UNITY Charity » Program Highlights

LOVE and UNITY!

rajni — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:04:08 +0000

This Summer the LOVE & UNITY program has been meeting once a week to prepare for the middle school outreaches scheduled to take place this fall. While the arts and skill development workshops have continued, the summer programming has put an emphasis on exploring individual youth stories that illustrate the power of using art and constructive self expression to combat negativity in their lives. The summer series also includes training in public speaking and group presentations and has proven been a helpful in solidifying our core team and enriching the cohesion on the group as a whole. Thank you Ontario Trillium Foundation.

UNITY GOES NATIONAL!

rajni — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:36:41 +0000

UNITY has returned from a successful national tour! UNITY was in Halifax from February 18^th to February 25^th doing UNITY Days in 5 different schools. UNITY participated in 5 high school shows, 3 community shows and over 60 workshops. We reached over 3,500 youth through across Nova Scotia. This has been a life changing experience for both the youth and our crew. The tours allowed UNITY to establish a long-term presence in Halifax, Nova Scotia engaging youth in our various programs. UNITY artists that attended were Balu, Nilla, Pyro and Jesse. Here are some powerful quotes from the tour:

“Its opened my mind. I really don’t have a healthy way to get ride of stress this really help. I found something that calmed me.”
- Student from Millwood High School

“UNITY Charity was able to engage and motivate the delegates at this conference like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The pure enthusiasm and excitement that they showed for the presentation by UNITY were unbelievable: the stories shared and format of the presentation were exactly right to capture the interest and involvement of the students.”

- Emma Beaton (President of NSSSA Leadership)

UNITY was in Calgary from March 1st to March 4^th and conducted an Artist Camp Residency Training. There were over 20+ Alberta artists who participated in intensive training. This was the first phase of setting up an after school program in Calgary. It was extremely successful and UNITY is excited to support the Calgary team!

Thank you CIBC!

We would like to thank CIBC for their incredible three-year commitment to our Halifax School Tour, where we visited five schools in the city and provide each with our UNITY Day.

Thank you OAC!

Also we would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council’s Touring Office, which awarded our organization a grant under the National and International Touring Program. The support provided by the OAC allowed UNITY to expand our tour to include community shows for the first time! We performed three shows at various venues across the city.

Thank you TELUS!

Finally, we are excited to announce that TELUS’ Atlantic Canada Community Board has made a donation to UNITY. This donation was b used to establish new follow-up programs that will start after this year’s tour. The programs included weekly drop-in sessions at a local community centre led by a local UNITY Artist Educator. Also held an Artist Training Retreat. The weekend trained Halifax-based artists in UNITY’s teaching and youth engagement methods.

New Community Centre launched in Brampton

rajni — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:54:58 +0000

The program launched on Jan 20th, 2012 with 32 youth pre-registered!!! Unfortunately there are no more spaces available. The youth in the program are very excited about the program and happy to finally have a space to learn and practice in Brampton. It’s a 10-week break dancing program. The workshop is taught by Kevin Mike aka Bboy K Trickz. Good luck Kevin and all the participants in the program!

SECOND SEMESTER ON ITS WAY!

rajni — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:39:16 +0000

We are pleased to announce that the UNITY program finished a successful first semester. UNITY is already on a great start for the second semester. For the second semester, UNITY will be running programs in the following schools:

St Thomas Aquinas (Brampton)
Harold M. Brathwaite (Brampton)
L’amoreaux (Scarborough)
John Polanyi (North York)
St. Augustine (Brampton)

About the Program:

The UNITY After School Program provides students a safe environment to learn and grow under supervision from professional UNITY artists in B-boying (Breakdancing), Beat-boxing, Spoken Word, and Graffiti Art. These UNITY artists will use a variety of activities to engage, empower, and help the youth develop skills/qualities such as: self confidence, team work, public speaking, etc. After completing this 12 week program, students will have the ability and opportunity to perform/present their stories to their High Schools as well as Jr. High Schools. The goal of this After School Program is to empower youth and guide them to become positive role models in their community through exposure to positive outlets.

UNITY is excited to announce the launch Share our Spirit!

rajni — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:27:51 +0000

The Share our Spirit program bridges between Nunavut, Nunavik & Ontario. It will give youth connections by using technology packages, art and physical exchanges. Bi-weekly teleconferences and weekly activities give youth pathways for building relationships, staying interactive and engaged. The ‘Share our Spirit’ blog serves as the communication center of the program, providing youth a platform to speak about their experiences and share them with the community & the world! Youth create friendships before embarking on cultural exchanges that give opportunities to explore partnered communities and facilitate greater cultural understanding.

Share our Spirit has been made possible by funding from the Trillium foundation and is facilitated through the partnership of UNITY Charity & BluePrint For Life. SOS is also supported by First Air, the Kativik School board, Peel District school board & Dufferin-Peel District Catholic School board as well contributions from the Ground illusionz crew. Thank you to all of the supporters of the program!

For more information on the program, please visit: ShareOurSpirit.ca