http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/ What's on the minds of young leaders from around the globe? en-us http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/338553 Monique and I both agree that this is probably due to the current and upcoming exam period.
But out of bad news comes good news. Moniq ue and I have started talking about including the CLC program as one of the topics/tracks in their upcoming national conference later this year. I think this will be awesome!

On Friday SYC was able to secure a project page on TIG and should have a greater Onatrio presence. YAY!

As per Juxtaposition I will be meeting with them next week.

I am also meeting with the students union chair and VP camps life next week to present TIG and the CLC program - to see if they will implement it in their internal networks - eventually encouraging the local campus groups to adopt it as well. (If you can't go from the grassroots up, go from the top down)

I am really excited about an upcoming event with OCIC. I have secured at U of T professor to speak at a breakfast meeting about progression in developing countries. Professor Rockel will speak about the history of African communities' own approach to development through environmental management.

Mai, Muneeb, Kiia and I are having a meeting this Friday to discuss a TO netorking meeting.

I have to admit that last week I lost momentum with the high school project but will be on it again at the beginning of next week. ]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:22:00 EST http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/338553 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/333579
Also, the SYC has decided to establish a project page on TIG. YAY!

For more on the SYC please see:
http://www.syc-cjs.org/tiki-index.php]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:10:00 EST http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/333579 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/333365
This month was all about laying the ground work for the months to come. Last year, I spent a lot of time trying to cultivate relationships on campus. This was not working. So this year, I have a new strategy - high schools! There are so may pros for working with high schools but I think the most important are:

1)Ready audience
2)Ready venue


The second thing I did this month is flex my creative muscle; gearing up to profile young leaders to hopefully be published in our newsletter. I did a lot of research on how to e politically correct when speaking with an Aboriginal person. I want to say thanks so much to Eriel for being one of my live sources.

I also did the primary research on holding a networking meeting. Thanks a lot to JL for taking my call and also to Nikki for posting her excellent pointers and also to Pauline who answered my initial questions.

I've also connected with SYC in Toronto and I am planning to work with them on a sustainable campuses project.

I am currently in the process of getting a few groups to establish project pages on TIG. YAY!

IN TERMS OF CHALLENGES:

1) Getting people to the point of signing up
2) Putting collaboration over competition

I think that the way to overcome this is to change strategy. This is why I decided to target high schools.

]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:17:00 EST http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/333365 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/330813 There was a keynote speaker from Free the Children and she was amazing. Her presentation was really engaging. At the end, I spoke with the teacher who helped the kids with their initiative and she is excited about having CLC do a workshop with the kids in April.

The one thing I am a little concerned about is that - these kids are too young for the TIG website. But I really want to keep them engaged. How do I do that? They have so much passion to make the world a better place.

Any suggestions?]]> Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:21:00 EST http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/330813 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/327799
http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/info/tln_e.html

It's really great! It helped me a lot. ]]> Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:18:00 EST http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/327799 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/289529 Here is my blog about the second and third day of the conference.
REMINDER: The OCIC Global Citizens Forum focused on how to use art for social change.

DAY 2:
There were MANY great workshops to choose from like mural painting, photography, how to blog, postcard making and theatre.

I attended the workshop hosted by Bella Donna entitled, "Stories are stronger than statistics".

THINK:
HOW MANY OF US KNOW THAT RAPE IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM FOR OUR YOUNG WOMEN IN CANADA.

MANY

HOW MANY OF US TRULY CARE AND FEEL COMPELLED TO ACT TO RECTIFY THE SITUATION.

FEW

WHY IS THAT:
We do not connect what we know in our minds with what is in our hearts.

CONSIDER THESE WORDS:

In the name of love, stop.
In the name of love, stop.
As I pick up this thread that I dropped.
From a catch in a throat and a sob
From lungs attached to arms to young to reach the doorknob
And a fiath system too new to doubt there’s a god
But do keep in mind that in time she will learn how to doubt
Around the time her arms grow big enough to let her out
But by my clock too late for a little girl or boy to celebrate
It’s too bad you can’t be un-raped
And the therapist spins all this self-righteous crap
About purging fasts and self-cleansing attacks
Take blue pills for dinner and yellow for snacks
Life through a fog. Who could ask more than that?
And she turns and says, “Doctor, I want my hymen back.”
And he thinks of her stretching and his mind starts to block and says stop.
In the name of love, stop.
In the name of love, stop.

These are a few lines from Bella Donna's song "Giant Squid". I get chills every time I hear or read it.
For me, these words really connected with my hear and my head. Especially when she said "Doctor I want my hymen back".

The power of spoken word is just being discovered
here in Toronto. It is a beautiful and effective way of reaching people in a place they aren't normally reached.

In the workshop we also practiced expressing ourselves without words. We could only use our bodies to communicate what we were feeling and thinking.
I'm categorized as an expressive, so it was really hard for me not to use my mouth as a method of communication.

The exercise broke down many barriers.

Everyone was in the same situation and so did not laugh at their peer. Also, I realized that there are so many ways to use art, including my body, to effect social change.


DAY 3:

The wrap up session was AMAZING. It was warm and fulfilling. All participants came together to share what they had leaned throughout the conference. They performed, sharing the knowledge from their workshop with everyone else. Therefore, it felt like I got to attend all of the sessions. YAY.

[There are pictures in the photo album of all the work the groups did].




]]> Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:02:00 EST http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/289529 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/272323
However, because I did not have my recorder I shall paraphrase:
"This conference is about youth and how they want to design their future and implement the things they want."

