As you all know (or should know by now!) this is a youth site, so we are looking for youth-created content to keep the site relevant to the newcomer youth who will be visiting it. 

In the age of YouTube, we realize that many of our website users will be more familiar (and responsive) to video content. In fact, a lot of new youth projects now focus exclusively on providing youth with multimedia creation and editing skills, and foster creativity as a way of engaging youth. You might be familiar with the most popular of these types called digital storytelling, which can be used to explore any issue while incorporating any tech or multimedia skills youth have or are currently learning about. The product of a project like this is a short digital video telling a particular story. If you’re interested in reading more about it, check out this document called “7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling“.

These are the most interesting types of programs for us, because the products of these projects translate well to the internet (meaning we can showcase them on our upcoming website).  

One group that does great multimedia work with youth is Regent Park Focus, located in Regent Park in Toronto. They focus on video, music, photography, Web 2.0, and produce a monthly magazine called “Catch Da Flava”. Last week we had a meeting with this youth-driven not-for-profit media group, discussing potential ways we can work together to produce video content for the site. One idea we bounced around was the creation of a “How-To…” series of videos for newcomer youth to orient them with certain topics, like our favourite example of “How To Ride Public Transit”. Ideally, video would be the best medium to translate these types of messages since they can be subtitled or narrated in many different languages (not just French) and can be more accessible than large blocs of info text.

However - videos take a long time to produce so we are always looking for more partners!

If you are running a project with youth involving multimedia production, please contact us at youth-jeunesse@ocasi.org and let us know if you would be interested in creating content for us.

Multimedia Youth Groups:

Check out Regent Park TV to see what Regent Park Focus does.

Read about the Remix Project in Toronto.

Watch videos from the MIGR@TIONS Project (an immigration/migration themed multimedia festival).

A. Hired a new French-speaking staff member to work on the French content of the newcomer youth website - Adelin Brunal has formerly done frontline work with French-speaking youth and is currently pursuing a Masters Degree at OISE - check out his most recent blog post here.

B. Begun looking for content partners! _____Do you (and your youth) produce video? _____Do you write for the web? _____Do you know how to produce podcasts or short audio clips? Interested in making content for our site? We have a huge list of topics we would love to cover, but we can’t do it all ourselves. We also think it would be way more interesting for YOU if YOU made it - so let us know if you’re interested! Note: We will compensate you for any content you produce for us. Email us at youth-jeunesse@ocasi.org, and send us links or examples of your work!

To commemorate her life, Toronto Life has produced a cover page feature on Aqsa for their December 2008 issue which can be found online here.

In response to this full feature coverage, a group of young Muslim women and the Urban Alliance on Race Relations (UARR) have organized against what they see as the misrepresentation of the issue.

In a press conference held on November 10th, 2008, they noted that this type of media coverage of Aqsa’s death perpetuates “common stereotypes about Muslim and immigrant communities” and diverts attention from the larger context of violence against women. Other groups at the press conference, such as METRAC (Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children), and the CCMW (Canadian Council on Muslim Women) similarly spoke out about the Toronto Life (mis)representation.

I want to say that I was impressed by the articulate and insightful responses the young women speaking gave to the media, because I was. I don’t mean this in the condescending sense where people are often surprised that young people can speak clearly to their experiences and form arguments and opinions. My impression came from the sense that Aqsa’s death and the experiences she had (intergenerational and cultural conflict, and domestic and gendered violence) are hard issues to talk about, especially if you identify with any of her struggles. And many of the women there did. But they didn’t shy away from producing strong statements about why they found Toronto Life’s article both misrepresentative and offensive on many fronts, despite the difficult nature and context surrounding Aqsa’s life and death. For a more comprehensive look at the debate, read the article on Aqsa and take a look at the links below, especially the Facebook group.

To read more about how youth are responding to how a peer’s death is being discussed in the media, visit the Aqsa Facebook group.     Coverage of the press conference can be found here: CBC - “Muslim, Women’s Groups Protest Article on ‘Honour Killing’ of T.O. Girl” MastheadOnline - ”Critics: Toronto Life feature ‘puts a whole religious community on trial’” Torontoist - “Aqsaing For It”

One of the most memorable stories in the play, written by Emma Beltran, was that of a Mexican student activist who was forced to flee Mexico after being tortured in detention, refusing to give up the names of her “comrades” in action.  The rest were pieces by Martha Kuwee Kumsa, Sheng Xue, and Goran Simic, all members of PEN Canada’s “Writers in Exile” program.

I was really impressed by the this play was outreached towards newcomer youth. The invitation specified that youth were especially welcome to attend the play and the presentation included a fun reading by a writer from PEN Canada’s “Writers in Exile” program.  No One Is Illegal hosted a workshop as well. The theatre was full of youth on the day we attended, and the interactive pieces seemed to be a good way to explore a lot of issues raised in the play, like that of non-status migrants and their struggles.

