, the young ladies explored the themes of beauty and self-confidence. The group had the chance to view “Girls Talk: The Sexualization of Girls in Media”, a video that invited a young group of girls from 11 to 14 years old to advocate for their definition of beauty while analyzing pictures of current women in the media. The Diva’s participated in their own “girls talk”, sharing their views and observations on the media’s perception of beauty. They all had unique definitions of the term beauty, pointing out key words such as friendliness, pure hearth, personality, awesomeness and more. The girls also identified their role models and offered individual explanations for their choices. The Diva’s expressed their advocacy for girls as they defined and acknowledged true inner beauty.

On tonight's Catch da Flava, We decided to introduce a new 5-minute music/art segment to the show. We thought that talking about depressing news all the time would eventually get pretty stale so every week from this day onward, we will feature some sort of art/music element to the show. We talked a little bit about the new kitchen library that will be opening on November 5th in Daniel Spectrum, as well as the tragic Russian airline crash that claimed the lives of 224 civilians, what could have brought the plane down? To listen to this show, go to: http://www.regentparkfocus.com/radio/2015.html

On tonights Catch Da Flava, we talk about our new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the future of Canada. We talked about voter turnout, and the controversial Bill-C51 and how it will affect people in Canada. We also talked about something that many people are worried about..World War 3!, how will it start? How will thw world end?

On October 16th 2015, the student leaders from the Youth Talk Collective had the opportunity to present a project proposal at Toronto Metro City Hall for The Investment in Youth Engagement Initiative. The Youth Talk Collective is made of a youth alumni of the Regent Park Focus Media Arts Centre’s training program. The Investment in Youth Engagement Initiative, led by Toronto Public Health, was established to encourage youth engagement work on Health topics, with an emphasis on tobacco. The initiative creates various opportunities for youth to advocate for healthy lifestyles, develop leadership skills and engage in local communities. A youth panel for the Investment in Youth Engagement greeted Julia Pham and Maeshah Haque, two student leaders from the Youth Talk Team to speak on their plan to bring awareness on tobacco. The young ladies proposed to create a media project underlining tobacco prevention and awareness with a focus on radio broadcasting. In the past year, students explored ...

On tonight's show, we focus on the upcoming elections and talk about the importance of voting with our special guests Asma and Aya who both volunteer with the Canadian Arab Institute. We touched on subjects regarding how Arab youth are affected by western lifestyle, as well as possible reasons why many youth in Canada do not vote. We discussed many interesting topics that everybody should hear about, especially our political representatives. Check it out at http://www.regentparkfocus.com/radio/media/2015-10-06.mp3

On tonights Catch Da Flava, we talked about the vaughn car crash that claimed the lives of 4 people including 3 young children. A drunk driver who sped through an intersection and slammed into the van that contained the 3 young children and their grandfather killed them. We also spoke about driverless cars and how they would impact the masses, as well as how they would the taxi industry and other businesses. We touched on the Uber vs Taxi drivers’ fiasco and how uber should be regulated. To conclude the show we talked about our “favourite” person, Donald Trump and what he would do for american citizens if he did end up becoming president of the United States of America

On tonights Catch Da Flava, we talked about the wrongful arrest of 14 year-old Ahmed Mohammed who made international headlines after he was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school. His teacher assumed it was a bomb and reported Ahmed. We discussed racial profiling and stereotyping and how it affects people in their day-to-day lives, we also briefly talked about how Ahmed’s situation could have been handled differently.

On tonight's show we talk about Youtube comedian Nicole Arbour's "Dear: Fat People" video which has generated a lot of controversy and backlash for promoting fat-shaming. Are Youtubers role models? Should they uphold a level of responsibility over the type of messages they produce to their young audience? We also talk about the recent interview with Ellen and Caitlyn Jenner which exposes her views on gay-marriage; of which she doesn't 100% currently support. We also touched on TIFF and Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace Donald Trump in Celebrity Apprentice. Hosted by Alex, Tyrone and Judd.

On Tuesday, August 25, Catcha Da Flava was co-hosted by Maeashah, Sarah, Tyrone, and Judd. To start off the show, Maeashah and Sarah covered a story out of Taiwan where a 12 year old boy had tripped while visiting a museum, and fallen into a 1.5 million dollar painting. The girls discussed other famous cases of people damaging expensive art work, and what happens when you break something that costs millions of dollars! The topic then turned to the CNE, and the great events and crazy foods that are being showcased this year. The theme this year seems to be deep fried- popular items include chicken waffle on a stick, tidbits piton, frosted flake battered chicken, poutine balls, and bacon wrapped grilled cheese. That made an interesting segue to the next item up for discussion- health and wellness! Tyrone joined in for a conversation on new research that claims people do not need to drink 8 glasses of water a day. The panel found this a little hard to believe, since they and the rest of ...

