Regent Park Focus

What is That?: Episode #1 Levi, Valentina, Matthew, Divine Last week we filmed our pilot episode of What is That? The three of us tried and rated each one of the mysterious food items brought in. The items consisted of a bag of chips called “Tyrant habanero super spicy mix“, a drink called “Ramune”, an unfamiliar fruit called a dragon fruit also known as pitaya, and a healthy nutritional bar called “Maze Bar”. We all tasted them, then gave our honest opinions about them. The chips were given an overall rating of 3/10, Ramune was given a overall rating of 4.5/10, Pitaya was given a 7/10 and Maze bar was given a 5/10. The pilot episode turned out to be very comedic and educational, which made it engaging with anticipation for the next. We did a great job at keeping the discussion going even if it was just random conversation and staying enthusiastic throughout. A few things we could do differently for the following shows is to keep the cameras rolling for the whole episode and m...

Catch Da Flava Blog - July 31, 2018 This week on Catch Da Flava hosts Nate and Diamond talked about the art of bouncing back with health talk panelists. We discussed the ways each of us copes when life's situations become over barring and knocks you down; whether that be exercising, listening to music, taking a hot shower or sleeping; all these activities help us stray from a bad state of mind to help us stay positive. Life can be a complex journey with many ups and downs. It’s filled with both challenges and accomplishments. However, when we go through challenging phases, we often dwell more on the bad experiences and end up self-loathing and judgemental. Pitfalls are a part of life, whether we like it or not and the health talk panellist believe that having support systems to help cope with life's hurdles help with one’s resilience. Furthermore, we bounced around a few ideas about how changing the way you think could make you more resilient as well as the significan...

In the third episode of new music showcase radio show Refresh, host Nate Gurarie played songs all across the genre board. Some highlighted pieces were Godsend by Bry, a single from the Irish singer-songwriter’s crowdfunded EP. Another track that was played was Collarbones by Braids, a song from the Calgary art-rock band released on a two-track single. Nate finished the show with the song Dreamo by Edmonton singer Sean Nicholas Savage. A dreamy, quirky ending for the show. Listen to Podcast: 2018-07-30

Catch da Flava Radio- Politalks Kaleb and Kaylin For Catch da Flava Radio show we discussed our interview with Rachel Lauren Clark a video segment we did on Politalks and later delved into the upcoming municipal elections. Based on the interview we pulled up important clips and gave our own point of view on the issues she spoke on, such as not enough transgender people are being represented in politics. We later shifted into the October 22, municipal Elections. We talked about John Tory who is running to be re-elected as mayor. We discussed Tory’s campaign and the things he has accomplished right now as mayor. The October elections will also consist of voting in Toronto City Councillors that represents the ward of your district. They have now opened two new wards one of them is ward 23, which is for the area of Regent Park, Cabbagetown and St. Jamestown. For more information on all the candidates running for the October elections, please visit: http://app.toronto.ca/vote/candidat...

Health Talks on Catch da Flava Levi, Valentina, Divine, Matthew July 30th Last week our group hosted a radio show for Health Talks on Catch da Flava Radio. We discussed our experiences with video games and the reasons behind the newly classified mental condition issued by the World Health Organization. Based on the panel, our guests concluded in disagreement to the idea of the mental disorder classification. Overall we thought that the amount of gaming time could and should be restricted and controlled by the game developers to prevent negative connotations towards gaming. We did a great job of keeping the conversation going with very little pauses in dialogue. The discussion topics and examples were engaging and kept the show interesting throughout. One thing we could have done differently is bring in some factual information to back up our opinions within the debate. For example, we could have listed percentages of players on the games we discussed and even people that have b...

