The New Opportunities for Innovative Student Engagement (NOISE) project is a research-informed model for enhancing the academic success of youth from the Jane/Finch community and York University Social Work students through engaged learning opportunities that energize and support their civic engagement and psycho-social well-being.
Jane/Finch youth fellows and Social Work student fellows work together in small groups (pods) on social action projects relevant to contemporary socio-political-economic conditions in the Jane/Finch community.
Each pod is facilitated by an MSW Graduate Assistant (GA) assisted by a Seneca Social Service Intern and includes a Social Work alum fellow and a faculty adviser.
By bringing together youth from Jane/Finch, York students, alum, and faculty, NOISE creates the space for relationships to form across difference, allows for knowledge of experiences to cross traditional boundaries, and gives the participants an experience of collaborative problem-solving, shared power and decision-making.
NOISE prioritizes multidirectional learning among all participants in the pod and recognizes that youth, students, alumni, and faculty all contribute skills and experiences and mutually benefit from their multidirectional relationships.