Regent Park Focus

Hi all, Yesterday saw another modelling class with a new student added to the family! This time we also played around with some animation. We will continue in our growth! Jude.

For this edition of Health Talks Radio, we discussed how the new budget in Toronto affects the way in which we spend, and how issues of money directly affects our stress level as students and youth learning to manage their money may have issues navigating budgets both by themselves and the effects of the city navigating theirs. The new budget will see more money invested to expand the subway line, Beyond keeping taxes low, this budget freezes all TTC fares this year and invests in the Fair Fare Pass for low-income residents so transit remains affordable and accessible for everyone. That's why the 2018 budget invests in creating the Hop On-Hop Off transfer. This two-hour transfer will allow people on transit the flexibility to run errands or make stops along their way to work, school, or home for the cost of one fare. The budget freezes all TTC fares this year and invests in the Fair Fare Pass for low-income residents so transit remains affordable and accessible. It w...

For our February 20th edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio host Travis talked to our panel discussion about cannabis and the ever changing social, cultural, and legal perspective on cannabis. In discussing the issue, we address how Canada is nearing to changing the laws around cannabis and how we feel that change will affect Canadian culture. We asked questions such as how legalization can affect issues around drunk/high driving, regulation of dosages amd quality, and drug-related crimes. Most of the panel discussion agreed that legalization may reduce drug-related crimes and make marijuana use much safer without unclear methods of growing and cross-breeding from “dealers”. Guest panel Erika shared that when addressing her anxiety with doctors, her doctor suggested she use marijuana which is medical grade so doesn’t make patients “high” per se, only calm. Other discussions surrounding issues of how marijuana can actually be beneficial for some extreme conditions that hel...

For this edition of Health Talks Radio, host Travis talks to our youth panel about dating apps and the new age of dating in a changing social climate. Travis talks about how dating has changed with the use of social media apps like Instagram and Snapchat and explores the different stereotypes people may have when it comes to relationships. Diamond shares about her own experience, citing how uninterested she is in creating relationships as she observes how much drama people create for themselves, which she admits to openly enjoy witnessing but not participating in. Beverly shares these feelings but also talks about how people will reach out to ​ her unwelcomed and how it bothers her. She also emphasizes the significance of people waiting for the right relationship instead of jumping from one person to the next, as she observes in youth. Travis also explores how different age ranges may experience relationships and thus react and respond to relationships in different ways. He ask...

For our February 13th, 2018 edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, we talked with relationship expert Ro Maryam about her experience in relationships and some advice she for youth delving into the issues of relationships. Host Beverly talked to Ro about what makes a good relationship and what makes an unhealthy relationship and some of the signs for what both types of relationships look like. Ro shares that healthy relationships often make people feel joyful, inspired and full of themselves while an unhealthy relationship will make us feel tired, not ourselves and not happy. Ro talks about her own experience in relationships sharing that we all go through good and bad relationships, letting us know that relationships are somewhere we can learn from and not to feel too bad if we have to experience a negative relationship. For our other portion of our interview with Ro, we talked more about LGBT+ relationships and how to navigate them in strict cultural settings. For Ro,...

The Diva Girls Group Session 17: Our Home on Native Land...Canadian History & Colonization: Part 2 January 19th, 2018 The session started off with a circle rock activity asking the Divas a question: “If you were Prime Minister for a day, what law would you make?” The Divas were only allowed to make one law! Many of the Divas had inspirational answers and other ones were just fun and silly. One Diva said “If I were Prime Minister for a day, I would give all homeless people shelter”. Another Diva said “If I were Prime Minister for a day, I would buy so many shoes”. This circle rock activity let the Divas view what was important to each of them. Next, there was a special guest poet who came to perform named Alicia. After her performance, Alicia spoke about land acknowledgement with the Divas. Alicia identified as Native and spoke about her culture and all of the hardships her people have faced throughout history. The Divas then had a 15 minute break with healthy snac...

For the February 6th, 2018 edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, we had host Diamond Bailey sit down and chat with sexual health promoter Richard Texeira to discuss issues of sexual health and how it relates to youth. Their upcoming workshop on Thursday targets educating service providers who deal with youth with little social attachments, such as low school attendance and vulnerable to homelessness. They support LGBT+ Youth to be trainers, speakers and advocates in these workshops to empower them in their sexuality. They are a collaborative event, such as having Eva’s Satellite organization which is a substance use reduction organization for youth. Some topics that will be covered include consent, relationships, and pleasure with an emphasis on consent and how to understand what is consent. Richard goes on to define consent as free of coercion, “enthusiastic, completely freely given” from someone who is sober. When discussing advice on what youth should consider if they ar...

For this edition of Health Talks Radio, host Diamond led us in a panel discussion on internet addiction and asking our youth panelists what they think about addiction, and what it is. They discussed the dark side of social media, and how people can get addicted in the worst ways more than just having an exorbitant amount time on the internet. Erika talked about the phenomenon of “catfishing” where someone pretends to be someone that they’re not and befriends someone online, creates an intimate emotional relationship with someone and the relationship is built upon false pretenses, such as a false image of the person, a false name etc. She goes on to talk about how people can be duped for years and the enormous amount of ​ emotional and psychological damage that can cause to victims, and even sometimes the “catfisher” because they may be in for more than they bargained for. Another phenomenon Beverly brought up is the issue of trolling, and how that leads youth to feel unsaf...