Every morning this summer, I have had the pleasure of teaching and giving young people the opportunity to create their own interactive stories. Interactive stories can be thought of in three ways: the viewer can choose the path of the story, the viewer can manipulate the story, and the viewer is immersed in the story.  For the first focus, I assigned projects where the youth were able to use Eko Studio to build a story from scratch in pairs. The next project was to create an interactive web-series pilot. The stories turned out great, and I am thrilled with what everyone was able to accomplish in two weeks. Today I taught an introduction to computer science, as our theme is stories that can be manipulated by an audience. We are going to be building our own mini-apps using the MIT App Inventor. We're off to a great start this month!  More to come! -Shian

Date: July 30th, 2018 Hosts: Jeneace & Reyna Guests: Hodan, a counsellor from Jessie’s Centre, Sam, a young mother and OW recipient, and Yogi, an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty Topic: Navigating, Understanding and Destigmatizing Ontario Works This week, Jeneace and Reyna hosted a PowerfulxNature episode on Ontario Works. In Ontario, 14.3% of people live in poverty with newcomers, people of color, single mothers, the elderly and people with disabilities experiencing the highest rates of poverty. Social assistance, or Ontario Works, provides crucial financial support for people in Ontario living in poverty but often fails to meet costs of living for example, in urban centres like Toronto. Our hosts first interviewed Hodan, a counsellor from Jessie’s Centre, who talked about how crucial OW support is for young parents, the vast majority who depend on it while they’re still in high school or post-secondary school. Our second interview was with Sam, ...

In this episode of Radio Franco, Live From the Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre, we talked about places like restaurants, shops, Culture Centre and helping program that is all based or introduce the French culture to the citizen of Toronto. Also, we tried to guess french Idiomatic Expressions like Raconter des salades, which means lying, and  C’est la fin des haricots which means everything is lost . Dans cet épisode de Radio Franco, Live Du centre d’art médiatique jeunesse Regent Park Focus, nous avons parlé de restaurants, de magasins, de centres culturels et de programmes d’aide basés sur la culture française. Aussi, nous avons essayé de deviner les expressions idiomatiques françaises comme: Raconter des salades, ce qui signifie mentir, C'est la fin des haricots, ce qui signifie que tout est perdu. Listen to Podcast: Download MP3 This radio series is supported, in part, by the Ministry of Francophone Affairs to support cultural and community activities f...

Episode Summary: It’s the first episode of Ask the American hosted by Regent Park Focus’ sit-in Americans: Brandon and Caleb! This episode opens with an introduction to Brandon and his guest. We will learn about what brought them both to Toronto and to Regent Park Focus. Both will share their experiences of traveling and what they have learn about the True North so far. Topics will range from everything from food, love, money, the diverse nature of Toronto. Not too bad for the first show, eh? Notes: This is the first time that Brandon and Caleb appeared in the studio. The soundtrack was created by Brandon Berry. Host(s): Brandon Berry & Caleb Listen to Podcast: Download MP3

Radio Blog - July 24th, 2018 This week on Catch Da Flava hosts Nate and Diamond talked to the Health Talk panelists about better ways to manage anger in our lives; whether it be the different ways that we express our anger or knowing the warning signs to pick up on it ; we talk about the ins and outs of this complex emotion. The experience of anger can range from mild annoyance to rage and will vary for each person and in each situation. We discussed different sources of stress, whether it be from home, school or work etc and how it can make people quicker to anger. But no matter what it is that makes us angry, we emphasized that the most important thing is how we handle it. It is right to remember that anger is a feeling and It’s what we do with it that counts. Furthermore we shared different ways we personally cope with anger as well as ways in which we should change our way of thinking to help control how we feel in times that anger would negatively shape our thoughts. M...

In the second episode of new music showcase radio show Refresh, host Nate Gurarie played quite a number of songs. Some highlighted pieces were Talia by King Princess, a Brooklyn-based young artist who writes self-described “queer love songs”. Nate had gotten a chance to see King Princess perform that week and enjoyed talking about the intimate performance. Another song played was Disaffection by Ought, a song off the third album by the post-punk band from Montreal that displayed a lot of retro themes.

This week marks the halfway mark for most of the interns at Regent Park Focus. The interns were really busy this week from editing footage that has been collected from the past week or so. Last week the interns created an interactive story pilot and have edited the pilot throughout this week. Each pilot is now up on the Regent Park Focus YouTube channel. We also had a chance to display our pilot to the class. The RPTV news team were editing they’re interviews with Sureya Ibrahim and Afrah Ismail from the Toronto Centre for Community Learning and Development. Four videos have been filmed for the Politalks show and is now onto editing them. One of the interviews with Rachel Lauren Clark is finished editing. Also the Past, Present and Future team has finished editing their first interview as well. The RPTV team filmed their first show called “What is that?”. They tasted foods that can be seen as obscure or different towards certain people. They tasted foods like dragon fruit, a local p...

