Regent Park Focus

This week (April 21) the focus of the Diva Girls group was on mental health. I did the facilitation of the workshop. We started off with a little discussion on what mental health is and then we watched a few videos. Then we organized a debate panel on what causes mental health issues. Afterwards we played a game which involved soft balls being thrown at each other. The goal was to catch the balls and prevent them from dropping to the floor. This was to demonstrate that you can only handle so many things at once before dropping them and that’s what happens when you have stress. Following the break the girls did a little quiz on myths and facts on mental health statements. A lot of the girls did perfect on the quiz and this showed that they knew the most basic facts and myths about mental health. The girls then ended the session with a little breathing exercise to reduce stress and anxiety Lysandra Lobo

Over the past two months dedicated staff from Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre has been working with young people at John Polanyi Collegiate Institute (JPCI), a Toronto District public school located in the Lawrence Heights area, to run a 12 week after-school project. The project is dedicated to educating young people about the law and was funded by the Ontario Law Foundation. 15 high school aged youth registered in the program. Here is a summary of the project to date. The first session began on February 16th with the facilitators, Adonis Huggins and Patrick Reynolds, introducing themselves and finding out more about the program participants through name games and ice breakers. This was followed by a discussion about the goals and objectives of the program and finally an exercise to determine how knowledgeable the youth were about difference between Civic Law and Criminal Law. Most of the youth had very little understanding of the difference between Civic and Criminal law

This week, the Diva Girls finally got to present their creative poem writing skills in their final showcase! The girls came in early to prepare and perfect their poems for performing. They even had stage names prepared for themselves which were a nice personal touch for all the Divas. Before the showcase, the girls did a circle rock session to calm them down and releases some of the nervousness but a lot of them were ready to hit the stage. At the showcase, the event kicked off with a video produced by Tusma Sulieman about Molem fashion and Islamophobia. The video was funded by the In-spirit Foundation and is scheduled to be broadcast on Regent Park TV. The screening was followed by a Q and A with Tusma about the film. Next up the two facilitators performed inspiring pieces setting the stage for the Divas. The Divas did not disappoint. The Divas performed their spoken word pieces beautifully and were not intimidated by the full house. Many of the spoken word pieces ha

On April 4, 2017, Tavianne and Deondre represented Regent Park Focus at the Rotary Youth Leadership Expo.  The Youth Leadership Expo is an annual event designed to  inspire youth to become active volunteers and leaders in their community through  leadership building activities At the expo, youth walked around and engaged in conversations with presenters on how to  become active participants in their community. We handed out brochures and spoke with youth about the opportunities Regent Park Focus offers to students; hosting their own radio show, hosting their own television show or they can submit an article that they are passionate about for the magazine, and their participation can lead to community  volunteer hours. The event was amazing and the experience was well worth attending. By:  Tavianne Jackson