Regent Park Focus

Nothing makes an instructor happier than students coming in to do work all on their own - which has been happening more and more at Regent Park Focus's music production program. Students have been working on bed tracks for their friends to try rapping over and some students have even started to record themselves rapping in our class! No finished projects yet - perfectionism is every artist's greatest motivator and hurdle.

For this episode of Health Talks Radio, host Travis chatted with Judy about the hilarious sports comedy “Kicking and Screaming” starring Will Ferrell. Centred around the dysfunctional grown adult Phil Weston and his traumatic relationship to his father who always wants to “win”, Phil never feels adequate enough living under the shadow of his father’s enormous ego. In constant competition, Phil’s first son is born the same day his father has another child, and who then grow up to be on the same soccer team coached by Phil’s father. His son is always benched, while Phil’s brother always plays in the games, until his son is traded for the gang of misfit soccer team The Tigers. Eventually, Phil is cast as their coach and he is directly in competition with his father, feeling an urge to prove himself once more. Falling from grace, losing his compassionate and kind nature and adopting a competitive streak full of anger and aggression toward everyone including his son, and inexplicably d...

Divas Session May 18, 2018 Resiliency Session This week’s session was great! Chris Leonard, a former community worker from Regent Park came back again to facilitate a resiliency workshop. When I contacted Chris for another session she was happy as it provided another opportunity for her to give back to the youth and the Regent Park community.  The session began with a check-in around the day or setbacks in the week. Some girls said they had a good day, some said they didn’t have a good day, and one girl said she had a stressful week at school. Chris mentioned to the girls that in life things and stuff will happen which will set them back, however if they view the experience in a positive light they can overcome it; eg .you failed the test, no problem, it’s one test, you’ll overcome it – resilient! Another example is:you know something isn’t right and you need help; so you reach out to get the help you need –resilient!  Chris also mentioned that as...

Date: May 28, 2017 Hosts : Jeneace & Moya Topic : Affordable Housing This week, Moya and Jeneace talked about the importance of Affordable Housing with our guests Iris and Sofia from Jessie’s Housing Program and Stephanie, a young mother and Jessie’s participant. In Toronto, 46% of tenants spend more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities while almost 25% spend more than 50% of their income on rent and utilities. Moya and Jeneace asked Iris and Sofia to break down why rent keeps rising in Toronto, the ways government controls rent increases and what happens when people get displaced from their homes because they can’t afford their rent. We talked about why housing affordability is critical not only because everyone deserves safe, affordable housing but because housing affordability means people don’t have to skip out on groceries for a week because they don’t have enough to pay rent and buy food. The team also dove into the importance and crisis in su...

For this episode of Health Talks Youth Radio, Diamond hosts our panel discussion about how connected we’ve become in this digital world, and how it takes a toll on our mental health. Experts call sitting the new smoking, as people have become addicted to nothing- and especially through hours and hour of nothing. Talking about how we’ve become a culture of social media consumers, we see how youth are now wasting a lot of time consuming meme after meme the same way we used to consume TV show after TV show. Ranging from twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, the three big social media platforms, they chat a lot about how it has become such a norm and fixture in our ordinary lives. Diamond asked a few questions of our youth panel including if they thought social media can affect our mental health and how, how much is too much social media usage, how has the acceleration of the internet affected social media consumption, what are some warnings about social media addiction, and th...

For our May 29th episode of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, we had host Diamond sit down with the bubbly, fun, and charming Tatiana Prisiajny chatting about her role at Emoji Health and what the new app does to change and innovate the healthcare landscape. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that utilizes chatbots, this new app will give out information to those who engage with it when it comes to health related issues. Whether you have questions about sexual health, depression, diabetes, exercise, and more, it has something fun and informative to share for youth looking for health tips online, and especially through social media. This elevates the roles of the internet in contributing to public health by utilizing social media which is only starting to see its full potential. The chatbot works on Facebook and KIK and targets a youth audience by utilizing language they can understand- and especially emojis. Tatiana talks about the way this new app changes our under...

