You’ve done the research, you’ve challenged your own assumptions and beliefs, you’ve made new connections; it’s time to process what you’ve gone through so far and put it into words.
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Many well intended projects die out before ever really becoming anything. Plans, ideas, and words stay imaginary until we take action. Groups often find themselves paralyzed after the initial excitement of starting something new wears off. You may catch yourself or others feeling stuck, finding new things to get excited about, or wanting to back away instead of following through with the plan. The goal of this checkpoint is to choose to commit or quit.
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You’ve made it to the Ideating & Generating stage, congrats! This stage is all about bringing your team together to get everything set up for your community engagement.
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Racism isn’t history. Research shows that systemic racism is affecting Black youth in a variety of ways. So what’s on my mind right now is the lens of hypervulnerability.
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Things are starting to come together and take shape! If you have some momentum and experience working in community, you might be surprised to find that this is a point where people get stuck. If you are feeling stuck, this one’s for you.
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Game time! You’re now doing something in public, bringing people together and holding space for something you care about deeply. Here are some things to consider before the event.
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This is the final checkpoint in this series, after this point you loop back into the Ideating & Generating stage to keep building momentum and working toward the change you want to see.
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#BellLetsTalk is an excellent tool for starting conversations around mental health, to reduce stigma, encourage folks to check in on each other, and seek support themselves. This is an important start, yet true and sustained social progress on mental health will also involve tackling the root causes of poor mental health in the first place.
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Last night, I watched Taika Watiti’s Jojo Rabbit set in WWII. Today is the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. So I’ve been thinking about white supremacy and violence this week.
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On January 29, 2017, six Muslim worshippers were killed at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Québec City during a peak of anti-Muslim hate crimes in Canada. On January 29, 2017, Rehan was ten years old.
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The boys in our programs often estimate that physical sexual violence is experienced by around 75-95% of women in Canada. At first glance, this awareness of sexual violence might seem like a positive thing, but there’s more to it than that.
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One of my favourite educators recently wrote an article that gives concrete strategies for acknowledging this element of young people’s friendships but also helping them maintain boundaries and self-care.
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