Can you believe it is November already? We are in full swing here at NOISE!
Project Update
Last Monday, Oct 28th, NOISE co-sponsored OMG: Private Pain in Public Schools with York’s School of Social Work. We were very pleased with the turn out from NOISE and our community partners! During intermission we had a fun photobooth and served a free pizza supper. The play dealt with some very serious issues around violence, abuse, bullying, power, gender, relationships and faith. It raised a lot of questions for NOISE fellows. Dr. Elaine Brown Spencer hosted a Q and A after the play but pods were also very interested in re-visiting the issues this week, in their groups. We are very appreciate to the OMG team for the time and energy they put into performing for NOISE and its wider community! Please check out the attached photo from the OMG event.
Last week our Seneca Interns had a ‘Block Week’. This means that they spent the entire week with us- we are very grateful for all of their hard work and dedication. On Thursday they visited several of our community partners and met some of the amazing front line workers in J/F. They also stopped by Emery CI for their annual Halloween Cat Walk and saw several of our NOISE-makers dressed up for Halloween. It doesn’t seem fair that our youth fellows didn’t see the interns dressed up, so I think I’ll share another photo.
For the pods that normally meet on Thursday, Sarah, Thomas, Matt and Sinai hosted a Halloween movie night…I hear that the treats were awesome!
Hard to believe but we are preparing for our second BSW, MSW & Intern Breakfast meetings already! We’re also into our first round of Pod Reflections. This week we’ve been attending pod meetings and doing a 30-45 minute ‘check in’. Thank you to all of the pods for your willingness to share!
Pod Update
Last week pods talked about the meaning of ‘Priority Neighbourhoods’ and the impact of designating communities as ‘priorities’. This week, pods are looking at definitions of civic engagement and narrowing down the social issues they want to address with their social action projects. It isn’t an easy process- the pods have so many rich ideas around how they can collaborate in creating change.
Wednesday of last week, pods 5 & 6 participated in the second Voice and Speech workshop with Alicia. She provided some interesting tips and relaxation exercises for calming oneself when faced with public speaking or any other potential sources of stress.
Last night Pod # 5 (below) was lucky enough to have a pod leader from last year, Janelle, stop by to talk about how their pod settled on a social action project and what that process was like- thanks for your continued support Janelle!
What’s Coming Up?
One of our NOISE BSWs, Katerina, is working on a Food and Fund Drive with Food Rescue Action and the Poverty Eradication Project. It will be happening between Nov 25-29th. If you have time or would like to contribute please email volunteer.povproj@gmail.com.
As we’ve mentioned before: On November 15th a group of our NOISE fellows is heading to U of T for a talk on creativity and consciousness with GZA/Genius of the Wu-Tang Clan. This event is being sponsored by Project Freedom. Project FREEDOM is a youth-generated conscious movement founded on the 7 Elements of Change: Freedom, Critical Consciousness/Truth, Resistance, Creativity, and Knowledge of Self, Self-Determination and Personal and Social Healing and Reconciliation. We aim to awaken and emanate these elements by cultivating and building socio-political and economic literacy of youth using the arts and literature”. If you would like to attend this event with NOISE- please let us know ASAP!
Finally, our first Parent Engagement event and meal will be happening during the last week of November, we are just in the process of selecting the dates but will be in touch shortly.
Take care everyone and thank you for supporting and participating in the NOISE Project! If you have any ideas or suggestions for NOISE, please drop by or shoot me an email. I would love to hear from you.
~Jen