For our May 24th episode of Health Talks Youth Radio, host Travis chatted with us about the movie “A League of Our Own”. Set during the second world war, the movie showcases a feisty and indomitable league of female baseball players that were slated to play in the major leagues as men were shipped of to war. Filling in the void, the women prove themselves to be just as capable, just as talented, and just as dramatic. Tension flares between the two sisters who come to the league together, Dottie and Kit, with younger sister Kit resentful that she always lives in the shadows of her sister’s effortless excellence. Finally with an opportunity to prove herself, she does whatever it takes to remove herself from the limelight of her sister’s success. Employing women from different cultural backgrounds from the city to the country, and a dysfunctional but endearing former baseball player turned coach, the movie shows that women have a place in the history of major league sports. ...

For this edition of Health Talks Youth Radio, host Diamond chatted about the importance of Indigenous Cultural Awareness with our youth panel. In introducing the topic, Diamond mentions that a person’s cultural background has a powerful influence on their personal development because as they interact and communicate with others, they draw from their cultural beliefs and values learned from birth. This is especially important to understand the different cultural perspectives people are coming from, especially the Indigenous community. According to a recent statistic, the number of the Indigenous population is estimated to rise to between 1.7 million and 2.2 million by 2031, or between 4.0% and 5.3% of the total population. With the Indigenous community ranging into the millions, chances are we will meet at least one Indigenous person in our life, which means it’s worthwhile to understand where they are coming from, their social-psychological background, so we can better commun...

For our May 22nd episode of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, host Travis invited a very animated, fun guest from the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, Edward Cyr. Starting with assisting members of the NCCT with housing concerns, he gradually moved to different departments and now works with youth for the organization. He chatted with us about how NCCT was created as an alternative outlet for the Indigenous community who did not find a lot of community meeting space that were not Christian and consequently places they couldn’t identify with. Now gradually becoming bigger and better, it serves a huge community and even invites people who don’t identify as Indigenous. In discussing the various programs available at the centre, Edward chatted with Travis about the Okichitaw Indigenous Martial Arts Program and specifies how this is a different type of martial arts, specific to the Indigenous community. Most of what we know of martial arts originates from China and stars like Jacky Chan...

For this episode of Health Talks Youth Radio, host Travis walked us through a discussion on the Disney favourite “The Mighty Ducks”. About a group of kids in a local community who love to play hockey, they are the underdogs as they don’t find a lot of success in their team. Their last coach passed away and even when he was alive, he wasn't helping them out all that much. They since played for fun and never did anything serious. One day, a limousine pulls up where the kids are playing and stops all of them instantly. Out steps a man in a suit and a long trench coat, who tells them that his name is Gordon Bombay and he's the new coach. He's going through some issues at work and was told by his boss that he has to give back to the community and learn about teamwork- plus he hates kids. Through the interaction with the new coach and the untamed team, we see how both sides transform from the experience. Discussing the movie, we wonder if Gordon has what it takes...

For our May 15th episode of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, we chatted about drug use and how we have either experienced or not experienced it. In citing popular public service announcements, we heard about the ways in which drug awareness was brought to the attention to the public, airing the popular PSA featuring Rachael Leigh Cook where she takes an egg as an example of one’s brain and smashing it to show the effects of drug use on the egg. Kylie talked about her lack of experience with drugs, not willing to use any or seeing any possible desire to want to use any. Kylie has stated she knows very little about drugs and in fact only really knows about marijuana, even commenting that she recognizes the smell because it is so often in her school, although she doesn’t smoke marijuana herself. When talking about his personal experience in drugs, Travis agrees he has never really experimented with drugs like Kylie but has mentioned he has occasionally used recreational drugs b...

