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SBL 1000 Dinners Conversation on CBC

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On October 7th we hosted a dinner in our space as a part of #1000DinnersTO, where people from across the city were discussing the challenges and opportunities that our city is facing.  The dinner had some of our staff, students, mentors and mentor alumni present, along with Matt Galloway from CBC.

 

It was a night of inspiration, ideas and real reflection.  Two recordings from that conversation over dinner were broadcast on Metro Morning today, which can both be heard at:

 

http://www.cbc.ca/metromorning/episodes/2014/10/08/1000-dinners-toronto/

 

As you will hear, the comprehension of the issues, the clarity of the vision, and the power in their voices came through beautifully.

 

successBLSBL 1000 Dinners Conversation on CBC
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York Centre for Education & Community Institute 2014 Conference

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Community-University-School Collaboration: Applying What We’ve Learned to a Jane/Finch context

Ycec conference  (1) Ycec conference  (2)

 

Workshop was held as a panel discussion followed by interactive discussion that leads to generating new ideas for community-university-school collaborations with the Jane-Finch community in mind. The workshop included a presentation of academic literature on effective models of community-university-school collaborations from other jurisdictions.  It will be followed by a presentation by Success Beyond Limits and over 7 years of community-university-school collaboration experience aimed at supporting youth educational attainment in Jane Finch.  York U-TD Community Engagement Centre provided an overview of its revised mandate, core functional areas and activities.  The workshop moved into an interactive discussion intended to generate dialogue and new ideas moving forward with a focus on York/Jane-Finch community partners and local school boards.

successBLYork Centre for Education & Community Institute 2014 Conference
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In Loving Memory – Abshir Hassan

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Abshir is SBL family.  His laughter, intelligence, heart, time, and all of the resources he had available to him were given generously to support our work of acknowledging and supporting the genius of youth in Jane and Finch.

 

He was a teacher of the highest quality, and had the love and respect of all of his students, because he loved and respected all of his students.  His commitment in the classroom was rooted in his commitment to community.

 

Not content to only do the important work that comes through one to one connections in the classroom, his pursuit of post-graduate studies at York was focused on bringing forward the experiences of students whose voices and experiences are still under-represented.

 

Supporting the development of Hip Hop Literacy curriculum, adding input and insight to the Somali Student Achievement Task Force, volunteering in after school programs, and going to Raptors games with our students are just some examples of how he lived and breathed his dedication to ensuring that youth have the opportunities and education experiences that he knew he and his peers should have received growing up.

 

At the core of it all, he was excellent.  An excellent friend, brother, son, cousin, teacher, community worker, and academic.

 

As a family, we will carry our work with his heart for youth.

 

Our condolences to the family, friends, students, and colleagues that are devastated by the loss of this brilliant, loving man.

 

Rest in peace Abshir.

 

successBLIn Loving Memory – Abshir Hassan
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SBL & Raptors Rapture Collaboration

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Raptorsrapture

You can now find intriguing articles about Toronto’s very own Raptors on the RaptorRapture website written by SBL youth! Through this new collaboration, our youth are able to express their ideas and opinions about the NBA and more particularly the Raptors all while gaining valuable experience.  You can check out these great articles and more at www.raptorsrapture.com

 

http://raptorsrapture.com/2014/02/26/guest-post/ – Article by Khadar Abukar

http://raptorsrapture.com/2014/02/10/steve-novak-get-man-playing-time/- Article by P.K Boateng

http://raptorsrapture.com/2014/02/08/los-angeles-clippers-118-toronto-raptors-105-come-home-guys/ – Article by P.K Boateng

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McKinsey Youth Leadership Fourm

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McKinsey

 

On Friday April 25th and Saturday April 26th, students from all over the GTA gathered together at the Mckinsey office in downtown Toronto for a day of leadership development and skill building at Mckinsey’s annual Youth Leadership Forum (YLF).

 

Over the course of these two days students made connections with other youth leaders from around the city and even business professionals from Mckinsey.

