Regent Park Focus

Catch Da Flava's show on November 20th was about youth advocacy and activism. The hosts for the night were Iman, Kylie and Jessica. They had the honor of interviewing the talented singer/songwriter Errol Lee and his amazing son Shay Lee. They didn't only answer some of the questions asked by our hosts, we also had the honor to hear a little snippet of them singing together. They also elaborated on some of their life experiences. For instance, how they got into the music industry together, their musical background etc. Errol Lee creates music for youth to teach them how important it is for everyone to care and love each other with his top songs "I'm Somebody" and "We Care". Our hosts had several curious questions for their guests and they had the opportunity to learn about their views on youth advocacy and why self-worth is important for everyone. Errol Lee's mission is to "combine singing, dancing and a meaningful message into a educatio...

On November 13th, Radio Regent's Catch da Flava youth talk show explored the topic of racism, with hosts Shejuanah, Thalia, and Kylie. As usual with our shows, our lead host for the week, which was Shejuanah this week, started by introducing a general definition and description of the topic for this episode of the show.  Then we discussed the history and origins of racism, from Biblical times to colonialism and slavery, to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. We spoke about how racism was used towards Indigenous peoples as a tool to make them out to be lesser than white settlers, and towards Black people during slavery to make them out to be a lesser class of people.  We also spoke about how racism impacts politics and political candidates who run for various levels of government, as well as law enforcement and the justice system. We discussed the differences in policing and sentencing of white and racialized people, including racial profiling through practices l...

Date: November 26th, 2018 Hosts : Paola Guests : Fred Chabot, Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights Topic : Abortion    This week, Paola hosted an episode on abortion. Sometimes, the decision to get an abortion can be simple and other times complicated. Either way, abortion is one of the most common medical procedures performed. In 2015, approximately 20.4% of all Canadian pregnancies ended in abortion and over 90% of those were performed in the first trimester. We started the show by interviewing Fred from Action Canada who told us about the history and fight for abortion legalization, busted the myths about abortion including that it’s completely unregulated in Canada (it is), it’s unsafe (it’s incredibly safe) and that most people who have an abortion regret it (they don’t). For the second half of the show we took listener questions and talked about how important it is to be pro-choice and to support every person’s right to bodily autonomy, a righ...

Many of the girls came to the conclusion that they would like to take part in a podcast. After brainstorming a list of  ideas,  they had picked 4 topics they would want to talk about. These being racism, gentrification, mental health, and feminism. Because these 4 topics are quite  broad,  we started talking about how we could  incorporate  them into the podcast.    The girls brought up issues like the double standards in beauty, an example being how recently, many non-black women get p osi t ive attention  and  even praised for having  features that black women naturally have  and  have faced years of being shamed because of  these exact  physical  attributes. They also talked about privilege and how many people, even  minorities  don’t realize how much  privilege  they  actually  have. Gentrification and mental health  were  also something the...

A new program at Regent Park Focus launched on October 26th - the Little Divas girls program! This program is a variation of the Divas girls program, just for a younger age range from 9 to 12 years old. The Little Divas programming is facilitated by our partners at CANVAS Arts Action Programs, Twoey and Maymuna. CANVAS describes their mission as using " interactive, arts-inspired training programs to educate on gender equity, consent, and LGBTQ2S+ inclusion in schools, summer camps, community centres and workplaces. Through creative and compassionate workshop facilitation, participants critically examine harmful norms, learn about the struggles of marginalized groups, and recognize their capacity to affect positive change. Together, we can work towards a more empathetic, equitable and kinder world-view. " (Read more about CANVAS and their programming here: www.canvasprograms.ca ) We have a smaller, more intimate group size for this program, which seems to be working well w...

Guest speakers from Toronto Public Health spoke to the girls about Healthy lifestyles.   When the girls  arrived,  they played a guessing game where they would match pictures to numbers listed on the board, these numbers had to do with the hours the girls should be spending doing certain activities. Many of the girls knew the right answers and even inputted ways to help lessen or increase hours of participating in certain activities, for example reducing time on phones by taking a break every few minutes.  The girls talked about the dangers that lights, especially blue ones from phones have on your eyes and how they confuse your brain, they even offered things that could help like a blue light filter on smartphones. They then  worked on creating posters that listed ways that can help someone attain the same information they did.  After, they talked about healthy eating, choosing healthier options, and  incorporating  them into your...

