Regent Park Focus

On December 26th, the Regent Park Focus staff and Radio Regent programmers got together to formally meet each other and celebrate all the achievements of 2012. Each radio programmer shared stories of how they felt about their new home at Radio Regent. Most radio programmers were formally hosts on CKLN88.1FM. Everyone was pleased to be a part of Radio Regent (a new internet radio station based in Regent Park) and gave mention to how much they look forward to the future of the radio station. Much thanks was given to the support staff and volunteers at Regent Park Focus that help keep Radio Regent running. It was a fun night and a great way to wrap up the year of 2012! Haven't heard of Radio Regent? Come check us out at www.radioregent.com

We continue to work on getting information about how toxic chemicals affect people and their body, their home and their workplace. This time Regent Park Focus got together with Toronto Public Health's ChemTRAC program. ChemTRAC aims to improve public health and support a green local economy by reducing toxic chemicals in our environment. December 10 2012, Toronto Public Health representatives, community health corkers and environmentally conscious residents of Toronto gathered around in a room at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) to have a further talk about the ChemTRAC program.  After a history lesson on how ChemTRAC came to be, the morning meeting was focused on the ChemTRAC website; where Toronto residents, can get information on the types of businesses that operate in their communities that may be emitting toxic chemicals in the air they breathe. On the website residents can find information on the types of chemica...

This week December 7th, to start off the Diva's program, faculty members asked the girls if they knew the difference between healthy and unhealthy food chooses. That question was followed by a variety of other questions that led to today's activity. The Diva Girls were excited to learned that they were going to be apart of a new project called "You Are What You Eat". Too add to the girls excitement about this project, they were happy to learn they would be using a program called PhotoVoice that they have never used before. Regent Park Focus and the Centre for Additions and Mental Health better known as CAMH teamed up for this project. "You Are What You Eat" was designed to show the youth within the community the connections of healthy eating and mental health. The purpose of the project is to show adolescents that the food chooses they make can have a huge impact in their life's both mentally and physically. This project will be continued on unti...

This week the Diva Girls participated in activities they helped in putting together. A few of the games the girls brainstormed included Wink Murder, Heads-Up-7-Up and a game where all the girls had to remain silent. If you spoke and or laughed, you were out. The girls thoroughly enjoyed this session, for weeks they have been asking for another "play day" so I was happy to oblige because they've been working really well together during the previous workshops in these past few weeks. On another note, it was the last Friday of the month so The Jam took place. We escorted the girls who were interested in attending the event to the Daniel Spectrum Centre where it was held. The girls had fun watching the skit and performances and after the performances, we ensured the girls arrived home safely. All in all, this was a fun and eventful week. R.T. Mujuzi

Not to get mushy over our ‘CatchdaFlava’ radio blog, I think it’s fair to say that we have grown fond of each other over the year and created great friendship both professionally and personally. Our attendance continued to increase with consistency. In addition, our participation level is off the chains due to the confidence level, enthusiasm, the energy, and the sense of humour the youth has shown while in the radio session. They are attacking the microphone and the soundboard with great finesse and conviction inside the radio room! This is what the youth radio program is all about. I am so proud! But anyhow, without further ado, our November radio topics! Of course we have to talk about Rob Ford monthly or even weekly, because he is always the Toronto Local news. Rob Ford once again filled the News Media because of his hilarity and eccentricity we may say he's our "Village Idiot". This month he was involved in the TTC squabble with regards to his football team requir...

This week, the Boyz to Men program had a very enthusiastic day. This week the boys were excited because they were reunited with their first program facilitator Jerry. This week the boys participated in many group activities. The first game they played was called "Group Juggle". The objective of the game was for the boys to be able to pass a ball around in the circle using their legs to their peers. At first it was tricky, but finally the boys got the hang of it and were able to pass it around in the circle without dropping it. Jerry decided to challenge the boys, he asked them to close their eyes and pass it to their peers, you were only allowed to open your eyes once you passed the ball off. The purpose of closing their eyes was to teach the boys not only teamwork ship but to enhance trust in one another. Next on the agenda the boys played a game called "Variations on Chairs". The objective of the game was to have one chair less than the amount of peopl...

