urban space Archives | Research & Innovation

ACT for Youth Project brings interdisciplinary researchers together, discussing youth in urban communities

fmaquito — Mon, 30 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

The celebrated its youth researchers with an awards ceremony at the conclusion of a day-long partnership group meeting at Black Creek Pioneer Village.

Above: From left, front row, ACT for Youth Project research interns Stephanie Lucas, Stephanie Henry, Aziz Mohammed, Muzna Rehman, Enoruwa Osagie, with youth co-chair Alex Lovell, a 91��ɫ grad, in the back

Dozens of students from area high schools joined the participants on April 14 to celebrate the Youth research interns and youth-led committee leaders, who worked on the project in 2010.

The ACT for Youth Project, which began in 2009 and is funded through 2014, brings together an alliance of stakeholders and interdisciplinary researchers from 91��ɫ in a program of applied research, capacity building, knowledge transfer and evaluation that is focused on youth in urban communities.

The project hopes to develop a comprehensive youth strategy that articulates how places like the Jane-Finch community can energize local assets that support positive youth development.

One of the goals of the project is to build the research capacity of youth in the Jane/Finch area so they can participate in asking and answering questions about issues of importance to their community. The project created its Youth Research Internship to facilitate this goal. ACT also has a youth-led committee to ensure that youth have a space to contribute to their research.

Youth-led committee co-chairs Antonius Clarke, executive director of the youth-led community agency Friends in Trouble, and 91��ɫ grad Alex Lovell [BA Spec. Hons. ’02, MA ’06], now a doctoral student at Queen’s University, introduced each award recipient and outlined their research contributions, volunteer activities and future study plans.

Above: From left, front row, youth-led committee leaders Abubakar Sultan, Edwin Chacon; middle row, Alexander Toolsie, Erica Holness, Taneese Jones, Olivia Agyemang, Tara Sherif, Suhentha Suthaharan; back row, co-chairs Lovell and Antonias Clarke

The youth-led committee leaders recognized at the event were:

Olivia Agyemang, Westview Centennial Secondary School
Edwin Francis White Chacon, Emery Collegiate Institute
Ann Duong, Earl Haig Secondary School
Nicola Holness, University of Windsor
Taneese Jones, Westview Centennial Secondary School
Suhentha Suthaharan, C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute
Alexander Toolsie, 91��ɫ co-op student
Tara Sherif, Westview Centennial Secondary School
Abubakar Sultan, Emery Collegiate Institute

The youth research interns recognized at the event were:

Ryan Edwards, 91��ɫ
Stephanie Henry, Seneca College
Femi Lawson, Ryerson University
Funmilola Lawson, 91��ɫ
Stephanie Lucas, Westview Centennial Secondary School
Aziz Mohammed, Northview High School
Enoruwa Osagie, William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute
Muzna Rehman, Westview Centennial Secondary School
Judy Truong, Weston Collegiate Institute

Uzo Anucha, professor in 91��ɫ’s School of Social Work, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, co-chairs the ACT for Youth Project with Sue Wilkinson, executive director of the .

ACT is funded through a $1M grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. For more information on the Act for Youth Project, visit their website.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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City Institute researcher Simon Black on urban youth and the federal election

fmaquito — Mon, 02 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Which party speaks for urban youth this federal election? Over the past few weeks, media commentators have pointed to two important trends, wrote Simon Black, a graduate student researcher at The City Institute at 91��ɫ, in the :

Polling suggests young people favour the Greens, Liberals and New Democrats: parties that have demonstrated some commitment — however limited — to urban issues in this campaign. A politically engaged youth is thus important for the civic and social health of our urban regions. But as comedian Rick Mercer has quipped, “as far as any political parties are concerned,” young people “might as well be dead.”

As any political scientist will tell you, in a pluralist liberal democracy, those who make the most noise — by voting, organizing, lobbying — are more likely to have their issues addressed by government. Pluralism implies many groups of relatively equal power jockeying for position and influence in political life.

We live, however, in a country of great social and economic inequality where money and power, two things youth lack, go a long way to securing an audience with the governing classes. Young people have power in numbers, but organizing and exercising that power around common interests is never easy. Through advocacy groups and party politics, seniors have flexed their political muscle this election, pushing the parties to address their immediate concerns, from home care to public pensions; youth have yet to flex theirs.

