Community Profile: Mentoring Arts Tutoring Athletics

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By Dani Kwan-Lafond

MATAyouthThe notion of ‘youth helping youth’ is easier said than done. While many young people aspire to make their communities better places, few have the time, energy or organizational skills to make it happen. The Downsview community is home to several successful initiatives that are making real positive differences in people’s lives. The Downsview Advocate will feature one of these per month, beginning with M.A.T.A. (Mentoring Arts Tutoring Athletics), a youth organization that partners students at CW Jefferys with former students who are now attending nearby York University“I made it to university, but I could see that many of my peers were struggling, and I wanted to help. My first year in university was certainly difficult and I thought about how important it is for youth to not only get into post-secondary, but also to have resources and support once they achieve that goal. This is what encouraged me to start M.A.T.A. In order for an organization to be truly democratic and comprise of youth voice, I think it is important for people to be able to step away and let others step in. I am glad that Troy Budhu and Monica Patel, whom are C.W.J. and MATA graduates are now running the program in a remarkable way.” Janelle Brady, Founder, M.A.T.A.M.A.T.A.’s founder, Janelle Brady, is a busy Master’s student in Education at York University. On any given day, she can be found rushing around the neighbourhood to meet with community members, answering the phones at the local city Councillor’s office, doing community research, or attending classes at York University. She is articulate, friendly, and serious about making post-secondary schooling less intimidating and more accessible to youth. Full disclosure: she is also the brains behind the Downsview Advocate, another initiative she’s recently started to bring more voices to the table on community issues.M.A.T.A. was founded in 2010 and its core activities consist of after-school tutoring programs, and a mentorship program where high school students are paired with York University students, in order to get an insider’s view on what university is like.“The MATA program has been really wonderful in terms of mentoring me and helping me decide for post-secondary. What I love most about the program are the wonderful mentors who are always free to talk not just about school, but also about more personal things that relate to teen life. The mentors are definitely what make this program”. Nuradin, M.JanelleAwardMentors and students meet up monthly for social events that often double as community volunteering events: visiting a soup kitchen or home for the elderly to help out, or joining with other community groups to help at seasonal events. The group also gets together for recreational activities, so that mentors and students can get to know each other.Many of the students involved have limited financial means, and limited knowledge of what’s out there in the city to do.MATA connects them with exemplary mentors, and also builds a sense of belonging in the community when they take part in larger events together.All the participants, mentors and youth alike, become better connected to each other and to neighbourhood groups who have similar goals of improving community life.Next month, several youth, mentors and staff are joining a partner organization on a trip to one of Tim Horton’s camps, for a free weekend of bonding, outdoor education, and lots of fun!The organization has also set up an ongoing scholarship fund at York for new incoming students. For more information about M.A.T.A.’s activities or to get involved, go to http://matayouth.com/ 

The Toronto District School Board’s Cuts and its Effect on our Neighbourhood

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By Natasha Burford

Students Natasha Burford is a grade 6 teacher, and a PhD student at UofT. She currently runs More than Marks, a learning and enrichment tutorial centre at Keele and Sheppard.In the last few weeks, there has been a lot of discussion around the announced cuts throughout the Toronto District School Board, along with a much-heated debate from parent groups and teacher unions.If you are a parent, with a child in a TDSB school, you may be asking yourself: how will these cuts affect my child?The TDSB is Canada's largest school board governing 451 elementary schools, 110 secondary schools, and 5 adult education schools educating over 289,577 students.The TDSB’s operating budget is approximately $3 billion per year, and is under the jurisdiction of the provincial government. However, due to a bigger provincial deficit and in an attempt to save costs over the next few years, in April 2014, the Province of Ontario announced its funding for the 2014-15 school year, and unfortunately, the TDSB experienced significant cuts to special education (by $7.3 million) and its school operations funding (by $10 million).Hence, in order to reduce TDSB’s $16.5 million projected deficit, suggested cuts include: 260 job cuts, including special education and English as a second language positions. Also included are elementary and secondary teachers, as well as secretaries and vice principals.Special education programs, affecting 40,000 students, partly due to low enrollment are said to be on the chopping block. Lastly, 130 schools across Toronto, of underutilized space will be reviewed or closed due to declining attendance.What does this all mean for parents? If cuts are approved, this could mean larger class sizes for students all across the city. This also means less individual instruction, and more disruptions in regular classes with teachers who are trying to serve the diverse needs of more students.Staff will present a three-year balanced budget plan and capital plan at the June 2014 Board meeting.The main pressure is coming from the provincial government to the TDSB board to cut costs and with several new elected trustees, parents need to ensure trustees keep their promises to stand up for the success of students and their families, by rejecting these cuts to public education.