For this episode of Health Talks Radio, we interviewed some youth participants about their experience with drugs. We asked them five questions, which were about what they knew about recreational drugs, if they or someone they knew used them, would they consider using them, if they used them then why, and what new drugs have they heard about. Overall, the youth participants didn’t seem to have much knowledge or information when it comes to drug use and didn’t seem to have much of an interest in participating in drug use. The most popular recreational drug the youth knew about was marijuana. Some just knew that many people use it, the smell and use of it, but one youth participant claims it is not a recreational drug but an “herb” because it comes from a plant, so is more natural than most recreational drugs and is often utilized for medical purposes. The youth participants had interesting responses to the questions, but most didn’t seem to have any special interest in pur...

Divas Session May 11, 2018 Self-Defense Session The girls had a great session this week! Reverend Deb Rapport and Sarah Smith, both self- defense instructors facilitated a session on self-defense. It was not Deb’s first time at Regent Park Focus. Around this time 3 years ago she facilitated a session, and when I contacted her for another session she was happy for the opportunity to come back again to teach self-defense to the girls. The session began with an interactive and engaging discussion around self-defense. Most of the girls knew what self-defense was. One source stated that self-defense is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. Shortly after the discussion, Deb and Sarah teamed up to show the girls some basic skills to use if/when they have to defend themselves. The girls were then encouraged to practice the skills on each other. Deb and Sarah went around the room and ensured that the girls had the skills down....

Last week the 2nd of May, The great students started modeling individual bottles.  On 9th May 2018 we will dive into basic Animation with the bouncing ball in focus and a continuation of our bottle modelling! - Jude 

For this edition of Health Talks Radio, we celebrated Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week in Ontario by talking about the power of storytelling when it comes to dealing with issues of mental health. Host Diamond introduced the topic and welcomed our youth panelists to discuss the issues and the power of storytelling when it comes to dealing with our personal mental health concerns. Talking to our panelists, it’s clear they have dealt with their own struggles and that being able to talk about it has helped heal them. One of our panelists discussed that when she was young, she was diagnosed with bipolar and her parents immediately warned her not to discuss the diagnosis, to keep it quiet from everyone to which she felt as if she “had to wear a mask” around everyone, not being able to share her personal narrative. Another panelist discussed how talking about their personal journey has helped them heal and accept themselves as all they are. Identifying as gay, when they finally shared...

For the May 8th edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, we celebrated Children’s Mental Health Week as host Diamond sat down with Mike Stroh who is the creator of organization the mental health awareness organization “Starts With Me”. Discussing the significance of storytelling when it comes to issues of mental health, Mike’s organization looks to share personal stories of mental health struggles and triumph to help others heal. In his personal journey of development, Mike smoked marijuana almost everyday from age thirteen all the way to thirty, having no idea he was causing himself severe damage because there were rarely any stories shared about the negative side effects of substance use. Consequently, Mike’s been motivated to become a motivational speaker to talk about his personal journey in understanding what he went through in hopes others can find themselves in his tale and be motivated themselves to share their tale. In understanding the power of storytelling, Mike believes tha...

Date: May 7 th , 2018 Hosts : Jeance & Seymouria Guests : Professor Gordon Cleveland (UTSC); Laural Rothman (Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare) Topic : Affordable Childcare With the Ontario provincial election drawing closer, the Powerful by Nature team covered a topic close to our hearts : Affordable Childcare. Our hosts Seymouria and Jeneace led a powerful conversation with special guests Professor Gordon Cleveland, whose research focuses on the economics of early childhood and childcare policy, and Laurel Rothman from the Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare. Breaking down everything from the high costs of childcare in Ontario and Toronto to the three provincial party childcare platforms, our two guests gave us a roadmap for making childcare affordable and accessible for all, and (spoiler alert) if there was governmental will, there would be a way! Listen to this very special episode below and, if affordable childcare matters to you, remembe...