Regent Park Focus Blog Post July 16 - 20 This week was a busy week. The students have finished filing their interactive story pilots now it’s onto the editing. They also acted in their own videos which allowed them to try out new stuff and get a little creative and step out of their comfort zone to really make the videos impact more. This week was also full of filming. From filming Politalks interviews to interviewing for the RPTV news segments. Now that all the footage is in, it’s time for editing for the next week or so. We have captured lots of this great community and really see how everyone bonds together. Our RPTV news team also got to experience the Taste of Regent event where there is live music and food from many different community members. It happens every Wednesday across the street from Daniels Spectrum. For radio, there were a couple segments about issues and topics that pertain to everyone. We not only had some political talks but also addressed issues with par...

Radio Show 1: Sur Radio Franco tu trouvera de la musique seulement en Français. Pour notre première émission on a commencé par introducir le co-animateur (Mathieu), co-animatrice (Valentina) de cette émission et d'où ils vien. Dans notre épisode on a couvert la définition et l’origine de le mots “Francophonie” avec l’histoire de notre culture francophone. Par la fin de l'émission on a couvert un événement courante qui s’appelle la fête national de belge. In Radio Franco you will find songs in french. We started off by presenting the co- hosts of the show (Mathieu and Valentina) and where they come from. For this first show we define “La Francophonie”, the origins of it and it’s importance.We also gave some inside of where to find french speakers in toronto by giving a current event happening in the city. Listen to Podcast: This radio series is supported, in part, by the Ministry of Francophone Affairs to support cultural and community activities for...

Date: July 16th, 2018 Hosts : Reyna & Sinead Guests : Karen from Jessie’s Centre and Natalie Richardson from Save Your Skin Foundation Topic : Summer Fun on a Budget! Ever worry you won’t be able to do anything fun with your kids in the summer because you don’t have enough money for regular trips or outings? This week, Reyna and Sinead break down the ways you can plan a summer full of fun on a budget. With tips and tricks about budgeting, finding deals and taking advantage of free events across Toronto, you’ll want to listen to this episode.  We began our interviews with Karen from Jessie’s Centre. Karen gave us some great tips on how to plan and find cheap, family-friendly places to visit around Toronto. We talked with Karen about how Toronto parks like High Park and Trinity Bellwoods, Centre Island, and summer festival or celebrations like Pride are free and are outings where you can further cut costs by packing lunch, snacks and beverages. Karen ...

In the first episode of new music showcase radio show Refresh, host Nate Gurarie played a diverse collection of songs. Some highlighted pieces were the single I Feel Free by DILLY DALLY, a Toronto soft-grunge band who Nate was really excited to play, as he has been listening to them for a number of years. Another song that was played is Essuwonike by Jeremy Dutcher, a Two-Spirit operatic singer and composer was played. Over the years Jeremy Dutcher has been preserving his ancestry by transcribing traditional Maliseet songs from archived recordings and making his adaptations available to all. Listen to Podcast: 2018-07-16

This week marked the first full week for new Regent Park Focus Summer Staff. New Media Coordinator Shian has been leading the interns in a morning course about Interactive Storytelling. After an exercise in re-adapting TV scripts, the staff were split into two groups and wrote a script and filled out call sheets for a pilot episode of an interactive web series. Last week Music Production Coordinator Levi has been helping youth create their own beats. There’s plenty of room for more students, so come by any weekday from 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM and learn about music production, editing, and mixing! In the afternoons staff have been researching and writing their own articles for the monthly Catch Da Flava Magazine. The pieces are looking to all be very interesting, so keep an eye out for the online and in-print release! The staff continued their work on producing shows for the TV and radio station, getting familiar with the inner workings of film and radio production. Groups started f...