I feel that a lot of a newcomer youth don’t get the chance to explore the bumpy road of (im)migration and settlement in Canada. Their struggle with this process is not something that is talked about in schools, is not something that is represented in the curriculum and is not something they are encouraged to write about in creative writing classes.  The TAXI Project is a good example for younger people that creative outlets like playwriting can be used to tell their stories.

While the initial run of the play is over, the TAXI Project will be shown in public schools starting September, hopefully reaching out to and inspiring more youth in the process.

• Be very clear about what are the youth-led areas of this project, and what spaces youth have to make decisions about the project
• Avoid making false promises to youth and others
• Notify people about limitations due to budget, funding requirements, management, proposal constraints…etc
• Concrete suggestions regarding youth voice on the AC include:

o Having youth chair meetings
o Having a 50% youth quorum
o Using “dotmocracy” as a non-verbal way of getting people’s opinions about issues
o 2:1 voting status (youth:adults)


Another resource at our disposal was the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) publication “Leading by Example: Youth Leadership in Non-Profit Governance” written by Soni Dasmohapatra and Beenash Jafri. We found the most useful parts of this guide to be “CASSA’s Principles of Youth Engagement” and the  South Asian Youth Advisory Committee (SAYAC) “Terms of Reference”. The “Principles” are the philosophical backbone of CASSA’s approach to youth engagement within the organization, and the SAYAC “Terms of Reference” are useful to us as a model upon revision of our own Advisory Committee’s Terms of Reference.

Updates will come soon regarding what direction the OYN decides to take after digesting this information. If you have any useful links/resources/suggestions, please leave us comments below or email us at youth-jeunesse@ocasi.org

An awesome resource we have found is a “Youth Friendly” guide by Apathy is Boring which has an awesome section on “How to Make A Meeting Real to Youth” and info on how to make your organization more youth-friendly. It can be found here.

In an effort to increase the capacity of those working with LGBTQ newcomers, or to increase the visibility of LGBTQ issues in the settlement sector, a meeting was hosted by Among Friends* at Access Alliance. OCASI staf

f attended the meeting. Concerns about the limited LGBTQ-positive services available to LGBTQ newcomers were discussed at this meeting, with recognition that this problem is not just prevalent in the settlement sector, but that homophobia is an issue across the board (health, education, employment…etc).

In terms of the youth projects, the issue of LGBTQ access to services is important for a couple of reasons. Firstly, youth are at the forefront of trying to make the settlement sector more accessible and inclusive than it currently is. One example is EXPRESS run by the Sherbourne Health Centre as part of the Supporting Our Youth (SOY) project; this group, made up of LGBTQ newcomers, is currently working on a resource guide for LGBTQ newcomer youth. Secondly, barriers to service can be especially problematic for newcomer youth seeking LGBTQ-specific resources because it can be exacerbated by the social isolation that alre

ady characterizes many immigrant experiences.

Because both projects in the OCASI Youth Network (OYN) are concerned with newcomer service access, this issue must be addressed. Since the Advisory Committee is the major researching body, and the group collectively decides on the research questions, the challenge is how to bring this issue to their attention. One avenue is increasing the number of members who are familiar with LGBTQ concerns in the group itself; with that, however, comes the potential problem of tokenizing members of the Advisory Committee, something we hope to avoid. Another solution is to have the Advisory Committee undergo anti-oppression (including queer and trans* positivity and inclusion) training. This would hopefully give visibility to

LGBTQ issues, make the OYN a safer space for any LGBTQ youth or youth workers who may be interested in participating in this project, and counter an atmosphere of silence around homophobia, heterosexism, and transphobia.

*“queer” and “trans” are being used as umbrella terms for the purpose of convenience. If you have any resources or links to discussions regarding queer-related terminology, please feel free to post a link in the comments to this article.

Relevant Links:

Among Friends - LGBTQ Refugee and Immigrant Initiative

	EXPRESS - Newcomer and Immigrant Queer Youth Project [Sherbourne Health Centre, SOY]
	Queer Asian Youth - an initiative of ACAS: Asian Community AIDS Services in Toronto
	PRIDE connection for LGBTQ Newcomer and Refugee Youth - A group for newcomer gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual, queer, MSM, WSW youth their friends and allies. An initiative of CultureLink.

The Advisory Committee will be composed of approximately 15 members, including self-identified newcomer youth and youth workers. For current member bios, go here!

What Does The Advisory Committee Do?

The main task of the Advisory Committee is to assist, advise and support SYNC and the youth website. More specifically, Members are expected to host focus groups with newcomer youth, and are provided the training to do so. Results of this research will be analyzed, compiled, and published as a best practices guide for settlement workers on how to best help newcomer youth. The Committee will meet 3-4 times a year for a period of 2 years to discuss and provide feedback on the progress of the project.