For our May 3rd edition of Health Talks Youth Radio, host Travis introduced our show by discussing the movie we would explore, which is the new 2010 Karate Kid starring Jayden Smith, son of the famous Will Smith, and the famous martial artist Jacky Chan. Set in China, the movie explores how a young boy who recently lost his father travels with his mother to China after the economic downturn in Detroit makes it too difficult to live in their homeland. Upon arriving to China, young Dre (played by Jayden Smith) finds himself a target of a group of young bullies, facing racism and discrimination. Discovering a love of martial arts, he finds that his bullies practice is and soon employs the assistance of the maintenance worker in his building who has hidden talents in martial arts (played by Jackie Chan). In discovering his inner strength, Dre overcomes his inner demons and outer demons and wins the respect and regard of his adversaries and finds a new home in China. Discussing thi...

For this edition of Health Talks Radio, we extended our conversation about the Indigenous community and discussed issues on how to support our Indigenous community in the struggles they face that range from emotional, psychological, and even around food scarcity and water supplies. Hosted by Gisela, we talked about how the Indigenous community continues to face struggles, such as the issue with water scarcity. In many reserves, the Indigenous community still has to rely on bringing in bottled water for everyday use including cooking, cleaning, drinking, and bathing. Water is so polluted and undrinkable and unhealthy for the community that they have to search outward for their solution. Growing up in these conditions, it would be easy for youth to think that this is normal and not realize that the resources are not as adequate as most developed communities, affecting their emotional and psychological health. Other topics we explored is the ways in which the Indigenous community ...

For our May 1st show of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, we had host Travis sit down and chat with the youth wellness navigators from Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre, Tasunke Sugar and Chantal McGregor. They talked to Travis about all the amazing youth services available at Toronto Council Fire. An organization that serves the general population, it specializes in developing services for the Indigenous community, but opens its doors to all. In discussing youth related services, they chatted about the Little Embers program, the Akwe:go program, and the Wasa-Nabin program. Each program promotes youth health and wellness, specializing in providing good nutrition to youth and focuses on different age groups. Evolving from its beginnings as a small meet up of members of the Indigenous community, it evolved into an organization with its own space and location, the closest to Regent Park Focus being at 439 Dundas Street East. Tasunke and Chantal also chatted about the amazin...

For our April 26th edition of Health Talks Radio, we had a panel discussion to talk about another youth, health and wellness related movie. This week we talked about the 2006 American romantic dance film Step Up, starring Channing Tatum as Tyler Gage and Jenna Dewan as Nora Clark. The film follows badboy Tyler and dancer Nora paired up in a dance recital that can determine both their futures. They must find a way to work together and set their differences aside. Their first practice was a rough one and ended earlier then expected. Nora watches curiously from a window as Tyler dances with his friends, mockingly incorporating a mixture of break-dance and the ballet moves he just recently observed. Our panel talked about the amazing way that two different worlds collided can create something even more phenomenal than alone. Tyler's friends the brothers Mac and Skinny have always had Tyler's back and he's always had theirs. But when he starts to develop a love for ...

Every day students come to class, they leave learning one more important lesson about music production. At this point, students have gone beyond learning just the basics of backbeats, software instruments and moved on to bigger production elements including: - The conventions of structuring pop music - Understanding sequencer automations (adjusting the sounds of instruments based on time) One of my favroites parts of this class has been listening to the different genres of music that students listen to and focusing on different composition strategies that are used in different genres. I'm learning that extremely different genres of music have a lot more in common than you might think!

For this episode of Health Talks Youth Radio, Diamond talks to our panel about youth homelessness. We talked about what defines “homelessness” for us and our shared experience meeting people facing homelessness. We talked about how we feel compassion for the people on the streets and observe how there are so many more living on the streets downtown than in suburban areas like Scarborough. Travis was curious to understand why this was an occurrence as he feels there are much more resources downtown to help the homeless than in suburban areas. Gisela points out a very important point which is the term “hidden homelessness” in which people may be homeless but “couch surf” or stay in recreation centres and so they are not visible. Running down our understanding of homelessness, we discovered that there are different terms for homelessness such as chronic, transitional, and episodic. Chronic means a person has been homeless for an extended period of time, the traditional homelessnes...