Urban youth have their own issues: environmental sustainability and the livability of cities are major concerns. The young are more frequent users of public transit and would benefit from a federal role in building the green transportation infrastructure our country so desperately needs. Funding for the arts and athletics are also a priority of urban youth, who recognize their value in facilitating creative expression and promoting social cohesion in the highly diverse landscapes of Canadian cities.

Then there are the myriad social problems facing many of today’s urban youth, problems the political parties have failed to highlight this campaign. For instance, in Toronto 40 per cent of black students do not graduate from high school. Drug-addicted youth in Vancouver’s downtown east side struggle to secure housing and access to services. Racialized youth face discrimination and outright racism in urban labour markets and in their contact with police and the criminal justice system. The young are disproportionately represented in the ranks of our cities’ precariously employed; those workers struggling to make ends meet working temporary, part-time or multiple jobs with low wages and few benefits. And there are the extremely high rates of poverty and incarceration of young aboriginal people in cities such as Winnipeg and Regina.

As in any federal system, politicians will squabble over whose jurisdiction these issues fall under. It’s time to move beyond these squabbles and recognize that urban youth, and our cities in general, would benefit from a strong federal urban presence and the development of a federally-led urban strategy. Stephen Harper explicitly opposes such a notion; he’s committed to a model of governance in which the feds do not “interfere” in the business of the provinces and municipalities.

But a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach from the feds is not desirable either. Municipal governments are best placed to evaluate the needs of local populations, including youth. Cities have been important drivers in the design and innovation of Canadian social services and social programs. Any federal urban strategy with a youth component should recognize this and respect the diversity of Canadian cities. For instance, a program to address street gangs (with gang-exit and gang-intervention initiatives) in a city such as Regina in which aboriginal youth are disproportionately involved in gang life will necessarily take a different form than programs in Montreal or Toronto.

In any progressive era of Canadian politics, the federal government has exercised its federal spending power to alter Canada’s approach to issues that were essentially within provincial jurisdiction. In the fields of education, welfare and health care, the feds have influenced provincial and municipal policies and program standards.

Beyond providing necessary funding to cash-strapped cities, a federal urban youth strategy could establish principles that govern access to programs and services without becoming excessively involved in their design and delivery. Pairing universal programs with targeted investments based on the social citizenship, social rights and democratic participation and engagement of young people is vital to building such a strategy.

But an urban youth strategy is not likely to emerge unless it is fought for and demanded by young people themselves. In urban centres across our country, many youth are active in civic life, but often in ways that don’t conform to the politics-as-usual of parties and elections. Other youth speak the language of distress and despair, with gunshots or requests for spare change on our city streets. Whatever the manifestation of their voice, politicians ignore urban youth at our cities’ peril.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Watch Raccoon Nation documentary featuring two 91��ɫ researchers on CBC's website

fmaquito — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:00:00 +0000

CBC's The Nature of Things aired its Raccoon Nation documentary Feb. 24, featuring 91��ɫ psychology and biology Professor Suzanne MacDonald and PhD student :

The researchers tagged the raccoons with GPS collars to log their travels throughout the city, recording them at up to 1,500 points over six weeks. They found that the raccoons live in small territories and avoid crossing major streets – which, given the risk of becoming road kill, is a key survival strategy.

The documentary includes detailed graphics of raccoon activity drawn from their research data, which was gathered in Toronto (the raccoon capital of the world). You can watch the full film on .

Prior to airing, the documentary was covered in England's ; The Canadian Press's story on the film was featured in and radio stations in Canada.

Raccoon Nation repeats on CBC News Network March 3 and will air on PBS Nature later this year.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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City Institute grad student Simon Black on cultural funding and long-term urban planning

fmaquito — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Rappers Kardinal Offishall and Saukrates, singer Jully Black, video director Lil’ X and deejay collective Baby Blue Soundcrew may not be familiar names to Torontonians over the age of 40, but anyone born after 1969 who loves hip hop and R & B is aware of these artists’ foundational roles in Canada’s urban music culture, wrote 91��ɫ graduate student Simon Black, a researcher at the City Institute at 91��ɫ, in an op-ed for the :

Beyond their shared talents, what these names have in common is a little-known initiative of Ontario’s [former] NDP government: a program called Fresh Arts. Fresh Arts was developed under the umbrella of JobsOntario Youth, part of the larger JobsOntario training and employment program the NDP government introduced to address the labour market fallout of the early ’90s recession.