With the School Board in Trouble School Closures may be on the Horizon

UntitledBy Matias de DovitiisClassroomThe Toronto District School Board is in the news yet again, and again it is for the wrong reasons. At issue is a very critical report by the Province (who runs the school boards) that slams the TDSB, and gives them a few weeks to solve some of their major problems.There are four major problems the province wants addressed. The first complaint is that Trustees micromanage school affairs, preventing staff from doing their jobs. The second issue is that a senior staff person got a raise that was not allowable, and then tried covering it up. The third is the Trustee budget; the province wants to limit spending by taking away their offices, getting rid of their part-time assistants, and limiting their ability to send newsletters and communications to parents.Finally, the province is calling for the sale of public schools, dozens of them.For all the noise that the government is trying to make on the Trustees and their misbehaviour, the real issue here is how the money is being spent in our public system. The trustees here are the tail wagging the dog.If we follow the money, the real consideration of the report that the Province is pushing is to get rid of the ability of local government to harness public dissent and coordination. If the elected Trustees have no office, no newsletters, and no assistants who will stand up for children, parents, and community members who disagree with the sale of our schools?The primary purpose of the report is to push for the sale of our public schools to pay for the maintenance of the public assets that will remain.Although, schools and education may not be a priority for everyone, we all care about our local green spaces, and nobody wants their local school to be turned into a gas station or a condo.In short, the Province’s report, prepared by Queen’s Park Beaurocrats, and the recommendations they’ve made will not make the situation better for Ontarians.If the province’s demands are met, what will you do if there is an issue with your local school? Who would you call under the new changes? Now we have Trustees, but if we get rid of them altogether, who is made responsible? The answer may be a bureaucrat in Queen’s Park, but we really don’t know, and that is a problem.

Engaging the community leads to better schools

 DA-site-IMGS-dividerBy Matias De DovitiisEngaging_Community-OCT_14_1Our neighbourhood does not have the same quality of schools as other parts of the City. We need to do better. Getting our students and our parents to participate more in their school communities is an important step that we need to take in order to return our schools to where they need to be.The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has just released test scores and many of our schools did not do as well as schools in many other districts in both the Grade 9 Mathematics and Grade 10 Literacy Tests. There are many reasons for this, but our schools need to be more engaged in order to turn this around. In order for this to work, increased engagement can't just come from students, teachers and administrators, but parents and community members also need to be more involved in their children's school lives. This is critical.Engaging_Community-OCT_14_2It is not just about fundraising, but parents and community members need to participate in the everyday life of the school. Parents need to play an active role in facilitating their children's academic success.Some of the ways this can be achieved is by attending parent teacher meetings, and asking questions of teachers and administrators or by volunteering in parent teacher advisory councils and school extracurricular activities. Sometimes it is difficult for parents who work long hours and have multiple jobs and are interested in getting involved to attend parent teacher interviews and school activities. For this, teachers and administrators need to work together with these parents in order to find a way to allow them to be involved in their children's education.There are also members of our community who have a wide range of skills, experience and knowledge who could provide a great benefit to our students by volunteering their time by helping to facilitate extracurricular and mentorship activities.The improvement to the quality of school activities raises the engagement of the students and students will learn more. Statistics have shown that the schools which score the highest on the Mathematics and Literacy tests are also the schools which have some of the highest levels of parental and community involvement.We need to emulate this in order to help our local students to achieve the same level of academic success. It is also important that our students become more active in their community.Over the past 8 years, I have taken thousands of grade 5's on community clean-ups and tree plantings in the Downsview area. I can speak first hand about the importance of students being taught about the need to care for their community.Students who are more engaged in their community do better academically.A school that is more engaged in the community will not only result in increased academic performance, but it will also be equipped with better resources to help kids stay in school and to help ensure that they don't slip through the cracks.

Safety first in our schools and our roads

By Matias de DovitiisCommunity-Safety-4 Last year, the school year in the Downsview community started off with a tragedy. On the first day of school, Violet Liang, a high school student was hit by a truck and killed as she was crossing the street on Lamberton blvd. We should remember this event and learn from it to do honour to Violet. As school starts again and as construction and City traffic bottle, we as drivers should remember that we share the road with children, bicycles and other drivers. As a community, we should also learn from it to avoid such accidents from happening again. With this in light, the City of Toronto started a number of actions to rethink school zone safety such as lowering speed limits around schools, creating more signs to warn drivers they are in school zones and improving their designs, pavement markings, as well as meeting with the school boards to determine safety concerns, educational measures for students and more. These actions were started at the request of Councillor Anthony Perruzza, who asked for a report and started the ball rolling late last year. For the community around Sentinel Rd., the effects were two fold. Last year, we added a crossing guard at the intersection at Lamberton Blvd., and Sentinel Rd. The office of the Chief of Police expedited the process due to the circumstances and the crossing guard was added almost immediately after the request was made. Secondly, a new pilot project called “Watch your Speed” will be starting this fall. The City is purchasing a number of portable speed measuring display signs. There have been a few of these around, but the city will be purchasing more of them. Importantly, the location at Sentinel Rd., and Lamberton Blvd., will be one of 10 locations in the City of Toronto to get one of the displays on an almost permanent basis. It was chosen, because of the accident that occurred last year.Community-Safety-1The project will last a year and start this fall, by late October or early November. It will help to remind drivers of the school zone driving speed. Importantly, there is a possibility of expanding the project to other areas. As construction and congestion in the community pushes traffic into more residential areas we need to start looking at ways to make our roads safer. One of the things that the school boards should be doing is rethinking how we transport our children. The TDSB only offers school bus services to students in grade 5 or under if they live more than 1.6 km away from the school they attend. For a 10 year old, with the way traffic in the City has grown, that distance is starting to become more of a danger. It is about time for the school to rethink the distance requirement. We need to think about the dangers that these distances create for school children, particularly to younger children. 