Youth were also required to brainstorm solutions to a practical scenario, where they worked collaboratively and applied their own unique experiences and expertise. Motivational speakers from Mckinsey and other organizations such as Habitat for Humanity were brought in to inspire the youth and guide them through this educational experience.

 

Khadar Abukar, a Success Beyond Limits (SBL) youth who was one of the students accepted into the YLF states “This forum taught me to be more confident in my self and in my abilities. No problem is too big and that if you collaborate with others it makes tackling a problem that much easier.”

 

Mohamed Ibrahim, another SBL youth who attended the YLF shared a similar sentiment and went on to state, “I learned that there are a lot of people that feel and think the way I do that are from different communities. This made me feel confident in myself that there are others that also want good for their community.”

 

Mohamed and Khadar are both eager to take the knowledge and skills gained from this forum and apply it to their everyday experiences, building on the skills that they tapped into during this initiative.

 

Check out McKinsley’s Youth Leadership Forum Website:

 

http://www.ylftoronto.ca/

 

 

 

Youth Leadership Forum

 

successBLMcKinsey Youth Leadership Fourm
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SBL and AGYU Design Charette

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Charrette Summary

As a part of our collaboration with the Art Gallery of York University we connected with an organization called archiTEXT and completed a two-day design charette with the first day focused on designing the community and the second day focused on designing our youth space at Westview.

Attached is the summary report.

SBL AGYU Design Charrette Summary

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SBL Youth Featured in The Toronto Star

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Jane-Finch youth use voices and art to inspire change

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Suviana Burey, 17, Kareem Bennett, 18, and Destiny Henry, 17, are among a group of students from Jane and Finch who have created works reflecting their lives, struggles and dreams for their community.

On display at York University, eight young artists created works based on their own lives, struggles and dreams for their community.

 

At a new art exhibit at York University, the walls do talk — with the voices of eight youth from Jane and Finch, who speak about their personal tragedies as they counter ’hood stereotypes.

“People don’t understand that it’s not a ‘jungle.’ It’s not a ‘war zone,’” said Suviana Burey, 18. She’s eager to say that “crime” should not be the noun that defines her part of the city.

She and seven other young artists, along with mentors, have been working together since October on the second floor of Westview Centennial Secondary School to create If We Ruled the World — an experimental exhibit that opened earlier this month at the Art Gallery of York University.

After first connecting at Success Beyond Limits, a mentoring and youth outreach centre housed at the high school, the young artists wrote spoken-word pieces, turned them into videos, and created drawings and paintings inspired by their own verses.

Their work collectively draws a sharp, fresh perspective on life in their community, where they find strength in spite of trauma and are building a better future in a place they are proud to call home.

“Basically, don’t let the casualties that we live in turn out how our reality becomes,” says the quiet, introspective Kareem Bennett, 18.

His poem walks through the dark places, where youth have met violent deaths, and reflects on how those tragedies have shaped him.

Through these walls, I put emphasis on my character /

Surrounded by concrete, I speak only to survive in these areas

Last year, four teens were shot and killed just blocks from Westview.

Last week marked one year since 15-year-old St. Aubyn Rodney was shot and killed inside his own apartment; afterwards, the students at Westview arrived at school wearing R.I.P. T-shirts to remember the one they knew as “Tubby.”

Bennett didn’t know those young men well. But their deaths reminded him of others he has known, who have also been taken from the community.

“I carry the good memories of that person,” he says of the friend he wrote about, Stackz — better known as 15-year-old Jordan Manners, who was gunned down in a stairwell at nearby C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in 2007. “They help shape my attitude today.”

Within these tunnels, I see death in different perspectives /

People judge off misconception / Never offer to question / But I still feel his presence

Typically, the violence is the only story people outside this community hear about, the students said.

“They’d be surprised by the many capabilities and talents that the people have here,” said Destiny Henry, 17. “No one comes to look for the talent.”

Their new work is not only about struggle, Henry said.