The spirit of the now legendary program lives on in the Remix Project, a community arts hub that provides space for Toronto’s new generation of urban artists to flourish. Remix participants come primarily from the city’s priority neighbourhoods.

Remix’s funding is neither stable nor predictable, which makes long-term planning difficult.

Indeed, as policy wonks trumpet the idea of the “creative city” and the economic benefits of a vibrant cultural sector, it’s confounding why projects like Remix should have to struggle for every dollar. The city and the province must do more to support such proven successes.

Yet visions of what we can achieve collectively through government are threatened by promises of cutbacks and tax savings. As the latest city budget demonstrated, cuts to services are the order of the day, with our new mayor promising more in the near future.

This is short-sighted. Fresh Arts demonstrated the potential of community-driven programs partnering with government to improve the lives of the city’s marginalized youth. Remix is now doing the same.

Programs like these are not part of a “gravy train.” As the success of Fresh Arts and Remix graduates demonstrates, they are smart social investments that benefit us all.

Moreover, they are central to building a strong, socially inclusive city that is creative, prosperous and just.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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Two 91��ɫ Professors part of team creating art for St. Clair streetcar stops

fmaquito — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:00:00 +0000

From Yonge Street to Keele Street, 24 original artworks have been installed above the new streetcar shelters as part of Toronto’s St. Clair Avenue West Transit Improvement Project. Six of these installations – a quarter of the entire series – are the work of 91��ɫ artists.

This massive public art project had four separate calls for entries: two open and two invitational. In developing their proposals, artists were asked to be sensitive to the site, the location of the artwork elevated above grade and the fact that people would be viewing the works while moving past them as well as when they were stationary.

Submissions were categorized based on the media used to create the pieces: digital interlay protected by glass, specialty glass, perforated metal screen and mixed media. All the works share the same dimensions: 30 inches high and a monumental 40 feet long, made up of four 10-foot-long panels.

More than 350 entries were submitted by artists from across the Greater Toronto Area for the two open competitions. Two independent juries, each judging two competitions, selected the winning works.

“The quality of the artworks and their scale and siting are setting a new standard for transit art projects in Toronto,” said Rina Greer, the art consultant who coordinated the project with Catherine Williams for the City of Toronto.

Five 91��ɫ artists have transformed the streetscape with their unique creations.

Spadina Road features the first of two works contributed by Professor Judith Schwarz,��hair of the Department of Visual Arts. Her abstract piece Weather Sampler, made of mill-grade stainless steel sheets, is a playful representation of various kinds of weather experienced by Torontonians. Geometric shapes are organized and repeated to represent sunspots, heat rising from the pavement, overcast days, clouds moving overhead, sleet and rain.

Above: Weather Sampler by Judith Schwartz

One stop west at Tweedsmuir Avenue, commuters will encounter Professor Yam Lau’s Nearness and Distance – A Chinese Ruler. It’s a digitally printed interlay representing the traditional, but now obsolete, system of measurement that would have been used to build inspirational places like the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Great Wall of China. For Lau, systems of measurement are never simply abstract. They can embody a world that is both poetic and emotional.

Above: Nearness and Distance – A Chinese Ruler by Yam Lau decorates the Tweedsmuir Avenue stop

Moon Transit by 91��ɫ visual arts alumna (BFA ‘79) is found at Christie Street. The work is constructed of two layers of laminated tempered float glass with pigmented glass enamel accents. It depicts the phases of the moon in an arcing passage through drifting clouds. This upward view was inspired by the escarpment location of St. Clair Avenue, high on a ridge above downtown Toronto. A month of moons unfolds like successive frames of a film or a series of time-lapse photographs. The sequence is integrated into a gestural sky whose graphic conventions are drawn from historical engravings like those depicting early views of Toronto.

Above: Titled Moon Transit, this artwork can be found at Christie Street. It was created by 91��ɫ visual arts alumna Jeannie Thib

Schwarz’s second contribution, Origami Remix, is installed at Dufferin Street. It features organic shapes and patterns on a garden theme, rendered in stainless steel. The stylized profiles evoke flowers, petals, stamen, floating pollen and vines. These images expand and recur along a sinuous curve to suggest process and alteration over time. Repeated and remixed at a different scale, the shapes coalesce into designs suggestive of garden ornamentation, decorative fences and patterns that allude to retro linoleum, wallpaper and picnic oilcloth.

