Blogs
May 30th, 2008 - 16:22:37 | Yassir EL OUARZADI
feedDear CLC and TIG members,
Today was my first meeting with a staff member from Canada World Youth -CWY- (http://www.cwy-jcm.org/), a famous organization which offers international educational programs to young people aged 17 to 24.
I met with Nadia Karina Ponce Morales, the program manager of CWY in the Quebec province, she is open-minded, dynamic, enthusiastic and happy to know about TakingITGlobal and to have me in their offices starting from next september.
So, CWY will be my host organization for year 3 of the CLC program, I am sure the partnership will be successful for TIG and CWY since they focus both on youth and they help them be involved in their communities. If CLC promotes and supports youth participation in Canada, Canada World Youth, created in 1971, has many programs that aim to help the youth develop their professional and interpersonal skills, make new friends, discover an other country and culture and improve their ability to work in a team.
With CWY, 18 young people from different cultures spend a total of six months away from their homes, living together for three months in a Canadian community and three months in a
community in one of CWY’s partner countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe or Latin America. (for more info, visit: http://www.cwy-jcm.org/en/aboutus/download/71971_BrochAN.pdf)
During the program of CWY, the participants live in host families and work as volunteers. Highly volunteering by the way :) (it is the title of a poem that I wrote recently, it was featured in the panorama).
An example of the activities can be preparing activities for World Food Day in Jamaica. Isn't it an exciting and learning experience?
The CWY program equipped thousands of young people with many useful skills for the future, a better understanding of global issues, and the ability and desire to contribute to the well-being
of their own community after the program.
Cheers
Yassir
Montreal Youth Engagement Coordinator
CLC- Canada
http://projects.takingitglobal.org/clccanada
May 23rd, 2008 - 21:08:16 | Yassir EL OUARZADI
Hey CLC fellows,
I just had my second Dawson Community Center workshop today. It was about CLIMATE CHANGE and it was really great !!!
I am excited to inform you that today's workshop about Climate Change has allowed us to think about what we can do to solve the problem instead of understanding Climate Change or its science without thinking of possible and simple solutions to it.
Simple and possible actions to fight global warming are:
Biking or walking instead of driving
Using the metro or the bus when you can
Composting food
Diminishing your garbage :)
Recycling
Trying not to buy packaged food
Furthermore, the kids in the Dawson Community Center were also interested about this environmental issue as I realized today. They came up with good thoughts and comments about Climate Change as I read in their first TIGblogs. So, that's really encouraging !
Now, I will have to buy a camera in order to take photos and include them in the QC Folder, so you can have a good idea of what I am doing in various parts on Montreal.
Best,
Yassir
TakingITGlobal
May 22nd, 2008 - 13:18:25 | Allison McLean
Hi everyone!
I just had a networking meeting yesterday with the local university about starting a new group. This group will focus on global and social issues, as well as having a mentoring component with youth (12-16) from some of the vulnerable communities in Saint John. Everyone in the meeting was really excited about it and there is now a big push on to make it happen! TIG will play a key role in this group by bringing the issues to the group and making it personal, as well as having a forum for the group to communicate on. The hope is that by bringing together invloved and inspired university students with youth who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, the youth will find a drive and purpose and become involved and inspired themselves. Of couse we also hope that other things, such as bringing the youth to a university environment and having them team up with strong positive role models, will also have long lasting positive effects. Fingers crossed that we can make it happen! This has the potential to be a great program and it would be a shame not to get it off the ground.
May 15th, 2008 - 19:52:34 | Muneeb
Hey guys,
(yes I am on a blogging spree)
As many of you may know we had a Web 2.0 Training and Networking session on May 8th. The event went really well. We were train 5 organizations at once, representatives from organizations such as Girls Guides Canada, Free the Children and YCMA were present. In total there were roughly 10 attendees which was good number to have interactive discussions and provided an intimate environment for networking.
Here some lessons learned from the session:
(thanks Mai for typing them up)
What worked:
Live examples are better (feature other orgs)
Minimal lecture
ask audience what they want to learn
Hands on experience - HOW to use a tool vs. what tools can be used
Modify icebreaker
Scavenger Hunt!
Sharing stories
Provide space for human interaction
Facebook case study
Card exchange
What did not work:
Lecturing
Web 2.0 (they already knew it as they were an older audience)
Adults are harder to break barriers
I think for the future one key lesson will be to not sell TIG and CLC overtly. Instead, I think it will be better to discuss one TIG tool and one non-TIG tool such as RSS or deli.ci.ous.
I you guys have any questions or comments feel free to message me.
May 15th, 2008 - 19:43:40 | Muneeb
Hey guys,
So on Monday, May 12th, I presented to a grade 10 civics class on careers in the non-profit sector and TakingITGlobal.
It was an amazing learning opportunity for me. Coming from a marketing background, using PowerPoint during presentation has become a part of my DNA which didn’t really work well with youth that age. When I was presenting to the about TIG using the PowerPoint they were highly disengaged. In addition the fact that we were in a computer lab, and they had access to internet was also very destructive.
I went dressed up in a TIG T-shirt and a pair of (casual-looking) jeans, and I think because they were expecting someone more ‘professional looking’ to come and talk about careers. I think a shirt would have been more appropriate as compared to the T-shirt.
When I switched from PowerPoint to stories and case studies they were all tuned-in with what was going on. They were more receptive towards the information I was providing them. I switched to an interactive where I was asking close ended questions to maintain the flow of the discussion. I also gave examples (in the form of stories) on certain points that I made.
Another idea that worked well was mini ‘info packages’ which included the CLC Canada booklets, couple of postcards and bookmarks, stickers, and the CLC Toronto business cards. They liked the ‘info package’ because it was concise, had interesting (read cool) materials and also gave them a sense that I was there to develop individual relationships with them (since I gave them the business cards).
Towards the end of the presentation I encouraged them to ask questions and gave small prizes (mouse pads) to those asked. And, at the end of the presentation I asked them questions and the students that gave the right answer were given bigger prizes (TIG T-shirts).
The teacher, Chana Boxer, was very enthusiastic about the presentation and also assisted me facilitating the discussion. I think this presentation was a great learning experience, and I look forward to doing more high school presentations.
Adios,
Muneeb Syed
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