Posts tagged teens

Queer West Shout Youth Program

Queer West Motto – Building a Community Strengthening the City

Wednesday February 24, 2010

“ShOUT is an Unconference” A Participant-Facilitated Discussion

We feel it’s time to move on and do something new and exciting again. Combing the best of our former Queer Peers Mentoring Program and Java Knights Public Forum. We have moved into the future of queer public forums by adopting Open Space Technology, Unconference a facilitated participant-driven face-to-face conference around a theme or purpose. Our new Shout Youth Program and Unconferences are now held in the Toronto Parkdale – Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre to serve the whole community better.

The Agenda Tonight

Mix and Mingle with our panelists, poets and the members from the ShOUT Beehive Collective, who worked hard putting tonight’s event together for you. All Generation-Y volunteers. The Queer West Board of Directors will also be present. Philip Cairns, Jaclyn Isen and Michel F. Paré.

Poster by Sam Gorrie

There will be Art Show and Works by Ilona Abramovich and Spoken Word Readings by Max Baru and Dani Mas

There will be 30 minute exclusive  documentary film on life and  times of Ilona, Young, Queer and Homeless  and living on the  streets Toronto and the solutions, she is now seeking to help queer youth.  Film director and writer, Ilona Abramovich, not available on any video hostings sites.

The Feb 24 poster is by Sam Gorrie a Shout Volunteer and professional caricature artist. Click in it to see larger version.

Tonights event will be video taped,  by Casey Reid (With permission of Panelists and Participants) Casey is a 2008 UWO graduate with Honours,  Specilaization Film Studies.

 The SHOUT evening is Free and Wheelchair Accessible. Vegetarian food, cupcakes and green tea, will be provided.

Tonight’s Topic:  Out on the Streets. Young, Queer and Homeless in Toronto

 Some LGBT youth find their sexual orientation an additional barrier within already limited services for homeless. There are no queer youth shelters in Toronto

Please note that participation in ShOUT! Queer West Youth and Young Adult Program does not necessarily reflect the sexual orientation or gender identity of its participants in any particular way.

Presenters Biographies  

Ilona Abramovich (Guest Panelist/Filmmaker)

is a PhD student in the Adult Education and Community Development program at the University of Toronto – OISE.

Her research interests focus on LGBTQ youth homelessness, youth culture, and support services. The main question that drives Ilona’s work and passion is “where is the support?” She strives to find where the support is for LGBTQ youth who are homeless in Toronto and to help share the voices of a population of people who are often silenced and unheard.

She paints on canvas, wood, and concrete – using acrylics, spray paint, nails, wire, and screens. Ilona is inspired by pink skies, observation, and hope. Her Web Site: http://www.ilona6.com/

Max Baru

Max Baru (Guest Poet/Panelist) was born in Moscow on November 4th, and currently resides in Toronto.

Baru is a member of Parkdale Street Writers group (A weekly writing workshop for local youth 16-25 years of age.) His work focuses on contemporary fiction, and explores unconventional romance, issues of identity, and gender as well as attempts to distort social perceptions. Baru’s work often contains undercurrents that reflect his views on mental health issues, and although often presented through a dark motif emphasizes self-preservation. Baru is currently a volunteer at Dandyhorse (Cycling) Magazine and most recently his poetry has been featured by the Hot-Sauced Words poetry reading series. Baru was an attendee at our Queer Expressions a night of Poetry and Spoken Word at The Press Club on January 24, 2010

“Writing for me has been a band-aid as much as it has been a way to communicate. It’s been dangerous and comforting, a way to slow down, connect, live many places, genders, and hair colors. It lets you revolt in your own unique way and thank the ones dear to you in the most personal way. Working with the Parkdale Street-Writers has been a thrilling experience.” Said Max Baru

Jaclyn Isen

Jaclyn Isen, Queer West a Vice President Shout Project Director

Come meet the visionary behind the new Queer West Young Adult Program Unconferences.

 Jaclyn Alia Isen is one of Queer West Arts Collective’s newest members, joining the Board of Directors and initiating the ShOUT! Young Queer Adult (Un)conference Program in December  2009. Jaclyn is a creative and eager generation Y’er and a proud Parkdalian with an ongoing craving for queer and feminist theory and community.

Jac holds a Masters of Arts in Women’s Studies from the University of Western Ontario, has taught an introductory undergraduate tutorial in Women’s Studies and has participated in a number of conferences on the topics of gender and sexuality.