For the first week of the summer multimedia internship at Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre, we had the great time of not only meeting the people we would be working with throughout the summer; but got to create our own interactive storytelling project with a partner using the platform, Eko. With this project the youth were able to plan and create a summer story in which imagination would thrive as, Eko allowed us to use video footage we planed and shot as well as those found online. Additionally by using this platform we had the power of creating pathways that would enable the the viewer to choose between alternating paths within the videos and story structure as well as being able to view multiple videos at once. This all being possible with the use of this free online platform showed to us by our New Media Coordinator, Shian Grace. Later on towards the afternoons the summer intern group would work collaboratively; whether in groups or pairs; to plan a series of pr...

For this episode of Health Talks Youth Radio, we share an interview we did with a few youth participants about their feelings on sports, and the level of participation they have in it whether as an athlete or spectator. The interview was quite interesting with a handful of participants. We find that they gravitate to different sports, and Ultimate Frisbee seems to be the underdog sport in this interview session. The questions we asked our youth participants were: What’s your favorite sport and why? Do you participate in sports? Which ones? Why do you like/dislike sports? Would you recommend sports to others and how would you do that? What sport do you wish you can get into? We wanted to share this conversation not just because sports is a fun way to get our bodies fit and active, but because it relates to our show on “Flubber” and how sports equipment enhances sports performance. There’s definitely a lot that sports has to offer in our lives, whether we are active partic...

For our July 5th episode of Health Talks Youth Radio, we introduced our show with a discussion on the movie “Flubber” and how sports equipment enhances sport performance. Flubber is a movie about mad scientist Professor Philip Brainard and his insatiable need to create more and more scientific innovations. He’s engaged to Sara Reynolds, a part of the college faculty and they are trying to get married for the third time since the last two times he forgot because he was busy creating more inventions. He misses his third and final chance when he gets caught up creating “flubber” a polymer substance with free will and the capacity to multiple the energy that is given to it. So if you bounce it on the floor, it goes up and down repeatedly and rapidly given only one little toss. In between, he has to win back the heart of Sara, fight off his mortal enemy, and defend his creations against an evil parent and his bratty son. Some of the questions we asked the youth panel when it comes to t...

For this edition of Health Talks Youth Radio, we had our panel discussion that explored the topic of exercise. Not only is the weather better in Toronto that it would encourage people to celebrate the use of their bodies but exercise more than ever is an important and vital component to healthy living for youth. According to the latest study by Preventive Medicine, it analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination that tracked over 12,500 people aged 6 to 84 years to log how many of their waking hours they spent active and how many they spent sitting. It shows the older people are, the more inactive they becoming but shockingly the research shows that 19 year olds spend as much time being inactive and sedentary as 60 year olds. Considering that, it’s clear we need to get a move on when it comes to exercise! Some of the questions we asked our youth panelists were: What do you think accounts for youth being as inactive as seniors? What is pulling them away fro...

For our July 3rd edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, we started our show with a series of pre-recorded interviews from youth participants to get their take on exercise. The interviews were conducted to try to understand how youth participants are dealing with their body’s changes and how they perceive the adequacy of their bodies. Especially in our modern times where most youth want to just hang out indoors and scroll through endless memes on social media, exercise seems to be something fundamental we must reclaim. We asked them five questions which were: How much exercise do you think you do a day? A week? Do you consider yourself physically fit/healthy? Why or why not? What ways do you want to improve your physical health? How do you think you can achieve this goal? Do you enjoy exercise? Why or why not? What kinds of exercise do you participate in? What are some you want to take up? We ended off this show with a song that celebrates the triumph of the human spiri...

Divas Session Sexual Health On June 29 th, 2018, Lisa Parke from The Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention (BLACK CAP) facilitated a workshop on sexual health. The session began with a check-in, and then a conversation around sexual health and STI’s; and how it is transmitted to the body. Lisa mentioned that some people who have STIs don’t know that they are infected as there are no symptoms associated with STIs. Lisa also talked about HIV and AIDS and the myths and the stigmas associated with the disease. In addition, stats on HIV and AIDS were shared as well. Shortly after the conversation the girls participated in activities on STIs. The girls did an amazing job on the activities! The girls took away some insightful information from today’s session. The session ended with a comment from Lisa: if a person is sexually active, it is very important that he or she get tested to know his or her status.

