Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf

The visit to Sir James Whitney today was very interesting and really gave an insight to the deaf culture within the school. Even though I’ve done placements and am now working at Sagonaska, I had never actually been throughout the entire Sir James Whitney school before, so being able to see the different parts was very interesting. I have never really had a “tour” where someone was interpreting so I think that that was interesting as well but sort of confusing at times because I felt like I would watch the interpreter while she was talking most of the time rather than looking at Aaron who was actually the one who was speaking. I think that it’s because we’re kind of used to looking at the person who we can hear is talking so I find that it got a little confusing! I think that the way the deaf communicate and the way that they use certain things in everyday life within the campus is amazing. There are 3 Sagonaska Residences within the Sir James Whitney building and I always see the lights flashing when I cover shifts. I knew that the green one went with the door bell to let people know by sight that the door bell was ringing but I never knew that the blue one was for the phone so I found that another interesting thing to learn.

Since Sagonaska shares a lot of the spaces around campus with Sir James Whitney, I find it hard as staff to communicate with the deaf. I had always thought about taking an ASL course and being within the entire Sir James Whitney campus made me even more interested in taking a course. I decided to look up a little bit of sign language online and I found this video about how to sign colours in ASL.

 

Also,  Aaron was talking about how important it is for the deaf to be immerged into the deaf culture as much as possible from a young age. He also mentioned that he thinks that its beneficial to teach toddlers how to sign before they can talk I came across this video and thought that it was cute! The one little boy even teaches his brother how to sign properly.

 

 

Homeless Youth in Canada

Last class in cultural issues and diversity, we had the opportunity to hear Sandy Sidsworth from CMHA speak within our classroom. Sandy spoke about homeless youth in our community and how the need for housing in the community is a huge concern. She spoke about how being in poverty and being known as “homeless” affects a person’s pride and people do not want to be connected. I think that this means it makes it harder for youth to reach out and say “ I need help” and this could be a growing concern because the resources available to them may not be known. She also spoke about how for young people, poverty “has the face of couch surfing” and continued to talk about how many youth in our community leave home, whether it’s because they’re being a bused at home, or whether it’s because they are just not getting along with their parents.  She talked about how these youth will just jump from house to house because they do not have a steady place to live. I reflected back to when I was in high school and I could remember so many people who “couch surfed” from one friends place to another. I didn’t realize how many teens do not have a safe place to live in this area, until Sandy came in to talk with us. Now I know that so many people that were “couch surfing” when I was in high school, could have potentially had no place to go. I searched the internet for statistics of homeless youth in Canada and came across  a website for “The Covenant House” which gave the following statistics:

• On any given night some 33,000 Canadians are homeless of which as many as 11,000 are youth.

• Today in Toronto, there are 12 shelters for youth, offering up to 522 beds. In 1979, there were only two youth shelters in the city, with a total of 95 beds. In the past 25 years there has been a 450% increase in youth shelter beds.

• In Toronto, a good estimate suggests there are at least 10,000 different youth who are homeless at one point on any given year - and anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 on a given night.

(The Covenant House, 2012)

I didn’t realize just how many homeless youth there are in Canada and even in Toronto alone. At the same time, its good to know that there has been an increase in support and shelters for these youth. In her presentation, Sandy went on to talk about how within this community there is still a huge need for housing for these youth and how networking and connections are a HUGE part in assisting these youth in finding a place to live. So through these networks, homeless youth should be able to receive the right amount of support if everyone works together. I think a huge problem, however, is monitoring youth and making sure that youth that do not have a home are supported, since it can be hard for them to come forward and know that there is support.

Muslim Culture in Canada

Last week in Cultural issues and diversity, a former CYW student and her sister came to speak about the Muslim Culture. I found this very interesting because i did not know very much about muslim people and i know that they face a huge amount of stigma, especially since 9/11 in the States.

 

I learned that the god of the Muslims is known as Allah, I didnt know the difference between "Muslim" and "Islam" there was a bit of confusion between separating the two and through sarah and her sisters presentation I learned that Muslim is their culture and Islam is their religion and their way of life. I looked up the actual meanings of each and came up with this :

 

Islam: " submit, accept, or surrender. From this comes Islam’s conventional definition of surrender to God." (differencebetween.net, 2012)

 

Muslim : "refers to a person who engages in the act of submission, acceptance, or surrender. Therefore a Muslim is a person who submits to the will of God, or a follower of Islam." (differencebetween.net, 2012)

 

I also learned about islamic prayer beads, which are called Misbaha or "Tasbih" which are made of: wooden beads, various stones and sometimes made of olive seeds, ivory, amber, pearls or plastic. The muslim Tasbih is made up of 99 beads, which are divided into sections of 33 beads. Each section is divided by a disc and is called a "Nisane" they are used for remembering "Allah" during prayer.

Prayer Beads:

picture retrived from:http://www.prayerbeadsworld.com/prayer_beads_in_islam.html

The presentation by Debbie, Eric and Kim last week in cultural issues and diversity was very informing and interesting. I had never really thought about how to work with youth from the LGBTQ community before and I was not very informed about the needs of the youth in this group and how CYWS can help. The activities that were used in this presentation had me thinking deeper into what it would feel like to be part of the LGBTQ community and just how many difficulties these youth face in their day to day lives. I am very grateful for Debbie, Eric and Kim’s presentation and for the thoughts, feelings and experiences they shared with us. I also learned about a few groups such as the Phelps from the united states who protest at soldiers funerals and the Ugandan government who is trying to pass as bill  to allow death to be a consequence of homosexuality.  People from these groups, who are completely against LGBTQ voice their opinions in horrible and disturbing ways. I think that the Say out Loud group is so important for these youth and I think that by getting the word out and continuing to show support to these youths, many issues can be avoided and dealt with in a more positive way.  Having this presentation also made me think more about “privilege” and just how much privilege straight people really have compared to people from the LGBTQ community. I believe that the say out loud group not only offers support but is the first step in overcoming bullying, especially in the LGBTQ community and if people continue coming together in this way it could lead to further acceptance for everyone.