Above: Schwartz's Origami Remix can be seen at the Dufferin Street

Caledonia Road is the site of Sidewalk Tango by 91��ɫ alumna (MFA ’94). Nind’s digitally printed interlayer expresses the richness and cultural diversity of the street life along St. Clair West. The street’s ambience offers a cacophony of colours, odours and tactile experiences: baskets of fruits and vegetables, displays of shoes and clothing, pots overflowing with flowering plants, domestic paraphernalia of hardware and household supplies.

Above: 91��ɫ alumna Sarah Nind's Sidewalk Tango

Art / Work, by photographer (MFA ‘07), marks the stop at Silverthorne Avenue. Inspired by 1920s modernist art photography and film and the then-novel techniques of montage, collage and transitional dissolves, Art / Work draws on the archival record of construction on St. Clair Avenue in the twenties, as found in the Toronto Transit Commission files in the City of Toronto Archives. A long-time local resident, Ingelevics makes this history visible through images of labour and labourers from this earlier period.

Above: Art/Work by 91��ɫ alumnus, photograper Vid Ingelevics marks the stop at Silverthorne Avenue

The distance between Yonge Street and Keele Street is just over six kilometres. The public art installations at transit stops are the finishing touches on the dedicated right-of-way streetcar lane for the 512 St. Clair streetcar loop. As a special initiative, the TTC is offering a two-hour time-based transfer for Route 512 that allows passengers to get on and off the streetcar to enjoy the artworks as well as the shops and restaurants along the way.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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Professor Mark Winfield: GTA's urban growth raises important questions

fmaquito — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 10:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ environmental studies Professor Mark Winfield of the Faculty of Environmental Studies, who sits on a provincial smart growth advisory panel and studies urban sustainability, said the Star’s analysis – the first of its kind – raises important questions about how the 2006 Places to Grow plan is playing out, Jan. 15, in a story about growth plans recently unveiled by the GTA’s four regions and 25 municipalities, and Ontario’s Places to Grow scheme to curb urban sprawl:

“On the surface, (the plan) may have given municipalities too much flexibility and enabled some of them to deviate less from the traditional path than the plan sought to and they needed to,” said Winfield. “You’ve got some strong responses in places like Markham. Toronto itself has stepped up. But in other places the response is somewhat weaker,” he said, after poring over the Star’s numbers. “Mississauga is quite striking. You clearly have leaders thinking in a more ambitious and creative way, and you have others who are basically wedded to the sprawl model and trying to respond to the province within that framework.”

Brampton, Winfield points out, pre-empted the growth plan by designating the entire area inside its city limits for urban expansion – including vast stretches of farmland – so it wouldn’t have to justify allowing new growth outside what’s termed the “urban boundary.”

Winfield said the province still needs to do a deeper analysis that looks at what’s happening across the GTA: not just the densities being planned, but also the population allocations and the kind of communities being planned.

He says it’s time to assess the impact of the province’s massive interventions in regional planning, including creating the Greenbelt – which made a huge swath a no-go zone for developers – and Places to Grow, which oversees what’s left.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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National Film Board doc offers glimpses into immigrants’ high-rise world

fmaquito — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Documentary is affiliated with 91��ɫ's Global Suburbanisms Project

Take a glimpse into someone’s life that is otherwise invisible to most, wrote in a story about the groundbreaking, web-based work Out My Window, by the National Film Board of Canada, that offers glimpses of lives within housing developments:

Zanillya Maria Farrell is a musician and the daughter of the recently deceased singer Bobby Farrell of the disco group Boney M. Many would label her part of the huge, immigrant community in a southeast corner of Amsterdam and stop there. But her story, although unique, symbolizes the dramatic changes happening in cities around the world.In the groundbreaking, Web-based work Out My Window by the National Film Board of Canada, Farrell’s story is one of 13 offering glimpses of lives within otherwise anonymous housing developments.

. . .

[Director Katerina] Cizek and [NFB producer Gerry] Flahive are also collaborating with academic research on how cities are changing, such as the multiyear at 91��ɫ’s City Institute, which looks at how cities have inverted: The suburbs are now the lower-income peripheries and the inner city is the wealthier urban core.