When we don’t have any workshops running so we continue working on our independent work. All of us are doing different things. One group had a radio interview scheduled this morning which went very well. The rest of us where editing more episodes and as soon as you were done a new project we would be assigned a new one. This way we all stay productive and get the episodes and radio shows done on time. One of the groups was working on a script for a mock trial to teach youth about the Landlord and Tennant issues. By the end of the day we gathered together a crew and filmed the whole mock trial. Even though we had to stay longer we all stayed supportive and helped each other out to feel comfortable on set and behind the cameras so everything is done smoothly and quick. Instead of using the studio we filmed in the big common area. It was a fun new experience because we had different backgrounds to work with and a lot more angles we could fill from. Since the lighting workshop we all are...

Today we focused mainly on just getting a lot of work done, which was great!! Kerry had scheduled for us to have someone from CBC come in to talk to all of us but because of an emergency, they weren’t able to come in today. So, instead we just continued editing our unfinished projects. I got a lot done on the Family Fuze project with Adonis which should be 100% finished within the next couple days. Everyone else was working on their various projects. Stephanie was continuing her episode of French TV. By: Pierce Holmes

Today was definitely a very productive and busy day. Around 1:30PM the Pablito Greco from Life X came in again! We continued our lighting work shop but this time we got in depth. He started the workshop by giving us a review of what we learned the previous session and then told us what we’d be doing today which is getting hands on with our lighting technique. After he finished his short lecture, we all entered the studio. He told us what we have to do to improve our lighting in our productions by showing us the effectiveness of Key, Fill and Back lighting. Also told us that we should always turn of the room lights when shooting, and only focus primarily on our Key, Fill and Back lights. Was very informative and I hope will have some effect on our productions from now on. Our day didn’t end there though! Afterwards, Me, Stephanie, and Maeashah had to go out to do our radio show at the farmers market. For the sake of attraction, we also brought with us the Mammal bike. Our show top...

The morning started with all of us editing. I have come very close to finalizing the family fuze episode! Once the afternoon started, we were told that we are going to have someone come in to do a workshop on lighting! His name was Pablito Greco. I immediately recognized him from one of our shows, Life X. Which I actually edited! He has a very engaging and enthusiastic vibe which made it much easier to stay engaged and interested rather than staring off into space. The thing I liked about him the most is that he gets everyone involved. He taught us a variety of things about the types of lighting, what certain types of lighting are used for, and a whole lot of other interesting stuff. By: Pierce Holmes

Shellana, Sarah, Emmanual, Tyrone, and Judd co-hosted Catch Da Flava on August 18th. To start off, Shellana filled everyone in on the ‘Tim Mortons’ that was found in South Korea. Apparently, Canadians living in South Korea were excited at what they thought was the opening of their beloved Canadian coffee house, but to their disappointment it turned out to only be a knock off. The panel decided they would not be interested in trying Tim Mortons coffee. Next, the discussion turned to youtube prankster Coby Persin, whose latest ‘child luring’ prank has gone viral. In the prank, Coby convinced three sets of parents to let him pose as a 15 year old boy on social media, and contact their teenage daughters to see if they would agree to meet him. All three girls fell for his prank, and he lured them into different scenarios where their very angry parents were waiting for them. The hosts discussed this case, and other pranks that have gone too far, and if it’s time for some restrictions on wh...

Today, we had a researcher who specialized in temp work, Ellen MacEachon come in because we had to get a show done with her since it follows our August theme of workers rights. When she came in, we had to start getting ready to shoot the show, so we all sat down and had her tell us what she does and the ethics of temp work. I have to say, I learned a lot during that conversation. Afterwards, we began shooting the show when came out to be a great success without any errors. Very informative day! By: Pierce Holmes

The editors stuck to their work and the majority of us have edited very successful shows and in a quick time period. I personally am editing 4 shows at the moment it’s a lot of work but very rewarding when you finish and can show it to people. We had a lot of new participants starting to learn how to edit and they caught on very quick. Another group was brainstorming for a new radio show topic and contacting people to bring on as guests. The third group had a script already prepared to portray social justice issues. They brainstormed on who should play what character and added in some additional information to make sure the idea will clearly come across to the audience and easy to understand. As well as deciding the props they were going to use to make the situation as realistic as possible. Overall we were a hard working team this week.