For our April 24th edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, host Diamond Bailey sat down and chatted to representative of Covenant House Brendan Halama. We learned that Covenant House is a worldwide organization, with organizations and programs in Canada, America, and even abroad. Covenant House serves youth by giving them a safe space to live if they find themselves homeless, showing them respect and unconditional love. Their location in Toronto is just downtown by Ryerson University and Dundas Square, at 20 Gerrard St. E. Youth can drop in and be assisted, given shelter and space to leave their belongings. In discussing the winter time, we understand that homelessness can be hard for youth and they still have support at Covenant House. It is really a judgment free space for youth. Brendan works with Covenant House and has a great deal of experience helping youth and mentions that some youth can not be assisted through Covenant House such as youth under 16 because they a...

Divas Spoken Word Showcase April 20 th 2018 It’s different planning for a showcase and much different seeing it in action. I wish I was brave enough to share spoken word with others on a stage. I guess, it was equal parts bravery and equal parts practice. It was my first showcase, so I did not know what to expect. I liked that because I liked being surprised. I liked not knowing what to expect even though I knew how from previous sessions. I felt like I had watched these young girls grow week to week through the construction of their pieces. I feel like an accomplishment for my last Diva’s blog. I got to the event and I loved the location, just geographically because it was across the Art Gallery of Ontario. The venue we went to also had an artsy energy to it that could allow creativity to grow.  I loved the poems and spoken word because every piece had a piece of their life experience that spanned their religion, gender, school experiences with authority figures and ...

For our April 19th edition of Health Talks Radio, our panel talked about the movie The Blindside with host Travis and panelists Beverly, Diamond, and Judy. What’s your blindside? Who watches your blindside? These are probably questions you were asking yourself when you heard that the lovely Sandra Bullock was starring in a film called The Blind Side. This heart warming family movie will really capture your soul because it teaches you that family is family no matter the colour of your skin or where you grew up. It’s not about where you're from, it’s about how big your heart is. Michael Oher is a 17-year-old boy who has been transferred from foster home to foster home back to back because of his mother’s drug addiction. Everytime he gets a new home he runs away to his dad’s house where he sleeps on the couch. One day, his father introduced him to the coach of the high school he was currently attending (Wingate Christian School) and the coach was instantly amazed. One stor...

For the April 17th edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, our host Erika welcomed Karina Ramos in studio to talk about their placement experience at S.O.Y. which stands for “Supporting Our Youth” and is a safe space and LGBT+ positive environment for youth that identify themselves as part of the community. Located at 333 Sherbourne Street, it provides all kinds of events, programs, groups, and activities to help youth understand their sexual identity much better and be at home with themselves. S.O.Y. accepts youth 29 years and under and provides free services that range from housing, employment, and mentorship. As a placement student from their school, Karina identifies as queer and trans and says they loved the experience being part of the S.O.Y. family. Discussing their experience in S.O.Y. Karina talked about what it’s like to do content for the organization, what it’s like to be part of the community, and why this was a fulfilling experience for them. Not only did Karina answer ...

<start> Tuesday, April 17th marks the start of the Web Game Development Program. I am pleased to have participants of various coding backgrounds, who are eager to learn new skills. One student has self-taught experience, and another just wrote his first line of code in class Tuesday afternoon. We covered an introduction to the course, and discussed overall goals and possibilities. I included a fun quiz on Kahoot, and enrolled them in a simple Google Classroom that I created for file and information-sharing purposes. I taught a beginner lesson on how to use HTML and CSS Tuesday, and plan to begin the first project next week. My hope is to have participants form project teams in the following weeks, but some participants are only able to attend on specific days. As the course progresses, I am confident participants will have clearer goals as to what they want to create. For now, I am teaching the basic curriculum to the students, and also adapting it to individual s...

