Regent Park Focus

Regent Park Focus is partnering with the Youth, Arts, and Engagement Program at the University of Toronto to produce a media product that is based on the community. This is the first session. This sessions the girls were able to meet with the staff and students attending the Youth, Arts, and Engagement program at the University of Toronto. The session began with Aditi, the professor of the program talking about things to expect and things they students from UofT have done thus far. Then the girls and students got into randomly assigned groups and began creating a map of how they got to where they are. Although the question was worded in a way that was open, almost all the participants talked about how they got to focus on that day. The participants then shared what they route, their journey, and what they learned. After that a hashtag was created. To do this, the participants worked in the groups that were made before to not only create a hashtag but to also, sell it to the ot...

This session the girls worked with the eco - artist to create an art piece using things that can mostly be found in the community. They were each given a tile and multiple items to use with it, these items being things like coloured sand, burlap sheets, cloth, yarn, sticks and more. Before working on the pieces, the girls were asked to visualize what they want to do in their heads, this can prevent mistakes from happening. This activity was done to show girls the multiple uses for items that would have normally been thrown out. Our hope with this session is for the girls to think differently about discarding items that could be of use if revamped/recycled.                       Although only some of the girls finished their pieces, the others are aiming to finish during the next session or whenever they have the time to do so in between.   Below are pictures of the girls' creations, they will continue on February 8th....

Regent Park Focus is partnering with the Youth, Arts, and Engagement Program at the University of Toronto to produce a media product that is based on the community. This is an introduction class formed to inform the girls on what the program is going to be about. This session the girls met with a professor from UofT named Aditi. Aditi is in charge of the Youth, Arts, and Engagement in Cities program and will be working with the girls this coming year to create a media piece about the community and issues it faces. When the girls first arrived, Aditi introduced herself and the program. She then asked the girls to come up with some questions they have about the community. Many of the questions the girls came up with had to do with the 'Revitalisation Plan' that was brought forth by Toronto community housing and questions on how to bring the old and new members of the community together. The girls then played a game where they could only ask questions about a certai...

Jenna Borisevich   Healthy Relationships   Catch Da Flava had their third show of the new year on January 29 th 2019! This time around, our hosts Shejuanah, Thalia, Kylie, Jenna and Jessica held a discussion around healthy relationships.   Our hosts first began by defining the different kinds of relationships that can exist in our lives, whether that be friendships, familial relationships, professional relationships or romantic relationships. They then went on to compare the qualities that make up a healthy relationship versus an unhealthy relationship.   Healthy qualities that were spoken about included trust, empathy, communication, compatibility, support, mutual happiness, reciprocation, mutual pre-established boundaries, as well as respect and consent. Some unhealthy qualities that were discussed included abuse, whether it be emotional or physical, manipulation ...

Date:  January 28, 2019 Hosts:  Rhiannon Guests:  Rachele, OPIRG Toronto Topic:  Ford Government Recent Changes to OSAP & Student Fees Recently, the Ford government announced major policy changes to OSAP and student tuition fees. One major change was the elimination of “free tuition”. Previously, low income students could qualify for grants large enough to most of their tuition. Now, a portion of those grants will be converted to loans. Furthermore, it was announced that OSAP is removing the no interest six- month grace period for students. This means that OSAP loans will start accumulating interest immediately upon graduation. These and other changes have been met with resistance. On Friday January 25, hundreds of students took to the Ontario Legislature to call on Doug Ford to scrap his recent announcements and support ‘free tuition’ for all. We discussed these changes and the student protests with a student group at the forefront of the resist...

This session the girls were introduced to Karma, an eco-artist. An eco-artist is someone that creates art with the purpose to preserve the ecosystem. Karma brought a poster that she had created using plastic bags. She also brought 2 pieces created out of sawdust, one was of a person, while the other was aimed at words. The girls picked some pieces they would want to work on. The girls then met a photographer named Dawit, who talked to them about the coming year and photography that he is going to implement into the program. The girls introduced themselves to him and talked about photography projects they want to work on in the future. Dawit talked about the challenges he faced and people he met as a photographer/journalist. He also mentioned how much passion is necessary if you want to succeed with something and do well. The girls will be working with Karma and Dawit in the coming weeks, as well as some other guests to create media pieces that will...

Catch Da Flava - Effects Social Media has on Mental Health   On January 22 nd , 2019, Catch Da Flava had another radio show regarding social media and the effects it has on one’s mental health. We had our special guest Mike Stroh from Starts With Me come in and talk about this topic with us. Our hosts were Iman, Kylie, Kayla, Jessica and Meredith. Our hosts had some interesting questions for Mike, some including does social media impact youth differently than adults? And how does an addiction to social media affect someone mentally and physically? They talked about the positives and negatives of social media has on youth and adults and how in the long run impacts an individuals’ well being. Mike informed us about the good and bad aspects of social media, some of which includes networking with others or social media taking up too much time throughout our day.   Also,   with this generation teenagers are generally using their phones and on social media m...

Catch Da Flava had their third show of the new year on January 19 th 2019! This time around, our hosts Shejuanah, Thalia, Kylie, Jenna and Jessica held a discussion around healthy relationships. Our hosts first began by defining the different kinds of relationships that can exist in our lives, whether that be friendships, familial relationships, professional relationships or romantic relationships. They then went on to compare the qualities that make up a healthy relationship versus an unhealthy relationship. Healthy qualities that were spoken about included trust, empathy, communication, compatibility, support, mutual happiness, reciprocation, mutual pre-established boundaries, as well as respect and consent. Some unhealthy qualities that were discussed included abuse, whether it be emotional or physical, manipulation and similar tactics like guilting and gaslighting, betrayal and cheating, lying and general untrustworthiness, jealousy, possessiveness and unhealthy...