Blogs
Jan 23rd, 2008 - 13:09:11 | Nikki
feedBandwidth for Belonging
On Saturday I was in St. Catharines to conduct one of the Bandwidth for Belonging workshops where I was joined by Mai.
I think that the workshop went fairly well, and though we had a smaller and older turnout than we had expected we did our best.
I found that overall the participants were most excited about the guest speaker from England who came online and delivered a presentation about living with a disability in England. They seemed keen to know about the differences in the ability to obtain transport as that was a big issue for them as they lived in Niagara where transport for people with disabilities is both extremely expensive and unreliable. The participants also enjoyed seeing and talking to participants from Bob's center in British Colombia, who considering most of the participants had never really left the "neck" of Ontario seemed as distant as the guest speaker.
The offline component did not go as well as the online component but that was totally my fault. O think I still had a had time facilitating a group of people older than me and that is something I'm going to have to deal with because I will have lots of times where I will be having to take a firmer grasp of the reigns with people older than me.
i think that as an individual I was able to learn alot by conducting this workshop .For example the participants that we had were already volunteers and active in the community. Unfortunately I was surprised by this as I had seen people with disabilities in more of a service receiving role than a service giving role.
I really enjoyed getting to know the participants and with there only being 3 of them I think I got to know them fairly well and I got a better sense of the struggles of someone living with a disability and living on thier own in St. Catharines/Niagara (really Niagara is a giant lump and only one of the participants was from St. Catharines proper).
Jan 22nd, 2008 - 19:02:47 | Allison McLean
Guess I forgot to post a little while back... I did a climate change workshop in Miramichi, NB, right before Christmas. Despite going in with some hesitation, everything turned out well and I think everyone had fun. My next project is to do a climate change workshop at the university. I have high hopes for this one.
Jan 20th, 2008 - 13:42:17 | Pauline
Networking Meeting:
I posted some suggestions about networking meetings to the wikispace and encourage everyone else to do the same.
We had a successful first meeting to brief people about what TIG was while connecting some groups to each other. There was a good mix of organizations as well as some high school students who are interested in getting involved in some of the networks. There was the Indian Friendship Centre, PARO Women's Place for entrepreneurship, the Presbyterian Youth Ministry, Youthscape and Action for Neighbourhood Change, Beedaubin Arts group, the Regional Multicultural Youth Council, Health Engaging Youth, and the Multicultural Youth Centre.
Mai and myself first showed the TIG guide, and then we went around the circle and talked about fears about technology. There were some First Nation's students from up North, so it was a good chance to get a feel for what their ideas are about access. I wish there was more time to discuss this and sign up for TIG, so I would make it an hour and a half next time.
Climate Change Workshop:
Also for Mai's visit, there were a few environmental groups who came to learn about the Guide to Action for Climate Change. The groups were the Gitchi Gami Environmental Group from Fort William First Nation, the Oudoors Environmental Club from Churchill High School, and the Regional Multicultural Youth Council. We started with an icebreaker about the ecosystem and how it's connected, then we played a trivia game and showed the guide. We also showed a video about climate change. Next time I will make sure to have video on the laptop so that we can project it. I was glad I put posters up because some people came from the poster alone. So, again, it was a good mix It was two hours and that was enough time. If we were to make it longer next time, it would be a day long workshop with breaks. It would have been great to ask them for ideas and break up into groups to do some concrete planning. However, this was not possible because people begin to get tired at 8:30 pm.
Jan 16th, 2008 - 10:16:17 | Nikki
Social Tech Brew Co.
Last night I attended this really great, for lack of a better category, networking meeting in downtown Ottawa. The little group is called the Social Tech Brew Co., though you do not have to drink nor is it a company. I guess this was a concept that started in Vancouver following a conference and it was a bunch of people from the activist community and the tech communities coming together to talk about how the latest tech stuff could be used in social organizations. After a point they started bringing in guest speakers and have workshops. While it was a very different demographic that TIG generally works (6/8 middle aged men) I think that we can learn a lot about new technologies and talk about some of our technology challenges as well as learn what others are doing and how they are using them. Last night we talked about Facebook, how is it being used, for instance Amnesty International developed a Facebook application for its Write-a-thon campaign, in the social community. We discussed online privacy - do we want strangers talking to us online - and online security. One of the things that was interesting was the whole family vs. friends dynamic and how it had been worked out on different social networking sites. For example I would take a bullet for my mother but I would not (and did not) accept her facebook friend request. We also talked about politics and how the US seems to always be one election ahead of Canada tech wise, with US politicians having Facebook debates and YouTube channels etc. I think that I will definitly keep coming out to these meetings becuase they are very valuable and they are really the mix of the two communities that TIG mixes.
Jan 13th, 2008 - 16:25:47 | Yassir EL OUARZADI
Hello everyone,
As my twin brother Ilyes did, I decided to post this blog to introduce myself to CLCers and TIG members.
Actually, I am part of the Creating Local Connections team where I serve as the Quebec Youth Engagement Coordinator or even the Montreal Youth Engagement Coordinator since my area of work will be usually Montreal. Thus, I am a representative of my youth community, aimed at strengthening and supporting the CLC reach through offline outreach initiatives.
The key challenges to youth participation in Montreal are the following:
- High levels of poverty, violence, racism, systemic barriers to engagement, lack of awareness of resources that are already available and accessible.
- Popular culture’s emphasis on consumerism.
- Lack of time: maybe make time during lunch or spare time?
- Language divide – especially French/English divide in Montreal – challenging to run
bilingual programs.
- Public discourse about immigration as well as "reasonable accommodation": Need to better understand other cultures and create respect between cultures.
All the best,
Yassir
Quebec Youth Engagement Coordinator
CLC Canada
TakingITGlobal
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