Catch da Flava Magazine

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, attendance has not been great mainly because people have other priorities in their lives. Although we have received a few articles,  we have not received enough to publish a full issue. I have tried to outreach to my York program coordinator and also to some of the staff at Focus but nothing was really working. That is until around December when things started to look up.

            The Photography program had ended and instead of teaming it up with Radio, they decided to integrate it with the Newspaper. In turn, I am now working with my fellow York teacher candidate, Sean along with several other volunteers. As the Photography program was integrated with Pathways, we now have more constant attendance. Although things are not really picking up until February, I am optimistic about the future.