For this edition of Health Talks Youth Radio, we had our wonderful panel discussion with our youth participants discussing how they navigated through school stress while school was in. We chatted about the issue only to celebrate that it’s finally over. Some of the questions we explored were: What’s a way school stress has affected you emotionally? I’m talking about how it has made you feel, the anxiety, the sorrow, the anger, the frustration. What’s the worst and best emotions from the school term for you? So how’s school stress affected you psychologically? This can be something like how it makes you doubt your ability to finish assignments, to do well in exams- all that. Or what about some stories you heard from friends and classmates? Sometimes, because the body and mind are connected, we can have physical symptoms from school stress. How has school stressed you out- did you have to have all-nighters, difficulty sleeping because of worry, physical weakness trying to keep ...

For our June 26th edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, we introduced our first half with our topic school stress, to celebrate the end of it now that school’s over and we can enjoy our summer. We’ve interviewed a handful of youth who were either in school or fresh out of it, and how they dealth with school stress. We played as a pre-recorded interview and we asked them all the same five questions which were: How stressful would you consider school, how is your school work load? Do you think it is manageable? What are some ways you cope with high levels of school responsibilities? What would you suggest they do different in school to help kids with their stress levels? Do you ever indulge in unhealthy habits because of your stress levels? Like overeating, video game playing etc. What are your habits and why do you think you gravitate to them? What are some healthy ways to manage school stress? In light of the prevalent issue of school stress, we’ve noted that several re...

Date: June 25th, 2018 Hosts : Jeneace & Rhiannon Guests : Faith, Giselle, Trystan Topic : Pride, LGBTQ+ Identities and Realities and Allyship This week, Jeneace and Rhiannon hosted a Pride episode on Pride, LGBTQ+ Identities and Realities and Allyship . Jeneace began with a brief history of Pride in Toronto, outlining how the 1981 Bathhouse raids in Toronto that saw police storm 4 gay bathhouses and arrest about 300 men sparked protests that evolved into Toronto Pride. She also discussed Black Lives Matter Toronto’s successful protest at Pride in 2016 that challenged the organization’s racism and police presence at Pride. We began our interviews with Giselle from SOY H.E.A.T. Giselle and the hosts had an honest conversation about the struggles queer and trans youth face coming to terms with who they are and thriving. From wide spread transphobia and ignorance about different queer, trans and non-binary identities to the many risks of coming out before you’r...

Divas Session June 22, 2018 Relationships The girls had a great session this week! Monica Gore, a 614 Salvation Army community worker from Regent Park, facilitated a workshop on relationships. Although the girls are not dating yet, today’s discussion was very relatable with respect to other forms of relationships. Monica talked about relationships with: partners, spouses, family members, siblings, friends and others; and within those relationships you can have unhealthy, healthy or co-dependent relationships. A person’s self-worth and self-esteem are factors that sustain relationships; so if a person isn’t feeling good about him/her self or have low self-esteem he/she is likely to be in an unhealthy relationship. Monica then read some relationship scenarios relating to self-worth and self-esteem, where the girls had to decide if the relationship was healthy or unhealthy. The girls did an amazing job with the scenarios! The girls were then divided into two groups where they h...

For our June 21st episode of Health Talks Youth Radio, we chatted about the Disney classic “Air Bud” about how a furry friend wanders into the life of young Josh Framm and changes the community for the better. After losing his father, Josh and his mother and baby mother move to another town and Josh is lost and sad about the change. With a huge love of basketball, he finds he is unable to make the team and can’t fit into other teams like band. He stays on the basketball team as the waterboy, becoming an observer of the team and realizing the caretaker used to be a pro basketball player, he soon decides to try out after the influence of a stray dog that follows him around. Realizing Buddy is great with the basketball, Josh plays his new friend. This movie has been impactful when it comes to promoting health and sports among youngster but especially highlighting the therapeutic benefits of having a dog to restore one’s faith and emotional wellbeing. It’s Josh’ friendship with Buddy...