That statement gave me an intense feeling of happiness.

The Global Citizens Forum, organized by the OCIC - Ontario Council for International Cooperation -
kicked off today with the International Participants Welcome at Oxfam Canada.

Participants from Haiti, Jamaica, Uganda, El Salvador and India were present. I felt such tremendous respect for those participants because they came all the way here to engage in an exchange of knowledge, confident that they had as much to offer as they would take.

About 30-40 people attended the welcome.

The food was great and we were all just about to network after all of the introductions when we were told to leave the building!

Coming out of the room, smoke hung in the air. We were directed to take our bags and exit down the stairs. One of the last things I heard before I left was someone exclaiming,

"Hot, sexy networking!"

I smiled and thought "You bet our ideas can start a fire!"

Well, the firemen eventually came - after about 10 minutes. During this time, I networked with Sol - who is one of the creators of 4Real - a production picked up by MTV and CTV about amazing youth who are making a difference under difficult circumstances. I spoke to him about the tools on the TIG site and what CLC Canada does and he seemed really interested - YAY.

I felt good that even though there may have been a fire going on and destroying material things inside the building, we were creating something that could never be destroyed - an idea and a connection that could make a difference.

The forum continues tonight! So more to come including pictures and podcasts.

Please see the documents section for a list of the international participants. ]]> Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:05:00 EDT http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/272323 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/272309
However, because I did not have my recorder I shall paraphrase:
"This conference is about youth and how they want to design their future and implement the things they want."

That statement gave me an intense feeling of happiness.

The Global Citizens Forum, organized by the OCIC - Ontario Council for International Cooperation -
kicked off today with the International Participants Welcome at Oxfam Canada.

Participants from Haiti, Jamaica, Uganda, El Salvador and India were present. I felt such tremendous respect for those participants because they came all the way here to engage in an exchange of knowledge, confident that they had as much to offer as they would take.

About 30-40 people attended the welcome.

The food was great and we were all just about to network after all of the introductions when we were told to leave the building!

Coming out of the room, smoke hung in the air. We were directed to take our bags and exit down the stairs. One of the last things I heard before I left was someone exclaiming,

"Hot, sexy networking!"

I smiled and thought "You bet our ideas can start a fire!"

Well, the firemen eventually came - after about 10 minutes - and then I left.

The forum continues tonight! So more to come including pictures and podcasts.


Please see: - http://projects.takingitglobal.org/clccanada where I will be posting a list of the international participants and background information provided by the OCIC.

]]> Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:08:00 EDT http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/272309 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/267819 The Youth Action Network or YAN had an Open House today to launch their Resource Centre as well as their Youth Action Forum; a magazine published by and for youth. Through networking, I found out that while there were youth there who were part of the YAN or had come to support friends who were performing, there were also youth who heard about the event and came from as far as Scarborough. I thought that was really amazing. I was doing podcasts - and I asked them to speak but they were shy :) I did however manage to speak with youth who were more comfortable expressing themselves and I will be posting the podcast soon.

I will also be meeting with Kathy Raddon on the YAN staff to discuss how they can further expand their partnership with CLC.

I urge everyone to check out YAN's Youth Action Forum magazine. It is amazing. I started reading it on the subway and could not put it down. Before I knew it I was home - and I live pretty far from downtown Toronto. In my opinion, it's well laid out and graphically exciting and the stories will inspire and touch you.

Please go visit:
forum@youthactionnetwork.org as well as their main website http://youthactionnetwork.org/

]]> Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:45:00 EDT http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/267819 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/267811
I urge everyone to check out YAN's Youth Action Forum magazine. It is amazing. I started reading it on the subway and could not put it down. Before I knew it I was home - and I live pretty far from downtown Toronto. In my opinion, it's well laid out and graphically exciting and the stories will inspire and touch you.

Please go visit:
forum@youthactionnetwork.org as well as their main website http://youthactionnetwork.org/

GET INVOLVED! :) ]]> Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:34:00 EDT http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/267811 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/267803 It's a great job title but what's even better is the actual position. Training happened in late September and it was great. Cheers to everyone who organized it! The team officially started on October 1st.
We will be building off of last year's successes and using many of the same tools - going to conferences, youth events, executing workshops, networking with other youth organisations, holding open forums and participating in live chats.
But we will also be flavouring our position with our own ideas and methods of action ;)
I think it's going to be a great year. I'm soooo looking forward to seeing it unfold!

Please check out the project page!
http://projects.takingitglobal.org/clccanada

AND ALSO please check out TIG on Make Some Noise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGDy_isZ9aQ
]]> Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:22:00 EDT http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/267803 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/266961
This is the CLC Toronto Youth Engagement Coordinator.
I just wanted to say thanks to the CLC high rollers who managed the training. It was great!
I'm really excited about the coming year - the first Toronto Forum will be happening soon! So I will keep you all posted.

Thanks!

]]> Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:14:00 EDT http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/266961 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/39499
Sorry for all the emotion guys. I bet if you meet him you will feel the same way. Luckily you may. He is one of our youth spokespersons for the conference. Therefore once he is officially identified, you can find him and make the most of your time with him. You will get inspired, want to be informed and get involved.


By the way the Information Session was great. Thanks to Paul Adomako, Alex McClelland and the rest of the team at the local host it was everything you need to know about the conference.
]]> Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:02:00 EDT http://AuroraH.tigblog.org/post/39499 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667