Regent Park Focus

We have all sorts of meetings here at Focus. Staff meetings, advisory board meetings, RPTV Crew meetings, Catch da Flava Radio meetings, etc. We also have monthly meetings for our Catch da Flava writers, but our last meeting's turnout wasn't too great. This is why we've come up with the Facebook Writers Group . That's right, you can participate in the evolution of Catch da Flava right from your home computer! We always need youth and community input for what direction our newspaper/magazine should head, and now all you have to do is join the Facebook Group and type your ideas. We will most likely still be having in-person meetings, but they may not be as frequent, so stay tuned for more info on that. Who knows, maybe it will catch on and all of our meetings will be online. Our programs could be online - and I can already write this Blog from any computer... Then I could just do everything while laying in bed! Okay, maybe I'm dreaming a bit too big here, but

It's me again with more news on what's happening at Focus for Drug Awareness Week! So, last spring I graduated from the Child & Youth Work program at George Brown College, and one of my favourite classes was on harm reduction. What is harm reduction you ask? Well, listen to our November 20 Catch da Flava Radio Show to find out!

Well, this week is Drug Awareness Week and we're up to all sorts of stuff... November 8, we were at Nelson Mandela Park Public School watching some RPTV films about drugs with the students. They really enjoyed it, especially when they saw their friends on the big screen. Watching the videos really helped them to get thinking about different drug related issues. Later, with their teachers, they identified some of the things they knew about drugs and questions about what they wanted to know. Yesterday we hosted a panel of speakers in two assemblies with the grade 5-6 and 7-8 students. We had some really great speakers. First we had Heather from the RCMP who arrived in full Mountie uniform. She talked mainly on the laws in Canada around drugs, since a lot of people (children and adults alike) don't quite have all the facts. Then Io, from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's program SAPACCY, spoke. He talked mainly on available treatments for people with addictions. Fin

Yesterday I was given the privilege to screen a couple of my videos at the 5th annual Regent Park Film Festival. While surveying the room in which my fellow filmmakers and I would soon premiere our videos, I felt very happy that I was contributing to my community and having so much fun doing it. I watched several great RPTV films and I really liked them! My favourite was about skateboarding and how Toronto should have more skate parks. I agree with the video, over the summer I bought a skateboard, thinking it would be fun to ride; then I realized that I didn't know where I should skate without risking getting hit by a car. At the end of our screening there was a Q & A where the crowd asked some questions about the films and I had lots of fun. Someone asked me, "What is RPTV?" I confidently replied, "RPTV is a community program where youth can make films about anything they are passionate about. They have creative freedom and can say anything they like, and if the

hey yall, just an update that todays show was around the regent park film festival and our focus youth videos will be showing this wednesday, nov 7th from 6:30-8pm, check out the schedule for more details and everything is free including child care. So dont miss out, come down to nelson mandela park school-440 shuter street to support REGENT PARK FOCUS and all the hard work our youth have put into their films. stay classy t-dot, Ice