For our June 19th episode of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, we shared a pre-recorded clip for our first half. Interviewing a few youth participants, we asked them a few questions when it comes to issues of eating habits. Eating habits are an important topic for youth to consider because it is usually the time when people start to develop eating disorders so understanding how they eat and their views of healthy eating habits is important to know how we can monitor our own views of eating. When it comes to healthy eating, youth tend to have similar ideals and definitions on what are healthy eating habits and healthy foods. The participants seem to enjoy talking about their favourite junk food often, having very clear and very specific junk foods to highlight. Generally, it seems that our youth participants are quite healthy and eat fairly balanced. There were a few questions asked, which include: 1. Do you consider your eating habits “healthy”? What’s your definition of healthy eat...

For our June 19th episode of Health Talks Youth Radio, we had our youth panel discussion to talk about our eating habits and how we enjoy eating. We explore the different ways we eat, especially given our diverse backgrounds and perspectives. We come from different cultures, different food preferences, and have different relationships to food. We try to explore how our food habits are the same and how they are different through our panel discussion. Some of the questions we addressed were: We’re all coming from different cultures and upbringing? What’s your favourite cultural food from your own culture? Can you describe how it tastes and how it’s prepared? What’s your favourite food in general? Why? What’s your favourite dessert and why? What’s the worst food dish you’ve ever heard of, and what was it? What’s an amazing food dish you’ve heard of and what is it? An amazing restaurant or franchise you want to visit? We chatted a lot more about different foods and our shar...

For this edition of Health Talks Youth Radio, we talked about the movie "Remember the Titans" and how the power of sports can really help change a community for the better by applying the principles of the game to interpersonal relationships. “Remember the Titans” is about the first football team that integrated black and white students in Virginia. The movie shows that through sports and in this case, football, working as a sports team helped teach students how to unite not just as team players, but as a human collective. It shows how a sports team really did change humanity for the better. A few of the questions asked during the show were: In the beginning we see a team that’s all white, and then cuts to when segregation is being lifted and they hire a Black head coach, so how did you think it would work out did you predict it would work out pretty much the way it did or did you have another idea in mind? What are your thoughts? How do you think the little girl who ...

For this episode of Health Talks Youth Radio, host Diamond shared on the topic of healthy eating and good nutrition and how kids these days can go about doing that with the hectic lives they live. She discussed the importance of vitamins and minerals in one’s diet, like having calcium for example for strong bones and healthy white teeth especially because young people are still growing so it would be an essential for their diets. Diamond looks to address Millenials in this conversation, asking questions that include: How do you think today's youth view health and nutrition as a whole? Do we as a generation seem to take our health of granted? When does healthy eating become dangerous? What are the issues and problems associated with eating too much junk food and not enough healthy foods. There’s little use denying the fact - social media affects your health. Be it physically, psychologically, or a dangerous combination of the two, our addiction to our screens can have so...

For our June 12th episode of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, host Diamond introduced the show with a segment interviewing her mom Rona Bailey who happens to be a her mom and the Student Nutrition Coordinator at Nelson Mandela Park Public School, which is just next door to our radio studio. Rona has worked for years a nutritionist, preparing meals for kids and young ones- even preparing meals for child stars on hit TV show “Degrassi”! So she has a great deal of experience when it comes to sharing how kids can learn to eat better. Diamond had a lot of great questions to ask Rona about her role to assist in the healthy lifestyles of students. Some of the questions Diamond asked were: What is your role as a student nutrition coordinator at Nelson Mandela Park Public School? What do you do? As the student nutrition coordinator you can't just whip up anything, there are some guideline that have to be met. What are the requirements relating to food and nutrition in schools? Some ki...

Date:  June 11, 2018 Hosts :  Jeneace Guests :  Frédérique the Director of Health Promotion with Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights and Jackie Coakes from Toronto Public Health Topic :  Sexual and Reproductive Health This week, Jeneace led a conversation on Sexual and Reproductive Health with special guests from Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights and Toronto Public Health . With Fred from Action Canada, we talked about why comprehensive sexual education and sexual health resources empower people to lead happy and healthy lives and have safer sex. We talked about the stigma surrounding abortion, the most common gynecological procedure in Canada, and the history and struggle that led to the legalization of abortion in Canada although access to abortion remains unevenly distributed across the country to this day.  In the second half of the show, Jeneace talked to Jackie about Toronto Public Health’s work, STI information th...

