Regent Park Focus

With the Summer Program to a close, the Fall Program has begun! Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre opens up for a new season of programming. Including: TV Production, Radio Production and a New Media Program which will be starting on Saturdays in October. We will be conducting TV production every weekday Monday to Friday. Newcomers are very much welcomed to come take part in the pre-production, production and post-production stages of the shows. Today with the new RPTV crew we introduced them to the fundamentals of film-making. Learning about camera angles, shot framing and how to operate the TV broadcast equipment. Following the camera workshops we sat down to talk about future possible TV show ideas that relate to community news and social justice. Many topics were bounced around; some included a TV series focusing on the city's young entrepreneurs and another series on exploring the city of Toronto; checking out cool pockets of the city, focusing on establishments an

The first gathering of divas was nothing short of brilliance. It was quiet inspiring to be with a group of young women who had so much to say about the world around them. It was great to see them stand firm in their beliefs, an anchor I know will be the steering rudder of the group. Many ideas for future goals and aspirations were rooted in what meant most of them. Through one of the activities we did it was interesting to see how many of the girls were struggling through similar things and all of them had a vision to positively impact their community. This certainly will be topic of discussion in future weeks. This week we’ll be creating art pieces from proverbs each of the girls chose and interpreted; these will be wise words to refer back to throughout the  year. By: Ashley Pileggi

My grade eleven year was largely highlighted by my experience in the TDSB and Facing History and Ourselves “Genocide and Crimes Against Humanities”course. Through it my class and I were able to explore topics that sometimes rendered us speechless and often produced new inspiration in our minds. Everyday in class we would learn about atrocious events of the past or present, at home or abroad. We would try to step into the shoes of the victims and the perpetrators, and understand the atmosphere around such events. However, throughout the course we always knew that what we were studying was too far removed from our lives for us to be helpful. If they were current issues, we struggled to find a way that we, Torontonian high school students, could tackle such issues. It was often very distressing to delve into difficult questions when none of us could really provide an answer. When Facing History & Ourselves and Regent Park Focus teamed up for the “Radiozilla” project, it seemed th