This week, the diva girls got the opportunity to participate in a discussion around what qualities someone would have to possess in order for them to be considered a role model. The girls spoke about people in their lives that have given them a positive perspective on the challenges life has to offer and they expressed their gratitude when presenting their role models to the rest of the group. The ladies that didn't have a role model got the opportunity to explore and express the qualities that someone would have to possess in order for them to be considered a role model. Some girls listed the qualities while others drew pictures with captions illustrating what their expectations were for any future role model candidates.    Also, I would like to add that the girls had a lot of fun participating in a new activity called "Murder Wink" that involved participation from all the ladies. The girls who were familiar with the game explained the rules and guided those th...

On Thursday November 22nd 2012, the Boys to Men program had a very productive and inspirational day. The theme for this week was for the boys to make a poster of who their role model is and why they look up to that person. The boys were told that they could either work on project in groups or individually. All of the boys used the internet to look up pictures of their role models, if they could not find them in the magazine that were provided for this activity. Staff then printed the selected pictures, that the boys used to create their posters.    The boys went on the create very creative and interesting posters. The boys were also expected to explain why they look up to that person.The boys were so focused on their posters, some boys were also very detail oriented they researched more information about their role model, so they could have accurate information on their posters. When all the boys were successfully done with their posters, all the members of the Boys to ...

On Thursday November 15th, 2012 the Boyz to Men program continued working on their posters using Comic Life 2, to define what masculinity is in their own eyes. This week was really exciting we had 2 new members joining us to take part in the Boyz to Men program. Comic Life 2 is a program that is used around the world not only for recreational purposes, but educational purposes too. With Comic Life 2, the users get the opportunity to take their creative ideas to the next level. To start off the program this week, we had a brief discussion with the Boys about if they remember what masculinity is, define it, and explain why they view masculinity that way. The boys were so focused and motivated that they all started their masculinity posters, and successfully completed them in one session of the Boyz to Men program meeting. When all the boys were completely done, the boys got the chance to express themselves, and explain why they designed their poster the way they did. Each...

Friday, November 9, 2012 -- Media Analysis This week, the diva girls evaluated, analyzed and explored the world that is the media. The girls discussed the effects that the media has on our society, our daily choices and the views we possess about ourselves and others as young women. The girls watched a clip from a documentary called Miss Representation, which was directed by Jennifer S. Newsom, to help broaden their knowledge on just how vast the media has impacted women from all ages and backgrounds. The documentary voices that women are more than what television shows, magazines, commercials and movies have pegged us to be. A short summary of the documentary: "Actress turned filmmaker Jessica C. Newsom studies the obstacles women face in the media and the stereotypes that still define them... Featuring interviews with noted figures in politics (Nancy Pelosi and Condoleeza Rice), news broadcasters (Katie Couric and Rachel Maddow), television actresses (Margaret Cho...

Yay! Congratulations, you did it, the boys made it to their last week of their fitness challenge with their trainer Angela. The boys were really sad that the fitness challenge, had come to an end. The Boyz to Men group successfully completed their 4 week fitness challenge without any sore or broken bones. The boys have physically grown, and have improved and have shown so much progression over the past 4 weeks. On the last day Angela put the boys to the test, she quizzed the boys on the how to properly stretch , the proper names of the muscles in the human body, and how to eat healthy. The boys knew every single answer right off the bat, and when one member was stumbling, another group member would come to the rescue, and help out his fellow peer. To wrap everything up the boys as well as Angela were interviewed by Emmanuel the video coordinator. The boys showed true team player qualities from start to finish and really enjoyed themselves, and hope in the near future to participate...

