On September 23^rd the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU) opened its doors for the grand opening of internationally renowned, Trinidadian artist Marlon Griffith’s exhibition “Symbols of Endurance.”

The exhibition picks up where the Ring of Fire procession that was held in early August, 2015 left off. Symbols of Endurance was a synaesthetic experience for viewers that traces the project’s trajectory through a thorough staging of original source material, sketches, technical drawings, and maquettes that informed the creation of “Toronto’s procession.”

The exhibition opened with a free public reception on Wednesday, September 23, from 6-9 pm where Marlon Griffith, AGYU and the youth from across the city that were involved in the project gathered together to celebrate the project.

SBL alumni mentors, Destiny Henry, Adulkadir Nur (Moose), Aliyah-Suvannah Burey and Kareem Bennett wrote and performed beautiful pieces to accompany the masks during the procession and the artwork at the exhibit. The poetry and artwork captured the symbols and grandfather teachings of courage, love, humility, honesty, respect, wisdom, and truth.

For anyone that would still like to view this amazing collection, the exhibition will stay open until December 6^th.

This year for the Toronto International Film Festival, SBL youth were given the opportunity to see the city taken over by #TIFF2015! A group of mentors, program participants and staff headed downtown to see the films Keeper & as I Open My Eyes.

The film was extremely engaging and emotionally charged story about the connection between fatherhood & teenage-hood. While the youth expected it to work out in Hollywood fashion, they were left with raw emotions by the end of the film, which led to amazing conversations around their experience with teenage-hood and family.

A smaller group went to see As I Open My Eyes, which sparked great interest in learning more about the conflict happening in Tunisia. In both cases, the experience was powerful and we thank our partners at TIFF for providing this opportunity to the youth each year!

Until next year #TIFF2015!

In early April, SBL partnered with Civic Action and H&M Canada to provide a group of SBL youth with the opportunity to gain valuable employment experience. From the group of 10 youth that secured employment with H&M, 7 will continue learning & growing with H&M into the fall.

The students continuing with H&M were recognized for their contributions and achievements at H&M’s downtown office on September 15th. The H&M team put together an amazing evening of celebrating growth and partnerships, where every youth in the room felt valued and recognized.

H&M’s new campaign “________is Possible” attempts to instil confidence and convey the message that great things are indeed possible. This partnership exemplifies that #ANYTHINGISPOSSIBLE through great collaborations!

We are excited to continue this partnership into the new school year and provide this opportunity for many more youth.

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While many students and teachers look forward to summer for time off, our students and teachers look forward to the SBL Summer Program. The program has been described as “so much fun with so many opportunities.” CTV stopped by to capture some of those experiences and moments.

CLICK HERE FOR THE CTV SEGMENT

Our 2015 summer program has come to a successful end and is now captured in a report. Check it out below and don’t forget to also check out our summer video on our YouTube channel.

SummerReport2015-

This past Saturday, September 19th SBL was Live At The Square to check out an event held by @MNFSTO a festival of community and culture. We got the chance to connect with others from the city, check out a break dancing competition and look forward to Melanie Fiona ending the night with a fantastic performance. The youth really appreciated the talent that Toronto artists and entrepreneurs had to offer. Each year that we have taken a bus load of youth downtown for the event has been a new experience every time! Knowing that @MNFSTO is more than a festival but also a platform to put local artists on the map is one of the many reasons we support the movement!

On September 2, the doors of Westview Centennial Secondary School were open to hundreds of grade 9 students for Head Start Day. Head Start Day gives students the opportunity to learn about what their high school experience will look like and where students receive their first high school timetables! Many students were excited and some anxious about high school were happy to see the Success Beyond Limits staff, mentors and volunteers in the main entrance of Westview C.S.S. greeting them with warm smiles and well wishes for the day. While Head Start Day serves as an orientation for grade 9 students, it’s also a time for students and the SBL staff, mentors and volunteers to reminisce about the fun summer program that just past, while expanding and building upon those relationships into the school year at Westview. It’s also a time to meet new students who were not able to attend our summer program, but who were the nevertheless eager to register for the Success Beyond Limits school year program at Westview. We are excited and look forward to what will come this school year!

SBL Graduation 2015 was filled with stunning performances, celebrations of our achievements and a lot of memorable moments. Over 100 students achieving their first credit embarking on their new journey to high school. Check out our video below that highlights our summer!

On Thursday May 21, 2015, TDSB held a partnership appreciation celebration in which Success Beyond Limits was recognized. The event was to recognize the new and renewed educational partnerships for the year and the unique contributions the partners make to support student success. The evening provided an opportunity to connect and share stories from various organizations. Donna Quan presented an award to SBL on stage in which Mohamed Ahmed was able to receive it on behalf of the program. Our partnership has been growing each year since 2007 and we are excited about continuing to support our students through this collaboration.