Students to host Eclipse Art Market and Music Festival to benefit local charity
High school students continue project through support of ACCESS, plan to host event and raise money for the community
At YMAD 6, the latest edition of ACCESS' annual Youth Making a Difference Conference, high school students were challenged to create solutions to social issues within their local community. The ACCESS team selected 3 student projects, all of which were developed from scratch during the one-day conference, to support and be executed in their schools. The groups received funds and mentorship from ACCESS to develop and fully implement their projects in the 2013-2014 school year – in one case, even continuing into the 2014-2015 year.
One of the student participants, Camilla, created unique illustrations to customize items (coffee cups, mugs, shirts) which then used to raise funds and awareness by her peers in The Givers, a student group created at YMAD 6 from St. Edmund Campion Secondary School.
This project has evolved with the ongoing support of their dedicated teachers including Mr. Manuel Cordeiro and school Guidance Department's Mr. Weatherbee, and an event is being held to showcase and raise funds for charity.
The Eclipse Art and Music Festival will be held on Saturday, February 28 from 10 am – 3 pm. The Talent Show will take place from 12 pm – 2 pm. Live Art and Music and an Art Market will feature shirts, buttons, paintings, prints stickers and more, to support the cause. Tickets are on sale for $5 at the door.
All proceeds being donated to Knights Table – a local non-profit providing food bank, hot meals and related assistance to citizens of Peel Region who deal with the daily issues of poverty. The students have chosen to utilize their project funding from ACCESS to raise additional funds to give right back to the community.
ACCESS' annual Youth Making a Difference Conference received a Social Good Design Award for YMAD6.
YMAD wins Social Good Design Award
TORONTO – ACCESS has received a Social Good Design Award for YMAD6, the latest edition of its annual Youth Making a Difference Conference. RGD's So(cial) Good Design Awards gives voice to the important work designers are doing and can do to change the way society thinks and acts. Annually, RGD reviews projects which use communication design for social good – working with the power to incite action and make meaningful change in the way people live:
Today’s designers have an ever greater responsibility to visualize the significant issues facing our society and find new ways to incite change in the way we behave. When we approach these issues creatively, we can make a real difference in the world.
YMAD was awarded with projects that focused on solutions to societal challenges, raising awareness, and developing communications-based solutions to change behaviour.
The goal was to affect social change in Peel Region while focusing conference programming on the skills students require to bring their passion for social justice to life. YMAD6 focused on a dedicated group of students in a design charette format. It received very positive feedback from students and educators alike.
The conference was led by ACCESS' YMAD Director Damon Pfaff, with Executive Director Daniel Francavilla, Prov RGD.
ACCESS is honoured to have been recognized for YMAD, and thanks the RGD, the judges of the Social Good Design Award, and the YMAD conference team.
An exhibit of all winning projects will be on display at Toronto Pearson International Airport's Terminal 1 from November 4 to January 9. The 2014 So Good Catalogue will be available at the DesignThinkers Conference.
About ACCESS ACCESS is a youth-led, non-profit organization that educates, empowers, and inspires youth to drive positive change. ACCESS focuses on social innovation and youth social entrepreneurship, to educate, empower and inspire youth to create change locally and globally. accesscharity.ca | speakupforchange.ca
Supporting education and youth leadership in rural Guatemala through innovative conferences
Similar to the goals of our local Youth Making a Difference Conferences, ACCESS funded 4 conferences this year through Alianza, a small nonprofit organization which has been working for 10 years in a rural village in Guatemala's Northwestern San Marcos Department. Three members of the local community Guatemala, speaking the Mayan language of Mam, are employed to run the programs.
The vocational aptitude conferences help junior high school students to become inspired and interested in a variety of careers outside the traditional subsistence farming (which is rapidly becoming untenable as the land base shrinks and the population grows). Students compleate aptitude tests, discuss their aspirations, and hear from role models who have gone on to become (for example, nurses, social workers, business people). Similar to YMAD, the conferences also focus on Leadership.
Workshops were held for students receiving bursaries, over a period of 5 days. The themes of these workshops included Self Esteem, Youth Rights and Obligations, Reproductive Health, Youth Social Issues, and Relationships.
These conferences are a way to help students learn more about their own skills, and expose them to a more diverse range of career opportunities in a community with 70% unemployment/underemployment, migratory labour to plantations, and subsistence farming. Debates are also organized so students can practice public speaking and develop critical thinking. The conferences touch on themes of gender equity and healthy lifestyles.