This week, the ladies in the diva girls program showcased their acquired knowledge on the things they've learned thus far. The girls competed in a Jeopardy styled competition but before the competition, the girls presented their "Stop Bullying" posters. Each group vocalized their views on why it is wrong and the harmful side effects that can stem from it. After presentations, the girls were split into teams. Each team decided on a group name; The Five Musketeers, The Directioners and The Winners. With a list of categories to choose from, the girls jumped at the chance to showcase their knowledge. With only five minutes to go and two teams tied at first place, a bonus question was asked to break the tie. After multiple hints were given and groans were heard, The Directioners pulled through and solved the bonus question. For their prize, The Directioners received tickets to the movies. As a facilitator, I was pleased to see that the girls remembered the thin...

What is the highlight of the October shows? Let me see… All I can say is that -   “it was so awesome!” Nelly Furtado, the Grammy winner visited Regent Park at the Daniels Spectrum and opened our show for our community event called “The Jam!” which was formerly known as the Last Fridays. It was a great experience for the youth around the Regent Park community to have Nelly give them the mentorship and give all the young artists and performers inspiration to be great just like her. The catchdaflava radio crew was sworn to secrecy and was very discreet not to mention about her visit as it is supposed to be a surprise for the youth and the community. Imagine handling that capacity of the crowd traffic for Nelly Furtado at the Daniels Spectrum if they knew she was coming?!!! Anyhow, enough about Nelly, there was a lot of pumped up topics that happened this month. Amanda Todd made a huge impact when she posted videos on Youtube and Facebook after revealing her stories and then die...

On the young ladies of the diva girls program celebrated Eid with their families   and friends, because of this, more than a handful of girls were MIA. The workshop and activities planned for the day were moved to the next diva girls session in the upcoming week. L.T. Mujuzi

On Thursday October 18th, the Boys to Men group entered the second week of their fitness challenge with their trainer Angela. This week the boys competed against one another to see if they could improve on a series of exercises that they had done last week. After the fitness challenge it was time to for a fun and relaxing activities. Before the end of the boys fitness challenge, they were put on the spot when asked a couple questions about the muscles in their body that they learned last week. Even though some of them were very tricky the Boys got an A+ for paying attention to what they had learned last week. At the end of the day a few of the boys were video interviewed by staff member Emmanuel, to see how the boys felt about their second week of the fitness challenge. He asked questions such as; "What they liked/disliked about the challenge?" "Did they successfully improve on their previous amount of exercise?" "And what they learned that day?" - ...

On Thursday October 18th, the Boys to Men group entered the second week of their fitness challenge with their trainer Angela. This week the boys competed against one another to see if they could improve on a series of exercises that they had done last week. After the fitness challenge it was time to for a fun and relaxing activities. Before the end of the boys fitness challenge, they were put on the spot when asked a couple questions about the muscles in their body that they learned last week. Even though some of them were very tricky the Boys got an A+ for paying attention to what they had learned last week. At the end of the day a few of the boys were video interviewed by staff member Emmanuel, to see how the boys felt about their second week of the fitness challenge. He asked questions such as; "What they liked/disliked about the challenge?" "Did they successfully improve on their previous amount of exercise?" "And what they learned that day?" - Da...

The Diva Girls Program October 12, 2012 Stereotyping has existed in our cultures and communities for years now, this past Friday the girls learned what it is to stereotype and the impact stereotyping can have on those individuals being impacted. Therefore, after introducing a few new girls to the program with another energizing ice breaker activity, which needless to say, got the girls up and active. The girls settled down and proceeded to explore ways in which stereotyping has impacted them in their personal lives. To give you a brief insight, the girls talked about how the media portrays them as teens, how adults sometimes brush aside their concerns when voiced because they are "too young" and also how others perceive them based solely on their attire or cultural beliefs. One way that a stereotype can develop is when one individual has an opinion about a person which would then be transferred to everyone in that group, community or culture. These stereotypes ma...