This week the focus really was on completing your independent work or group radio shows. It was a very focused day where the editors continued to get their work done. With the radio groups everyone was adding their last few touches to their projects. They also researched more about their next topic they are to be doing which is a live radio show. So the main focus of today was to just get a better understanding and practice creating storyboards and scripts for our videos and radio shows.

We all have our own assigned projects now so today we mostly did independent work. Some of us are working on editing projects while others are working on their radio shows. We all worked for the most day getting what we needed done. By the end of the day one group did a radio show. We set it up so that all the rest of the participants could watch them and listen to their topic on the thought of Toronto hosting the 2024 Olympic games and what it means to be a Canadian. Afterwards we all helped give them feedback to improve their show.

This week our main focus is getting up to speed with all of our editing projects. All the other participants that are not editing are working on their radio show topics. Either editing their audio or researching more about their topic to add to their show. We have a guy that comes in every so often, his name is Andrew he’s the director of the music program. He started to teach us more about Garage Band, and how to create our own music. We learnt how to add different instruments that already have a certain rhythm and also how to create our own rhythm with certain instruments. The goal in the end is to create our own piece of music for our radio show to make it more fun and exciting.

Last week we had Linda from the Toronto Workers’ Health & Safety Legal Clinic come in, so today she came in again with a few more guests. We filmed two episodes about their organization and the rights youth have to refusing unsafe work. We did a quick recap listening to them and writing down notes for the show. We were all assigned our individual roles in the studio so as they were talking we would think about how the TV show should be produced.   It was my first time hosting today, it’s a nerve-racking experience if you haven’t been on camera a lot. What is so great about FOCUS is that we all help each other out. We all have our own jobs but we are there to guide each other.

On August 9th, Regent Park Focus broadcasted live at Sunday in the Park, Regent Park’s annual community festival. The youth summer media group prepared two radio shows and some live music for the day. Maeashah and Aidan rode the mobile media lab from Focus over to Regent Park, attracting quite a bit of attention along the way. Once they arrived at the park, the group started their first radio show, a live interview with Beixi Liu from the Workers’ Action Centre, which was hosted by Sadie and Sarah. Beixi answered questions about workers’ rights, youth rights at work, and told the crowd all about Ontario’s fight for $15 and fairness, which is a campaign to raise the minimum wage in Ontario to $15. The next show was about Canada’s upcoming election, and how to get Canada’s youth more involved, hosted by Vina and Sarah. The first guest was Toronto Centre NDP candidate Linda McQuaig. Linda answered Vina and Sarah’s questions and gave her perspective on how to get youth more involved...

We all brainstormed today as a team about different topics we should talk about at the radio show at “Sunday in the park.” We came up with the topics: Workers Action Centre, what it means to be Canadian, the elections coming up etc. We all got to work and started researching a lot about our independent topics so we are prepared for Sunday. We also discussed how we are going to be doing a live radio show in the park. We planned how we should introduce the show and how we should sit so the audience can watch and stay engaged. It was a very helpful and productive day overall getting all the work done and making sure we are all on the same page.

Beixi Liu from the Workers Action Centre came to talk to us about Youth Rights at Work and the Employment Standards Act (ESA). He talked to us about the rights we have as an employer and when we can refuse unsafe work. It was also interesting to hear about when we can/ can’t get paid for vacation. It was also interesting to find out that Ontario has no sick days. Beixi thought that it was unfair too because when your sick you have no control, either you stay home and lose pay or you go to work and contaminate everyone. By the end of the workshop he talked to us about Fight For $15 and Fairness. This campaign wants to bring up the minimum wage to $15 so it raises us right above the poverty line. It was a very informative workshop we were all engaged and asking a lot of questions. It is a great workshop to have for youth because it reminds us and teaches us about our rights, which usually go ignored. - Sadie

Today we had Linda Vannucci a lawyer / director of the Toronto Workers’ Health & Safety Legal Clinic come talk to us about workers safety. She told us about some of the cases she had to work with and the bad situations that we could find ourselves in. She described to us the rights we have to refusing unsafe work and the options we have to contacting people other than your employer. It was a very informative workshop. Most of us may have learnt some of this information in school but now that we are all in a workplace environment it was helpful to remind us of our rights that we have, and that we need to be cautious of our surroundings while still getting the job done. - Sadie