ACCESS is pleased to continue our international education and leadership work by supporting this fellow Canadian grassroots non-profit, founded by a physician from Cambridge, Ontario.
Contributions to ACCESS' local and international projects can be made online here.
Students develop social good projects at 6th Youth Making a Difference Conference
On November 13, ACCESS hosted its 6th Youth Making a Difference Conference. The event provided a unique opportunity for high school students in the Peel Region, consistent with all components of "Educate, Empower, Inspire".
The Fall 2013 Youth Making a Difference Conference was re-designed to be fast-paced, exciting, and highly participatory, where students learned and practiced skills needed for social action.
The event featured activities, stories and instructions to help students start socially-focused projects, and was hosted by the ACCESS team at the Brampton Community Door. Students worked in smaller groups and produced tangible results.
Students were exposed to and gained experience in Organizational Development (lead by Student Leadership Development Coordinator David Ip Yam), Organizational Branding (lead by Designer Daniel Francavilla), Concept Development and Brainstorming (lead by Designer and Engineer Damon Pfaff), and Press Release and Social Media Planning (lead by Non-Profit Consultant Shaneeza Nazseer). These facilitators were on-hand to guide students through their projects.
The conference was beneficial to youth with a variety of interests and passions. Students interested in social justice, local and global activism, social entrepreneurship, and in starting their own projects found valuable resources at YMAD6. The conference incorporated creativity, design, business, strategy, and community service.
A goal was for students to experience a sense of community and collaboration in a fast-paced environment, while working towards a positive outcome.
"It was an amazing conference. My students came back pumped and inspired," was the feedback received by an educator who has attended several ACCESS events with students. "Thanks for your continued leadership and direction."
Students taking action beyond the conference
Student concepts were evaluated and winning projects have been selected from John Cabot Secondary School in Mississauga and St. Edmund Campion Secondary School in Brampton. These groups will be working with ACCESS and their schools to have their projects developed and turned into action this year.
"There is a huge benefit for students to both brainstorm and develop projects as a team and then have the ability and support to execute them," said Daniel Francavilla, ACCESS Executive Director.
"We are committed to helping these students create social change in their community, using their own skills and interests."
ACCESS will be sharing the details and stories of the student projects in the coming months.
For more photos from the conference, visit this gallery on the ACCESS Facebook Page.
ACCESS to host 5th Youth Making a Difference Conference: Community Challenge
ACCESS is proud to announce its fifth annual Youth Making a Difference Conference to be held at the University of Toronto – Mississauga Campus on February 20, 2013. ACCESS is challenging the community to come together for social change – starting at the grassroots level – through local youth. Registration for schools is now open at ymad.ca/register.
The conference aims to highlight interdisciplinary skills through a case competition assessing current local and global issues, while fostering key relationships through a variety of mediums – including networking opportunities, inspiring speeches, and Community Challenges. The Community Challenge topics range in topics from Human Rights to Aboriginal issues.
ACCESS is a youth-run, non-profit organization providing education opportunities to youth in developing countries, while raising awareness and inspiring youth locally to become leaders. Though the Community Challenge, ACCESS strives to inspire youth to work towards change in their communities through a realization of their individual strengths.
“The Youth Making a Difference Conference doesn’t tell youth what to think; it asks youth how they want to confront issues affecting their local and global community. The collaborative nature of finding resolutions to the Community Challenges mimics the real world as a democratic collaborative space. The conference underlines important for youth to feel empowered in decision making in the future of their communities.”
– Damon Pfaff, Youth Making a Difference Coordinator
This daylong conference invites 200 high school students from across the Region of Peel to participate – individually, with their schools, and within in teams – to evaluate concerns and come up with real-world solutions that make a difference.
We invite community organizations to get involved through becoming a Community Change Agent: ymad.ca/ChangeAgent
Register now online at ymad.ca/register.
View or Download the full School Registration Package below.
Media Inquiries: Aminah Haghighi, Communications & Outreach Director | mina@accesscharity.ca Sponsorship Inquiries: Mark Llanes, Director of Finance | mark@accesscharity.ca Programming Inquiries: Damon Pfaff, Youth Making a Difference Coordinator | damon@accesscharity.ca
About ACCESS: Allowing Children a Chance at Education, Inc. ACCESS is a youth-run, non-profit organization that facilitates education and empathetic leadership development through initiatives that engage, inspire, and motivate youth to drive positive change, locally and globally. ACCESS envisions the empowerment of generations of leaders through education in order to inspire meaningful development in their own communities.