September turned out to be another chaotic month for the Catch da Flava radio crew with all the community events going on around Regent Park. When I said chaotic, I meant poppin with such “ill—sickness” of events and topics to discuss! One such event is the grand opening of the Daniel’s Spectrum (The Regent Park Arts and Cultural hub) another one is the Nuit Blanche, which was held at the end of the month and you can check out our Last Friday / Nuit Blanche blog and you will see what this was all about. Our topics were consisted of a few updates from very highly amazing people of interest such as Omar Khadr’s much awaited return to Canada, Cris Brown’s talk of his breach of probation and getting tested positive for Marijuana use, and also the “Bullied Grandma the Bus monitor” receiving the donation money here in Canada! There were a few celebrity deaths such as Michael Clarke Duncan and Jerry Lawler, but a lot of death hoax also came out this month specifically “Alfonso Ribeiro” the “...

The Regent Park Multicultural Harvest Festival took place at the Daniels Spectum (585 Dundas Street East) on Saturday October 6th, 2012 between the time of 11:00am and 4pm. The event featured entertainment, food, games, prizes, seminars and a whole lot more! Even the Regent Park Focus House Band preformed along-side other talented artists from the community. We took the Mobile Media Bike Lab (also known as The Mammal) along with us for the visit of the festival; stationed along-side with residents that had set up booths to sell artwork and clothing that reflect the diverse cultures that exist within the Regent Park Community. We transformed The Mammal into a radio recording station and interviewed a few people that were involved in the festival. We'd like to thank Karen Boucher, the event volunteer coordinator for inviting us to the event.  ~ Tyrone

Diva Girls Program October 5, 2012 This past week the girls in the diva girls program continued working on their character sketch stories. We started the day off participating in ice breaker activities that allowed the girls to learn more about each other in a fun atmosphere. Along with the ice breaker activity, the girls also enjoyed playing a round of "word and colour association". The girls had to restrain themselves from helping each other as one girl after the other took turns completing the challenge. After the ice breaker activity, the girls learned that there was an added bonus to this weeks program. The group with the best story would be awarded a prize for following the guideline and inputing the most original content into their story. The girls stepped up to the challenge and genuinely impressed Pat and myself, their ability to transform a simple guideline into such imaginative tales was very impressive. R.T. Mujuzi

On Thursday October 4 th 2012, the Boys to Men’s group had a very fun and exciting day. The boy’s went to the movie theatre to watch Hotel Transylvania.   The movie is about monster’s that have their own hotel, and have the freedom to be themselves, without having to fear humans coming there. The movie takes a spin when a human stumbles into the hotel, and falls in love with one of the monsters. Throughout the movie the father tries to destroy their love because they are different. In the end he begins to accept that they are different. The moral of the story is acceptance, and at the Boys to Men group, we try our best to teach the boys to be accepting of others, even when they’re different. - Danielle A.

The Boys to Men group is a program for male youths ages 9-13 at the Regent Park Media Arts Centre, every Thursday. Last week the Boys to Men group got to visit the new Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre. The boys got to see some of the art work that would be displayed at the Nuit Blanche event that were done by some of their fellow peers. The boys really enjoyed themselves. This outing gave the boys an opportunity to see how other people and cultures perceive artwork. - Danielle A.

This month as an alternative to our Last Friday community event, we celebrated a Nuit Blanche special. This was held on Saturday on September 29th, at the Daniel’s Spectrum (Regent park Arts and Cultural Centre) 585 Dundas Street.Once again the Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre delivered an amazing show for the Regent Park community. The mission to bring the community a hyped up free Nuit Blanche musical show was a great success as the turn out was surprisingly massive and quite unexpected than usual. It made Regent Park’s mark in the map! These musical artists delivered solid performances from the opening act of our very own Focus House Band, followed by Jennifer LFO’s poprocker’s tunes, Aslam Shaheem’s Punjabi dance pop music, and the wickedest dancehall / lovers rock / ska flavour of the Memberz, the drumming geniuses,musical instructors’ Shara Claire and David Aubrey Berger, producer Murr featuring Bengali electronica singer Rosina of LAL, and lastly the adventurous band c...