Many people in this changing suburban periphery “don’t have cars. They’re not stereotypically suburban. ... They are invisible, to some extent politically invisible. But they are also physically invisible because they are not living in Chinatown or Little Italy. They are living in these anonymous high-rise blocks,” Flahive says.

“And that’s a really good place for documentaries,” he adds. “The overall Highrise project is not about architecture and urban planning. Primarily, it’s about how people live. The attempt is to peel back some of those stereotypes.”

The individual segments for Out My Window were made by local photographers and crews, with Cizek often directing the segments from thousands of kilometres away in Toronto via Skype, e-mails and phone calls.

Yet, for all of its emphasis on technology, Cizek and Flahive are actually going for something far older: A non-linear way of telling the story of people’s lives in the lower-income high-rises, doing so in the way people in the real world perceive things, in small dollops of information, rather than regular, documentary-length stories.

The Global Suburbanisms Project is led by Professor Roger Keil in the Faculty of Environmental Studies and funded by the (SSHRC).

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Video: Professor Laurence Packer on why and how to make your garden bee-friendly

fmaquito — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Without bees, we wouldn’t have coffee to drink at breakfast, tomatoes in your sandwich at lunch or fruit for a snack on the go. While bee populations all over the world are in trouble, there are lots of things individuals can do to create bee-friendly gardens — even if your personal green space is limited to a condo balcony.

Here's Professor Laurence Packer from 91��ɫ’s Department of Biology in the on what you can do to help the world’s bees in your backyard:

Packer travels the world tracking many of the 19,500 described species of wild bees. While his perspective is international, Packer’s backyard is a great example of a bee-friendly space and is featured in the video. He is also the author of . All proceeds form his book will be directed toward bee conservation research.

In 2010, Packer was featured on CBC’s The Nature of Things, hosted by David Suzuki. The episode, “”, highlights dramatic declines in North America’s wild bee and honey bee populations, and explores what the disappearance and decline of these insects tells us about larger ecological problems. The episode is also available for download on. Packer’s segment runs from the 3:30 mark through to 6:30.

PhD student Jason Gibbs, who works in Packer’s laboratory and has collaborated with him on research publications, also recently made national news headlines by documenting 19 new bee species, one of which he discovered during his commute from downtown Toronto to 91��ɫ.

To read more about their work, visit Packer’s Website or search for past stories in the Research News archive using the and tags.

Packer's research is funded by the (NSERC) and the (CFI).

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

Video production by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, Elizabeth Teodorini, alumni communications manager, and Robert Denault and Perry Walker in the Learning Technology Services unit.

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91��ɫ Centre for Education & Community's 2010 Summer Institute to explore engaged education

fmaquito — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000

How can schools and communities work together to create innovative avenues to engage students in their education? That is the central theme of this year’s Summer Institute offered by the 91��ɫ Centre for Education & Community (YCEC) in the .

Presented Aug. 17, 18 and 19 at 91��ɫ’s Keele campus, this year’s program builds on the success of summer institutes held in 2008 and 2009 and draws on contemporary research and innovative approaches to education.

"We have more than 100 people signed up to attend this year’s symposium," says 91��ɫ education Professor Carl James, director of the YCEC. "They are coming to 91��ɫ from Toronto as well as the 905 area public and separate school boards and community organizations to engage with us about student engagement and how to make community a vital part of education."

Left: Carl James

As families move to suburban communities in the 905-area from urban centres, says James, they bring with them a rich diversity of experience and unique expectations. James says it is important for schools and communities to understand and engage with these collective experiences that students and families bring to their new communities and classrooms.

Education faces constant challenges due to the rapidly changing world, says James. The migration and residential patterns, technological advances, as well as economic, political and social conditions, create an environment for education that demands ongoing assessment. This year's Summer Institute continues on a history pioneered by the YCEC that focuses on building on the relationships between learning institutions and communities to ensure that education is current, relevant and a cornerstone of academic success.

"Many schools in communities in the Greater Toronto Area are interested in the research that 91��ɫ has been doing with urban schools in the areas of engagement and inclusion," says James. "Participants will hear about our findings and they will explore the idea of diversity inside the classroom, how to be inclusive of students’ backgrounds and experiences and how to work with families and build commitment and support."