Why Join? As an Advisory Committee member, you will be a part of:

• Creating a valuable resource for newcomer youth and the settlement sector
• Getting training in community based research methods
• Learning how to organize and facilitate a focus group
• Gaining Advisory Committee experience
• Being part of a province-wide group
• Helping develop a guide for youth workers on how to best work with newcomer youth, as part of SYNC
• Meeting and networking with other youth and youth workers from across the province

Advisory Committee members will be trained in community based research methods, anti-oppression, and supported in performing key informant interviews, survey analysis, and facilitating focus groups for the SYNC project. These are skills which can be easily transferable to a number of fields and would greatly benefit Advisory Committee members.

AC members also get the experience of being part of an advisory committee and a provincial initiative.

Members are also an important part of the development of invaluable and necessary resources for newcomer youth and newcomer youth workers. Resources which will help answer the questions that newcomer youth are afraid to ask, that will provide information that newcomer youth did not know about and that will greatly help newcomer youth workers in assisting newcomer youth settling in Ontario.

This settlement worker went beyond his official duties and expectations to ensure that the counseling he provided led to positive change. His work had a tremendous effect on the lives of many students. Most touched were those former gang members who had joined youth gangs due to the social isolation and communication barriers they faced.

Fortunately, there are many youth settlement workers who help newcomer youth in schools and in community organizations with their integration efforts. The OCASI Youth Network hopes to work with these Youth Settlement Workers, and youth themselves, to identify the challenges faced by youth and work towards identifying the best methods to tackle these challenges, with a view to finding appropriate solutions.

Consumer advocacy has been a revitalizing force in mental health communities, redefining norms and challenging service providers to be responsive to the service users and the priorities they identify and articulate themselves. This model is becoming increasingly relevant in other sectors where the oppressed or marginalized are mobilizing themselves to be advocates for their own needs, conducting research and priority setting amongst themselves rather than having them imposed by someone else.

Fortunately for us there has been a real resurgence in the use of community-based or action research in the last ten to fifteen years, and there are thus many models to employ in trying to work in solidarity and collaboration with marginalized populations, which newcomer youth often are. By allowing the population that we want to work with to define the problems, to set the direction of the project and inform its process from beginning to end, we give back to them much of the power to support each other and themselves.

We’re hoping to be working with one of Canada’s foremost authorities on youth and community based research to train our leaders and other volunteers in the newcomer youth community to make them all effective participants in the project, which is very exciting for everyone involved. We’ll try and document that process here so that you can follow along and maybe we can all do some learning together.

These projects began in this way with community conversations amongst newcomer youth in Toronto last summer. We met and brainstormed, throwing out all of the barriers and challenges we could think of, and then breaking them down to some of the key issues that create them. The lack of clear information specifically written for youth, as well as a need for improved services in community agencies were two of the clearest priorities that we could fairly easily act on at OCASI. There are many others and you’ll continue to see work on them as we move forward as a community and network.

The Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) is excited to announce the creation of the OCASI Youth Network (OYN)!  The OYN wants to help newcomer youth get access to the many excellent services in their communities, and make sure they have barrier-free assistance from organizations around the province. We want them to feel comfortable and validated when they walk into agencies, knowing that they will get reliable information and services which respect their particular needs. To do this, we are launching two new exciting initiatives: Services for Youth in Newcomer Communities (SYNC), a research project that will produce a best practices guide for community agencies working with newcomer youth, and a youth-focused information and referral website, providing current and accurate information through technologies like instant messaging, on-demand SMS texting, RSS Feeds, and Social Networking tools.

SYNC

SYNC will be at the forefront of the OYN. Settlement workers and the youth they serve will have the opportunity to get in SYNC by creating a guide on the best practices of working with, and counselling newcomer youth. The guide will be the result of community based research and a one-day consultation led by youth and youth settlement workers. The OYN leaders (most of whom are under 25) have committed significant time and energy to collaboratively identifying and sharing successful existing programs, promising models for service, and the priorities of newcomer youth.

Website for Newcomer Youth

The website will be the heart of the OYN; a place where newcomer youth can go to find answers to and talk about the issues that affect them. Features like a directory of youth-serving organisations, articles relevant to youth, a dynamic discussion forum, an interactive multimedia gallery, and a frequently updated current events/workshop calendar will all be part of the site. The website will also be bilingual, with the French content addressing those issues specific to francophone newcomer youth in addition to those shared by their English-speaking counterparts.
We want youth to get involved! The OCASI Youth Network is a youth-led and youth-centered initiative - a newcomer network for youth, by youth.

To get involved:

Email us at: youth-jeunesse@ocasi.org
Join our Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14977497823

For updates about the project, visit our blogs!
www.ocasi.org/youth / www.ocasi.org/jeunesse