This past week The Diva Girls were excited to work on the character sketch activity they had started on the previous week but due to some unforeseen circumstances this had to be put on hold. The girls in the program were invited to help out with the Nuit Blanche preparation; therefore, the days activity had to be put on hold. The girls who remained participated in activities that engage them physically and mentally. The girls seemed to enjoy themselves immensely and one girl remarked that this was the first time in The Diva Girls program that they weren't required to learn something. This of course threw me for a loop considering the fact that the activities the girls partook in were filled with learning materials. For example, one of the activities required the girls to think quickly while under pressure and respond actively. During one of these activities I had asked all the girls wearing denim to stand and that alone ensued a five minute conversation. It appeared the girls...

The young ladies in The Diva Girls program showcased their imagination, creativity and writing skills this past Friday when they were asked to write short stories. Using the same character sketch outline and with the help of the instructor the girls wrote stories with unique details. To give you a brief insight of how grand their imagination can stretch, imagine a "five foot female" with "zebra like hair" or better yet a "super smart… soothsayer" that is "beautiful during the day and ugly at night". After coming up with the character sketch and the setting of the story, the girls were then divided into small groups. Each group was given a secret identity for their character. One group whispered in excitement upon finding that there character is an alien, while another could barely contain their excitement as they dived pencil first into brainstorming a storyline for the man who turned into an evil clown at night. The creativity did n...

A very busy month for ‘The Mammal’ (the mobile medialab)… The Mammal as mentioned from some of our blogs, is a 2 rider-bicycle that looks like a boxy looking snail that carries media equipments such as speakers, radio transmitter, soundboards, microphones etc. We take this bike lab into community events and do live broadcasts and radio performances. We can show films on the bikelab as well because we can set it up as a mini stage. The Mammal is soo amazing! We took this bike lab into so many different community events the last 2 months of the summer and did our radio show and live interviews. The Sunday in the Park is one of them, Show Love, and EID, and the Last Friday events are just among the few that got The Mammal some exposure. We had a bunch of hilarity as usual for our radio shows this month. Rob Ford was busy too, with all the scrutiny surrounding him these past few months with regards to his ignorant comments to getting caught reading and driving! As if he had already l...

The Mobile Media Lab also known as "The Mammal" is a customized bike built by students at U of T architect program in partnership with Regent Park Focus. It is a radio studio on wheels that can screen videos as well as provide for various multi-media related functions. For the summer of 2012 we have committed to taking out the bike to as many different community events in Regent Park as we can. One event in particular is a weekly event called Show Love which takes place in South Regent Park. We conducted various interviews at the event to get an understanding of what Show Love is and why the residents and local community agencies decided it was important to have this weekly event for the summer, in Regent Park. In the following link you can listen to our per-produced radio show recorded from the Mobile Media Lab that evening at Show Love: Listen Now: http://www.regentparkfocus.com/radio/media/2012-08-22.mp3 ~ Tyrone

Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre continued its information gathering session on the LiveGreen project with Environmental Defence.  Since 1984, Environmental Defence has been inspiring change by connecting people with environmental issues that affect their daily lives in their homes, workplaces and neighbourhoods. On September 11 2012, Regent Park Focus youth and students from University of Toronto, and random people walking by, were there as Environmental Defence gave the cosmetic industry a "make-over". Environmental Defence brought a mural artist to paint a picture of a female face on a huge canvas, only using make-up products that men and women use everyday.  While the artist was painting this work of art, Environmental Defence volunteers grabbed passersby and asked them few questions regarding the types of make-up products they use, and if they had known the types of toxins in them? And after the passersby (most of the time U of T student...

For the final day of Summer we celebrated with a jam packed night full of music, story telling and free food at our August Last Friday event. The event took place at the Daniels Presentation Centre at 500 Dundas Street East. The event kicked off at 6:30pm with the Catch da Flava Radio crew with "The Mammal" (The Mobile Media Lab Bike), whom interviewed members of the Regent Park community about their Summer experiences, back to school and even talked about the issues with Facebook sharing information of minors under the age of 13. We will be airing the pre-produced Catch da Flava radio show that was recorded at Last Fridays on September 12th, 2012. So be sure to check that out. Some of the musical guests that delighted the crowd, were the Roots Drummers, Jessica Stuart and Trace Minerals. Thanks to Paul Corby, Kerry and Jerry for finding these great talents. ~ Tyrone