Hosts: Paola Guests: Christina Cantin, St. Mary’s Breastfeeding Program at Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Topic: Breastfeeding & Chestfeeding This week, Paola hosted an episode on Breastfeeding and Chestfeeding! There’s a lot of stigma around breastfeeding and chestfeeding in public. Both breastfeeding and chestfeeding refer to the same act but we use chestfeeding to be inclusive of the trans men, nonbinary and other trans people who use the term to describe how they feed their children. Paola began by talking about the right in the Ontario Human Rights Code to breastfeed or chestfeed anywhere at any time. Our first guest was Christina Cantin who spoke about the many benefits of breastfeeding, her program to promote breastfeeding and fighting feeding stigma. Paola was joined by Sinead for the second half of the show and Sinead interviewed Paola about her personal decision to breastfeed, what it’s like to be a breastfeeding mother, her experiences breastfeeding in publi...

Radio Regent’s Catch Da Flava youth talked about the several law changes that Premier Ford implemented They started off with talking about Bill 148 and what it entails, such as it guaranteed part-time workers will be paid the same rate a full-time workers doing the same job, orders employers to pay workers for three hours if their shift is cancelled with less than 48 hours notice and gives workers three weeks of vacation after five years of employment, as well as 10 personal days a year—two of which must be paid. Mainly, it is the bill that introduced the minimum wage increase to $14/hour in 2018, followed by an increase to $15/hour that was scheduled to happen on January 1st , 2019. Bill 47 is the new bill that is currently going to change one’s rights on the job if passed. The youth talked about their experience of having several part time jobs and how the sick days, minimum wage and safety regulations changes will affect them greatly is bill is passed. For instance, they wi...

Catch da Flava’s youth hosted a radio show on October 30th speaking the topic of bullying. Our hosts Shejuanah, Kylie, Thalia and Deborah. They aimed to touch base on the different types of bullying such as verbal, physical, cyber and emotional and also on 3 specific forms bullying that are homophobia, body type and class. They addressed issues surrounding LGBTQ+, whether there has been general acceptance for LGBTQ+ identities in the recent years and other issues that trans and gender non-conforming youth have with bullying, especially in school settings. In terms of class, they spoke about wealth versus poverty, the different income and status every household has. Bullying can also be based on the brands of clothes one may wear, what electronics they have, and how much money their family has in general. The youth also had an opportunity to share some of their personal experiences and how they have realized that they should never be a bully to get rid of one, instead they shoul...

This session was aimed at both editing the scripts  and team  and relationship building.   When the  girls  entered the  room,  they took part in playing some games like broken telephone. They were really interested and involved in playing and this helped as an icebreaker. They were then given a  typed-out  version of their scripts and worked on editing and finalizing it for filming.    Near the end of the class there was a discussion  brought  up about the representation of minorities in the media and how  Hollywood  (when making movies based on books or other forms of media), tends to change characters and do not represent minorities realistically or the way there were written as. An example brought up by one of the girls was the fact that often, girls that are light-skinned get casted to play characters that are supposed to be darker skinned and that this is damaging because it m...

The session started out with an icebreaker, this  week's  icebreaker was a game of charades, which hopefully  helped  them get into character for the acting that was to come after.    The girls worked on completing the scripts and some began filming. The group that did begin filming now have a sense of how they want to film the coming week  and  have also made a list of things they would need for the final version, this being props and  costumes . Some of the girls even began adding little bits into the video that wasn't prepared before but ended up fitting in so well the group added it in. The others groups are also ready to film now and will begin soon. Amna Quaid Azam

Radio Regent’s Catch da Flava youth radio show began its Fall 2018 cycle on Tuesday October 16th. This cycle’s participants and show hosts will be Brintha, Iman, Kylie, Shejuanah, and Deborah. For the first two weeks of this cycle, the group has been preparing for the live shows to begin on Tuesday October 30th. The first week we did a mock live show with a pre-written script about the cannabis legalization that was happening the next day on October 17th. We also had Mike Stroh from mental health advocacy organization Starts With Me on the show as a guest, to discuss the impacts of cannabis on mental health in youth. This gave the participants the chance to see what the general structure of a live show will be like, including with a guest present for the hosts to interview about the mental health aspects of the topic. Once our live shows begin in earnest on October 30th, the hosts will be doing their own research, preparation, and writing for the live shows, and will be speaking a...

This session was used to work on scripts. When the girls first walked  in,  we spoke more about ways to properly write a script. This meant talking about the setting, time, and the meaning of the video they are going to film. After this discussion they all started  to  rewrite the scripts they had planned since many had a different idea they wanted to go with or had decided they wanted to change groups .   I noticed that some of the girls had taken the information that they had obtained during the last couple of classes and put it into creating a topic while others used their personal experiences as one.  By the end of the session, the girls had either finished their scripts or had a good idea of what they wanted to do and say. Some of the girls had also decided that they would come in costume to film. Filming will start on the 19th of October.    Amna Quaid Azam