Presenters and workshops in this year’s institute will articulate effective curriculum and pedagogical practices around inclusion and models of student engagement. Student achievement is directly affected by engagement, explains James. Participants in this year’s institute will participate in workshops, theory to practice seminars and panel discussions that directly address student engagement and building inclusive classrooms. Key thinkers in these areas will present keynotes each day of the institute in order to guide thinking.

On Tuesday, Aug. 17, the Summer Institute begins with a keynote presentation by Harvard University education Professor Mark Warren. Warren is a sociologist concerned with the revitalization of American democratic and community life. He studies efforts to strengthen institutions that anchor inner-city communities – churches, schools and other community-based organizations – and to build broad-based alliances among these institutions and across race and social class. Warren is interested in fostering community development, social justice, and school transformation; and uses the results of scholarly research to advance democratic practice.

Right: Mark Warren

Wednesday's sessions will kick off with a keynote from Dr. Llewellyn Joseph, a medical doctor and director of the outpatient Disruptive Behaviours Program at in Newmarket, Ont.

Dr. Joseph provides clinical services to children and teens with disruptive behaviours and was previously the physician leader in the Child & Adolescent Program in the Department of Psychiatry at Humber River Regional Hospital. He is an associate professor at the University of Toronto in child and adolescent psychiatry and co-editor of The Mental Hospital in the 21st Century (1992). Dr. Joseph is a frequent contributor to journals and conferences on the subject of mental health and disruptive behaviours among young people. He is also a member of the YCEC Advisory Council.

Following the keynote, the first series of workshops of the Summer Institute will offer interactive sessions in technology and its role in engaging parents and the community; the complexities and possibilities inherent in an inclusive approach to education; the search for cultural and economic biases in the mathematics curriculum in Ontario; and how to construct an inclusive curriculum by using autobiographical narratives by African Canadians. Information on each of these sessions can be found on the workshop descriptions that are available .

Wednesday afternoon will feature a panel discussion with 91��ɫ education faculty, school and community representatives who will discuss the implementation of equity and inclusive programs in schools.

After the panel, there will be a second series of workshops. The first will focus on fostering intergenerational learning within community responsive schools by involving linguistic and cultural minority students and their families. There will be sessions on what teachers think about student engagement; equity in the classroom through arts and literacy; and an exploration of girls, gender equity and social justice. Details on each workshop are available .

On day three of the Summer Institute, Ryerson University education Professor Althea Prince will deliver the day's keynote address. Prince is a sociologist and teaches at the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson.

Right: Althea Prince

Prince's teaching area includes explorations of race, racism, and African Caribbean peoples in metropolitan communities. She is also an essayist, novelist, storyteller and author of children’s books. As a community educator, Prince teaches writing workshops that concentrate on accessing voice and building confidence.

Information about the Summer Institute can be found on the Web site. A PDF of the program is available .

More about the 91��ɫ Centre for Education & Community

YCEC is a faculty-based Organized Research Unit located within 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education. YCEC seeks to strengthen links among the University, colleges, schools and communities.

The centre works with faculty members both within and outside the Faculty of Education, education researchers and administrators, teachers, parents, government agencies and representatives of community organizations to both initiate and facilitate research.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Professor Carl James on breaking the cycle of violence in Toronto's Flemingdon Park neighbourhood

fmaquito — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000

The slayings in Flemingdon Park this summer have brought a shadow of violence back to a community where, on the surface, it appeared to have lifted, :

Flemingdon Park is one of Toronto’s “priority” areas. Census data from 2001 showed that 71 per cent of the 22,000 residents were immigrants, and 34 per cent lived below the poverty line. The average family lived on less than $45,000 a year.

. . .

Since 2009, the city has spent $1.5-million to create parks and playgrounds in the neighbourhood. But right now, Flemingdon doesn’t have a bank and its only grocery store is scheduled to open in the fall.

. . .

To help with safety concerns, Toronto Community Housing installed 120 security cameras in Flemingdon Park in 2006, at a cost of close to $1 million. Many cameras have been vandalized, rendering 22 inoperable.

None of these initiatives are likely to break the cycle of violence, according to , a sociology professor in 91��ɫ’s and director of the 91��ɫ Centre for Education & Community. The way to get through to Flemingdon’s most vulnerable – its youth – is to provide them with opportunities and hope, including better access to education and jobs.

The complete article is .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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