Recording youth potential

By David RosPEACH-4-copy PEACH, who have been transforming the lives of marginalized youth in the Jane-Finch community through their innovative approach to education have added a new program which teaches youth how to professionally create, record, mix and master their own music. The organization, which stands for Promoting Education And Community Health, will run a recording studio program which connects youth from priority neighbourhoods with professional musicians and studio engineers. “We're teaching them the basics and if this is something that they want to pursue, they will already have the foundations,” said Zino, a recording artist and the program's instructor. “The facilitators that we're going to be bringing into the space aren't just engineers, we're bringing in managers, we're bringing in promoters, we're bringing in A&Rs, we're brining in people from every aspect of the industry down to the producers and the artists.” PEACH has held a drop-in recording studio program on Thursday nights where youth can have their songs recorded on a first come first serve basis for nearly a decade, but Zino said the new program is a step up from what the organization had been doing before by providing a fully accredited educational program. PEACH-3-copy During the course of the 16 week program, youth will not only be taught how to record, mix and master music using professional grade equipment, they will also be taught a musical theory as well. The program is available to youth free of charge, and 10 participants will be selected based upon an application process. “Some of the [selection] criteria will be basically, general interest and potential in studio engineering and just basic artistry, there is a particular feel that people normally have when they're really interested in something.” Zino said. “We're looking for commitment as well.” According to Zino, the program's participants will be decided based on interviews of the applicants. He also said that there is a possibility of running an additional program for another 10 participants following the initial run. PEACH was formed in 1993 as an offshoot of the Black Creek Anti-Drug focus group, is a charitable organization dedicated to helping marginalized youth to achieve their full potential. In addition to their youth-centred social and educational programs, PEACH also has provides support programs for families as well. These include the wraparound program which connects youth and their families with community outreach workers and the mom's group which provides support for mothers to become active participants in their children's education. If you would like to more information about PEACH, or the studio management program, you can contact them at info@peachyouth.org. 

Program helps Spanish-speaking youth get back to school

By Matias de DovitiisTeach 2 Learn is a fabulous program that was born in the classrooms of Downsview. It helps Spanish-speaking students find a better path to success.The program started five years ago as an attempt to reduce the very high dropout rate of Spanish-speaking students. Parents got together to work on ways to help their own children, but the problem was very big and it required a great deal of work.Since then, countless meetings, workshops, tutoring classes, field trips and forums have helped hundreds of students and parents find guidance and support to navigate the school system.It has also helped students who have dropped out to get back to school.To see the plays the students have put together, the classrooms full of students receiving math help or the parents in workshops learning the ropes of the educational system is to understand both the potential out there and the problems that need fixing.“When we started we thought maybe we could just point students to other programs. Then we realized that the program was much bigger,” said Pilar Gonzalez, one of the program's founders and coordinators. “Tutoring was not enough. The parents needed help. The students needed help. We started this voyage with an objective, but like a work of art, you never know what your final destination is.”The name was coined by one of the program's first volunteers, a retired teacher named Ana Schillac. She was training a new set of tutors when she told them, “In order to teach you must learn.”The principle behind it is that anybody can learn and we can all be teachers. Students in the program not only receive help, but they also learn by teaching others.Once children and youth learned to become engaged students the rest is much easier. Teach 2 Learn uses a number of different tools to engage students, from tutoring to artistic development. Most importantly, the programs are free to all participants.Teach 2 Learn is by all means a success story and it has been my pleasure for the last five years to work along a great dedicated team of volunteers and parents.The program currently helps 33 students with tutoring twice a week and 10 to 20 parents  participate in weekly workshops and the youth program has more than 20 participants each week.Downsview is a community created by waves of immigrants that have arrived here over time and have often struggled to adapt to the system. This is just one of the many stories that have weaved our community together.The pathway to success is always different for each and every one of us, but there is nothing like wasted opportunity. In Teach 2 Learn at least, dozens of students have a new pathway.For more information go to www.teach2learn.ca