She has developed a great deal of experience in organizing arts-based community programming in her role as the Community Outreach Coordinator for a wonderful independent feminist business on the Danforth called Red Tent Sisters.

Jaclyn is a woman-loving-woman, and generally a people-loving-person, who holds a fierce belief in the power of the arts to educate, cultivate, heal and transform community. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Education in Adult Education and Community Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at University of Toronto.

Toronto author Emily Pohl-Weary (Guest Panelist) grew up and still lives in the city’s west end. She’s currently writing a four-issue girl pirate comic (illustrated by Willow Dawson). Her young adult mystery novel, Strange Times at Western High, was published by Annick Press in the fall of 2006. Emily started art/lit hybrid Kiss Machine magazine in 2000. A slim collection of her poetry, Iron-On Constellations, was published in late 2005.

Her first novel, A Girl Like Sugar, was released in 2004.Pohl-Weary currently coordinates a free weekly writing group for west-end Toronto youth called Parkdale Street Writers. She also facilitated writing workshops at Evergreen Youth Shelter and Street Outreach Services in 2007 for Toronto Youth Street Stories /Youth Pathways Project, an arts-based research study conducted through the Centre for Mental Health and Addiction and University of Toronto, which focused on issues of ethnic and sexual diversity, drug use, and mental health faced by youth living in high-risk environments on or close to the street.

She is currently working on a new novel, a film script, and is completing a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts at the University of British Columbia. Visit Her Web Site: http://www.emilypohlweary.com/

Y.E.S.

(Guest Panelist) Whitney Pyper, Marketing and Outreach Coordinator Toronto Youth Employment Services

YES is a premier sponsor of the SHOUT Youth Program. Pyper has ample experience with youth job applications and resume writing and will share with us her useful tips and real world experience.

Dani Mais

Dani Mas (Guest Poet/Panelist) Born Danielle Thomas in St. Thomas Jamaica, the third of seven siblings some of whom she’s yet to meet. She currently resides in a nameless neighbourhood, west of Roncesvalles in Parkdale. She is musician and fond of producing outsider art. As a writer she is Partial to writing fiction, she is intrigued with societal structure the complexities and contradictions of the human condition, particularly obsessed with the ideas of truth and love. She is a constant student of life and in the literal sense. A member of Parkdale Street Writers youth group and a big fan of Pride Toronto and Queer West Fest. Dani is member of Parkdale Street Writers

Suggested discussion questions to ask ourselves:

Creative expression initiatives like SKETCH and Parkdale Street Writers seem like peculiar ways of addressing the needs of street-involved youth. (1) Do you think arts-based programming is a valuable/necessary social service, why or why not?

(2) What do you think the reasons are that queer youth are largely overrepresented in the overall population of homeless youth? (3) What additional barriers do they face in accessing social resources? (4) How are their experiences and needs unique and how can we address them uniquely?

-Queer youth migrate to urban centres like Toronto from all over Canada and abroad. (5) How can we begin to draw attention to the problem of queer youth homelessness as not just a municipal but a national and even international issue?

(6) How might challenging/re-working traditional conceptions of “home”, “family”, and “community” be significant exercises/themes for queer subjects more broadly (whether literally with a “home” or not)

(7) Are there particular gender and race differences we need to recognize between the experiences of Queer Street youth in addressing their needs?

(8) In what ways does discrimination or violence against queer youth in schools contribute or increase their vulnerability, affect their academic performance, and/or the risk of ending up on or near the streets of Toronto? (9) How can we make schools safer for queer youth?

It is necessary to address the hostility that queer youth may experience daily, beginning with equal treatment in Canadian schools. We must address systemic causes of discrimination and promote respect for others from an early and critical stage of development. As van Wormer & McKinney, 2003 wrote “Rejection by peers, teachers and parents (or even the fear of rejection) is often internalized as self-hatred and externalized as self-destructive behavior.”

(10) What are some proactive measures that can be taken in the areas of education, social services, employment and housing to mend the current queer epidemic of homelessness?

The following link on queer youth and school safety may be of interest to you: http://www.owjn.org/owjn_2009/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=67

The SHOUT evening is Free and Wheelchair Accessible. Vegetarian food, cupcakes and green tea, will be provided.

ShOUT is brought to you by our Fabulous Sponsors

OUTeXpressions Newspaper | Queer West Arts and Culture Centre| Youth Employment Services| OUTtv.ca | Naco Gallery & Cafe| IvarDesign.com| | Lesbian Social Business NetworK (LSBN) | Parkdale Liberty Villager Newspaper