For the April 14th episode of The Women's Hour, cohost Nina Reyes sat down with Lori Dennis about her book "Lyme Madness" and going through the odyssey of understanding Lyme Disease to help her son who got it while he was away and studying in New York, and the lack of support from the medical community. Helping the Lyme community out, Lori talks about the many ways the condition is not properly addressed by the medical community and how it has become a "Do-It-Yourself Disease". Listen to Podcast:

The Diva Girls Group April 13th , 2018 Today’s session is the last session before the Divas present their poetry pieces at the Art Square Café & Gallery. First, they started off with a 10-minute activity called Circle Rock; the Divas were required to go around the circle and answer the question, “What art project(s) do you want to work on for next year’s program?” Many of the Divas said art or adventure. Shortly after, the Divas were split into teams to play a 30-minute quiz. The quiz contained questions about previous sessions, staff members at Regent Park Focus and volunteers who have assisted with the Divas for the last couple months. The girls did an amazing job answering the questions on the quiz – team work, way to go girls! The Divas then had a 15-minute snack break with delicious snacks and drinks. The Divas were then given team piece handouts which were filled with writing and editing tips along with performance tips for when they perform their poetry piece...

The 12th of April saw the students learning skills in Maya (Hyper shade). At the end of the Lesson students can now apply color (blinn) to primitives using the hyper shade. - Jude

For our April 10th edition of Catch da Flava Youth Radio, host Diamond sat down with the lovely and energetic Resident Babe, Stephanie Battieste who created the all-girls skateboarding group Babes Brigade. Stephanie was so excited to share all about her skateboarding group and what it does to bring new life to the skateboard scene. With a background in graphic design and fashion, Stephanie increasingly found more interest in skateboarding and started to post on social media when she would be out at the skate park, inviting and interested friends to come along. She subsequently developed a following that grew into Babes Brigade, a fun space for girls to gather and skateboard. When asked why she wanted to create Babes Brigade, Stephanie said that whenever she went to the skate park, she often saw other girls there intimidated to be one of the few girls there in the skate park. Having girls together creates confidence for them to gather around and really learn the tricks of skate an...

For this portion of Health Talks Radio, host Diamond talked about women in sports and asked our panel of all-women outnumbering the lone male questions about women in sports. Travis, our only male panelists, claims he was not at all intimidated and switched into accents to ease the tension. In discussing the barriers to making sports more accessible to girls and women, Diamond talked about the discrepancies in women and men and mentioned she learned that the WNBA has smaller basketballs for women in the league than that of the NBA. Playing devil’s advocate, Judy mentions that perhaps this would be justified since women tend to be generally biologically smaller but in the vein of equity, then the hoops should be lowered to accommodate biology as well, to which Diamond does not believe has been done, which highly suggests there is discrimination in making basketballs smaller for the WNBA. When talking about how sports helps men and women get healthy, we wonder if promoting sp...

I’ve just finished month two of the music production program and I’m past the growing pains stages of the program and am finding a flow with the students that regularly return to the program. I’m really grateful for all of the regular students because it means that we get to move past the introductory elements of using music production software. As the students develop familiarity with the program’s foundation, students are able to ask questions involving more advanced elements as the songs that the students work on find their sound. Some students have asked to come in on off hours, which is great news for me as it suggests the students have found their own drive and motivation to create with this powerful software. And other students have asked for copies of their compositions so they could show their friends which means they’re really proud of their work! This has been a really exciting program to work - especially as students develop the faculty to hone and develop their cr...

In 1999, Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) returns to his old high school in Richmond, California to get the basketball team in shape. With tough rules and academic discipline, he succeeds in setting the players on a winning streak. But when their grades start to suffer, Carter locks them out of the gym and shuts down their championship season. When he is criticized by the players and their parents, he sticks to his guns, determined that they excel in class as well as on the court. We had a discussion panel about the movie for Health Talks Youth Radio on March 5th which has a lot to do with with youth health. In those days, basketball was all those boys had so it was literally you're either in the gym or on the streets. Some points that we came across was that it was hard out there for the parents and the youth. Everybody had their own issues and dilemmas which didn't leave much room for "proper parenting". One can only imagin...