For this edition of Health Talks Youth Radio, host Travis introduced us to the topic for this show which was the movie “Little Giants” starring Ed O’Neil as the bullying big brother Kevin and Ricky Moranis as tender-hearted devoted little brother Danny. Coming from a small town, both boys had a love for football, but Kevin excelled in the sport while Danny was cast off to the sidelines. As adults, Kevin continues to succeed, owning a car dealership and being the coach of peewee football in their small town after having a successful career in football. Danny’s daughter Becky aka Ice Box grows up with a strong love of football too but doesn’t end up getting chosen. Consequently, Becky is motivated to play and gets her dad to coach a new team called the “Little Giants”, a group of misfits in the neighbourhood he has to somehow whip into shape and teach football to and hopefully win. Eventually after all the heated sibling rivalry, Kevin ends up betting his car dealership and Da...

For this edition of Health Talks Youth Radio, host Diamond introduces the topic of the upcoming elections for our show, now that the provincial elections for Ontario will come up June 7th. In discussing the role of youth, Diamond mentions that youth barely make it out to the polls and not often part of the voting demographic despite being legally able to vote. As a consequence, their voice is not often heard, yet their potential impact could be great. Diamond mentions that In the 2015 federal election, voter turnout among youth 18 to 24 went up by an impressive 18 per cent, but overall voter participation among youth remained nine per cent below the average for all other voters. That speaks volumes to how much we need to have our voice heard and exercise doing so. Some of the questions we asked our panelists were: 1. What are your thoughts on youth not voting when it come to elections in general? Do you vote? 2. It’s easy for young people to be cynical about politics. On...

For our June 5th edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, our host Diamond introduced representatives from Counterpoint, Blanca Alvarado, Clara Castillo, and Bruce Scavuzzo to talk about the services available at the organization. Counterpoint Counselling and Educational Cooperative is an organization whose mission is to provide holistic programming for men, women and children that transforms the causes and consequences of domestic violence. To achieve this mission, they offer educational programming to perpetrators of domestic violence, and provide survivors with a comprehensive system of support. Counterpoint also contributes to community development efforts through community education and coalition buildings. Welcoming into studio, Diamond asked them a few questions which include: 1. Can you tell us about Counterpoint and what the organization does? 2. What are the resources for women trying to overcome circumstances of intimate partner abuse? How do you help children ...

Nothing makes an instructor happier than students coming in to do work all on their own - which has been happening more and more at Regent Park Focus's music production program. Students have been working on bed tracks for their friends to try rapping over and some students have even started to record themselves rapping in our class! No finished projects yet - perfectionism is every artist's greatest motivator and hurdle.

For this episode of Health Talks Radio, host Travis chatted with Judy about the hilarious sports comedy “Kicking and Screaming” starring Will Ferrell. Centred around the dysfunctional grown adult Phil Weston and his traumatic relationship to his father who always wants to “win”, Phil never feels adequate enough living under the shadow of his father’s enormous ego. In constant competition, Phil’s first son is born the same day his father has another child, and who then grow up to be on the same soccer team coached by Phil’s father. His son is always benched, while Phil’s brother always plays in the games, until his son is traded for the gang of misfit soccer team The Tigers. Eventually, Phil is cast as their coach and he is directly in competition with his father, feeling an urge to prove himself once more. Falling from grace, losing his compassionate and kind nature and adopting a competitive streak full of anger and aggression toward everyone including his son, and inexplicably d...

Divas Session May 18, 2018 Resiliency Session This week’s session was great! Chris Leonard, a former community worker from Regent Park came back again to facilitate a resiliency workshop. When I contacted Chris for another session she was happy as it provided another opportunity for her to give back to the youth and the Regent Park community.  The session began with a check-in around the day or setbacks in the week. Some girls said they had a good day, some said they didn’t have a good day, and one girl said she had a stressful week at school. Chris mentioned to the girls that in life things and stuff will happen which will set them back, however if they view the experience in a positive light they can overcome it; eg .you failed the test, no problem, it’s one test, you’ll overcome it – resilient! Another example is:you know something isn’t right and you need help; so you reach out to get the help you need –resilient!  Chris also mentioned that as...