“It’s things that we saw, things that have impacted us. Things that we want to change,” said Henry, whose piece shows an eagle and dove flying over a cracking heart. “You have to choose life over death . . . I choose to soar. I choose to rise.”

Abdul Nur — better known to most as Moose — said his piece speaks of making the most of the time you have.

He rhymes: ’Cause every day when you be dodging the coffin / It’s good to know you’re doing what you love when you drop in

Gabriela Aguilera, 20, needed to put her feelings about death into words, with a stirringtribute to her mother, who passed away after living with multiple sclerosis.

“I had a lot to say,” she said.

In the white-walled gallery space, where their names are now printed and their work in watercolours and pastels hangs around the room, they dance and bop as a song they wrote together plays over the loudspeakers. Their voices find the words again:

A hundred million miles / Take a step into my shoes / Take a breath in through my nose / Use my eyes to see my views / Thirteen years up in this ’hood / Take a look up in my life / All this struggle and the strife / Man it cuts just like a knife / So I try to find a way out

“I personally wanted to leave,” said Burey, whose own piece — a highway with the artists’ names piled into a bowl labeled “hope” — is about young people leaving to learn enough so that they come back and make things better.

“We are all the hopes of this community.”

So how would they make things better if they were in charge?

“We’re already doing those things,” Henry said. Recently the younger students taught a class at York University about spoken word — so they could learn to use their own voices.

“That alone can change the world.”

If We Ruled the World runs at the Art Gallery of York University until March 2.

The artists in their own words:

Suviana Burey, 18

Jane and Finch in one word: Diversity

Role model: The Bible — “Right now I’m reading about the prophets and stuff. They had a pretty hard life.”

Kareem Bennett, 18

Jane and Finch in one word: Connected

Role model: Malcolm X — “He’s the definition of struggle and gain.”

Destiny Henry, 17

Jane and Finch in one word: Diverse

Role model: The Bible — “The word itself is the most inspiring . . . It’s like an opening of the eyes.”

Gabriela Aguilera, 20

Jane and Finch in one word: United

Role model: My brother (a sergeant in the Armed Forces) — “I . . . look up to him for guidance and everything.”

 

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/02/20/janefinch_youth_use_voices_and_art_to_inspire_change.html

successBLSBL Youth Featured in The Toronto Star
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If We Ruled The World – Youth Art Installation @ Art Gallery of York University FEB 5 @ 6pm

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AGYU_FLYERBACK

 

What Up T.O!

We are proud and pleased to invite Toronto and the GTA out to the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU) on Tuesday, February 5th at 6pm to join us for the launch of a collaborative installation titled “If I Ruled The World”.
The project has been put together by 8 youth artists from Jane and Finch who are working with 3 professional artists in order present a multi-media art installation at the Art Gallery of York University.  Led by the Art Gallery of York University in collaboration with Success Beyond Limits, this project is another step in the deep commitment from the gallery to youth and community.
Success Beyond Limits is an after-school educational support program and The AGYU, through this collaboration, are offering youth in Jane and Finch the opportunity to participate in stimulating and enriching arts and cultural workshops led by the city’s leading artists. If I Ruled the World, is providing youth in our community with the invaluable opportunity to collaborate with Mark “Kurupt” Stoddart and The M.A.D Poet, to create art works that explore and develop an urban spatial imaginary.
Looking at the architecture, landscape, and urban plan of their neighbourhood, youth artists are employing visual art and spoken word poetry to explore the impact that spatial inequality and injustice has had on their lives. Moreover, they will use painting, drawing and spoken work poetry as a means of envisioning urban transformation that will result from a more socially just and equitable neighbourhood and spatial structure.
The installation will be followed up with a two-day design charette with ArchTEXT that will explore urban planning through the eyes of youth artists in the community.
The Art Gallery of York University has done a remarkable job in providing this remarkable opportunity.
successBLIf We Ruled The World – Youth Art Installation @ Art Gallery of York University FEB 5 @ 6pm
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