Bullying is a huge issue these days and I know that the LGBTQ youth face so many issues with bullying. I think that it is very important for people who support the community to especially focus on bullying with in the LGBTQ community.  After the presentation I did a little more research on homosexual bullying and I also did some extra reading from the resources on blackboard . I read about the Trevor project and found it to be a very interesting organization for supporting LGBTQ youth.  After creating a film about a young boy who was bullied for having feelings for another boy, the founders of the Trevor project then realized that maybe there are youth in the same situation that needed support. They then created a line for LGBTQ youth to call for support when they need it. Since technology is becoming more and more important,  I really like that the founders James Lecesne, Peggy Rajski and Randy Stone continued learning about the needs of these youth and came up with different ways of providing services. They have now created Trevor Chat which is a way to provide counseling for youth through instant messaging as well as a huge social network for LGBTQ youth called “Trevor Space”. I feel that having the option to go online for advice and support may be a lot easier for some youth to do rather then seeing a counselor in person or talking on the phone. I like that they have been able to appeal to so many different LGBTQ youth.  Below is the webpage for The Trevor Project as well as their logo

 

                                                      http://www.thetrevorproject.org/

 

Here is a video called “it gets better” made by the disneyland with many different people from the LGBTQ community sharing their bullying experiences and giving hope. This video reaches out to many different types of youth from the LGBTQ community and the people speaking are from many different age groups.

 

 

As a future CYW I feel that this presentation was very useful and informing to help me support LGBTQ youth in the best ways that I can. Although, I do find it very hard to word things when talking about the LGBTQ community, even while writing this blog. I feel that it is hard to know what words are okay to use and what words are not okay to use when talking about this community and I can imagine that people who are not as open to the LGBTQ community most likely find it very hard to be accepting and understanding of this community and probably find it much harder to use words that are appropriate when referring to the LGBTQ community. Therefore, I think that as a CYW it is very important for me to not only support this community but be able to help other people to understand and support them as well.

For class last week we were given the opportunity to travel to quinte Mohawk school for their harvest festival. I am so glad that I took this opportunity and joined the group in this cultural experience as I really enjoyed it and found it an interesting and fun way to learn more about the Mohawk culture.  Before we arrived I wasn’t really sure what to expect once we all walked into the school but quickly found that everyone, including the students at Quinte Mohawk were so warm and welcoming.  I felt that the school was very united and seemed to work together as a whole, making the environment feel the way it felt. I also enjoyed the artwork and murals around the school and found that even the way the school looked seemed to bring everyone inside of it together and the scenery was also very reflective of their culture.

Walking into the gym and hearing their first announcement of the day was very interesting. The daily “opener” for the day is called “the thanksgiving address” and although we only heard it being said in Mohawk I still felt like there was such a meaning to it and it meant so much to the staff and students. This made me interested in what the thanksgiving address translates to, so I ended up going home and researching it. I researched the translation of the thanksgiving address to English and this is what I got. I also talked to my friend Sam who is Mohawk and asked her a little more about it. She shared with me that the thanksgiving address is used to both open and close the ceremony and that” if it were a more traditional setting (outside of the school) there would be a sacred fire that would be kept burning for the duration of the ceremony” . She said that the purpose of this fire is to honor all of the spirits and the great spirit (which is the creator) at the special ceremony.

I had a chance to also build longhouses with the grade 4’s and 5’s and the kids loved being able to create their own and make the outside look however they wanted. They also seemed to enjoy having us CYWS help them and I noticed that children who seemed to be shy in the beginning opened up a little more after building longhouses with us. One little girl in particular that I worked with was so much more talkative after I helped her in building her longhouse. I found out that longhouses are where the community gathers for political, social and spiritual functions in the Mohawk culture.

 

Tyendinaga longhouse on Ridge Road

http://www.tadamon.ca/post/1589

We ended up going outside to play lacrosse and I asked her what lacrosse means to the Mohawks and she shared what she knew with me. She said that the Mohawks play lacrosse when someone is sick. I talked to my friend Sam about this as well and she didn’t know too much about lacrosse but she did say that “traditionally it was played by just the men and it was bad medicine for women to play”. I went home and researched a little more about lacrosse and I found out that lacrosse was meant to resolve conflicts and that sometimes more than 100 players were included in the game.

 

Being from Tyendinaga and really not knowing too much about the Mohawk culture made me wonder why I hadnt tried to find out more when I was younger. I feel that knowing about this culture is very helpful especially in this area when working with children and families. I think that knowing a little bit about the mohawks and asking questions will make children and youth feel appreciated and accepted. Also, its good for children and youth to be able to explain and express their culture in different ways and for CYWs to be supportive and help them learn more when they need to.

Resources:

http://www.mbq-tmt.org/community/culture

Looking forward to learning!

I am excited to jump into this course this semester and so ready to learn new things about many different cultures. I have never really stepped outside my "bubble" and explored other cultures so I think that this course will benefit me within my future career as well as just my outlook on life in general. I think that its important for everyone to be able to explore different cultures and gain an understanding about life around the world. I posted the picture above because I think exploring different cultures is almost like "holding the world in your hands". You can gain knowledge about any place in the world that may interest you and there is no limit to what you can learn aslong as you put yourself out there to do it.