"Destroy
your enemies by making them your friends"
YAP is currently re-named Peace Ambassadors Initiative ...under the wing of NAARR (Northern Alberta Alliance on Race Relations www.naarr.org
January to March 2004 YAP continued pursuing
its objectives of recruiting, training new volunteers and
conducting anti-racism education workshops. YAP volunteers
started the year determined to continue with the their task
of conducting anti-racism presentations and mobilizing other
youth.
Recruitment has been an on-going activity and has been served
well by the publicity efforts.
Publicity:
At the beginning of the year, advertisements on the YAP program
were placed in the local magazines such as Vue, See, and The
Examiner. Since February, The See Magazine has reserved two
spots for YAP’s weekly meeting and those ads are still
running at present. Community-based electronic media such
as CJSR were also contacted. Youth based websites, such as
YOUTH ONE have been an excellent billboard for YAP.
More than 1000 brochures on YAP were also printed afresh and
these have been dispatched to all the public and catholic
school boards. Consequently, we have been able to get five
new volunteers on board and four who cannot make it presently
have promised to join YAP in Spring/Summer. On average, 10
volunteers (who are either in university or high schools)
out of a pool of 22 volunteers have been attending these meetings.
Based on last year’s scenario, we expect the numbers
to increase substantially in summer when most young students
are on vacation.
Training:
Training/planning meetings are held every Tuesday from 6-8
at University of Alberta. New members are welcomed to the
group and are gradually introduced to the dramatic techniques
that have become the hallmark of YAP’s anti-racism presentations.
Personal narratives around racism or discrimination are shared
when new members come. YAP then uses those accounts to construct
dramatic scenes that have the potential of stimulating critical
discussion and solutions when presented before an audience.
Anti-Racism Workshops:
To avoid didactic presentations YAP uses process drama techniques.
The techniques involve demonstration of a sketchy racist situation.
Participants are challenged to think of circumstances or desire
that may have led the characters to behave in a particular
manner. Participants also question the characters (hot-seating)
in as far as the motivations behind their behavior is concerned.
Discussions around appropriate behavior or coping strategies
are then held with invitation of many solutions as possible.
YAP’s logic in this approach is based on the desire
to prevent passive transmission of anti-racism education.
During the three months, YAP has been creating opportunity
where participants learn new ideas on dealing with racism
and taking individual responsibility for their own actions.
(See the attached table for number of presentations)
Membership:
On average, 10 members (who are either in university or high
schools) out of a pool of 22 volunteers have been attending
the weekly meetings regularly. The low turnout might be explained
in terms of school being in progress. YAP’s experience
last year was that very many volunteers joined the project
during summer. We expect the same this summer.
PARTNERSHIPS
The realization that partnering with other community based
agencies provides YAP with an opportunity for anti-racism
presentations and marketability has led YAP to continue networking
with various agencies. Just as it had done the previous year,
YAP is currently collaborating with the following community
groups:
a) Supporting Culturally Diverse Youth from the Southside:
Since the beginning of the year, YAP through its Coordinator
has/is been represented at steering committee meeting that
are preparing for another conference for the youth. A similar
conference was held last year and YAP was one of the main
workshop presenters. This year’s conference is entitled
Youth in Transition Conference II and will be held on April
4, at City Arts Centre. Once more YAP will be presenting a
workshop on racism in Canada during this conference.
b) Expecting Respect (ER):
This is an educational program that is steered by nine community
agencies namely, Community Services, Capital Health, Planned
Parenthood (Edmonton), U of A teacher education, Alberta Civil
Liberties Research Centre, NAARR, Sexual Assault Centre, AADAC,
and Canadian Red Cross. The partners offer spring and fall
training on various topics associated with each individual
group. In this program, YAP is responsible for training peer
educators in the following areas: discrimination, harassment,
bullying, and racism.
YAP’s, Youth Coordinator has been sitting in ER’s
steering committee at least twice a month since January. This
has been in preparation for spring training scheduled on April
27. Four junior high schools have already confirmed and will
bring out students who have demonstrated leadership qualities.
c) Edmonton’s Police Hate and Bias Unit. YAP is currently
collaborating with the constables heading this unit. We are
also in the process of finalizing the details of coming up
with a coordinated graffiti team whose work will be to clean
up trashed areas within the city. The Hate Unit will work
on the logistics such as identifying locations, securing paint
and brushes while YAP’s volunteers have agreed to provide
the labor
.
YAP’s Coordinator, has been attending a 14-week Police
Civilian Academy course since beginning of January and will
be expected to graduate on April 22, 2004. The purpose of
the program is to provide community agencies a deeper understanding
of the responsibilities and goals of Edmonton police force
and work out support from these agencies in fulfilling these
goals. The program has provided YAP chance to network with
similar minded agencies and individuals. As a result of the
networking, a Social Studies teacher who is taking the course
has invited YAP to present anti-racism workshop in his class
in May.
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