NDG Aussi Chez Nous

Les initatives NDG Aussi Chez Nous visent à soutenir nos jeunes et leurs familles dans la prise de parole

In June 2018 our youth went to speak to our elected officials

Hello, my name is Nickayla Morrison and I work at the Loyola Centre. During the school year I help in the after school program as well as the Saturday lunch program and this summer I am animating in Loyola park. Our community association is a partner of the borough, the city provides us with funding and access to a building, and we, in turn, offer sports and recreation activities to members of our community. I am 16 years old and I moved to Montreal when I was 14. The Loyola Centre is an important place for me because it helped me make friends and learn French when I first arrived here. I am proud that my work gives back to my community and that kids can grow up in centres like Loyola, where they play sports, make friends and learn.

Like many of the staff at Loyola Centre, I earn minimum wage. On May 2nd my pay increased to 12$ an hour due to the change in the provincial law. Many of the parents of the kids at our centre don’t have a lot of money, so the participation fee for our programs is quite low. Even at that, many parents can not contribute anything financially. Every year, we make hard choices of what material to buy, and what outings to go on because we have a very small budget to work with. The increase of my salary has limited these choices even more. Next year we may potentially have to look at taking less kids in our programs because we do not have any additional income, but the increase in minimum wage has made another expense.

Hi, My name is Kaisen. I have been a participant on the basketball team for the last 4 years. I am going to be a basketball coach at Loyola when I am older, I already help with the younger group. There are many kids who want to play basketball at Loyola. It wouldn’t be fair that we don’t let everyone join the team because of money.

Hi, my name is Maya. I am in the afterschool program and I started a book club for the younger children at the centre. On Wednesday some kids in grades 5 in the afterschool program looked at the citizens budget on the internet. Brigid told us that this was one way to make sure that you would be able to see what we would like in our neighbourhood. It was a hard exercise. Here’s the thing. In that budget, we were asked to pick between services that we all need. I don’t want there to be less streets fixed – that would be dangerous. I don’t want there to be less garbage collected – that would be gross. I want the pools to be open in the summer – we need a way to cool off and many of the apartments don’t have air conditioning. I also want there to be more money for the community centres so that we can offer activities for everyone.

The citizens budget didn’t allow for us to say that we wanted all of those things, because it said we couldn’t spend more money than we had. We checked on the chart of how much each neighbourhood gets and we see that the amount are not the same for all neighbourhoods. That doesn’t seem fair. Also in the citizens budget we didn’t have the option of saying that we wanted more money to be given to the community centres for our basketball and Saturday programs.

We know there are many needs in our neighbourhoood. We feel that the kids of our neighbourhood need to continue to be able to go to programs at the community centres no matter what. It’s not only about going there because it’s fun. The community centres are places where kids can go when their parents aren’t home or when they need someone to talk to and they are a safe place for us to go.

Our question is directed to the mayor, Sue Montgomery. In January, our association will be renewing our convention loisir with the borough. Will you be able to increase our budget by 7% to reflect the raise in minimum wage. This is the equivalent of approximately 4,5000$. Please note that the amount we receive for this convention has not been indexed since 2010. Thank you for your time.

Un projet des jeunes nouveaux arrivants en été 2017

Au cours de l'été 2017, nous avons mis sur place un projet afin de rendre compte de l’expérience unique des jeunes dans leur immigration. Nous
voulions que les jeunes s’exprimer sur leur vécu et puisse en sortir ce qu’ils en ont appris. Ainsi, chaque jeune nous a parlé de leur histoire personnel et de leur pays d’origine et ont formulé des recommandations ayant pour but de faciliter l’expérience des jeunes comme eux dans l’immigration.

Ces recommendations viennent de 52 adolescents nouvellement immigrés d'une vingtaine de pays. Les jeunes sont tous des étudiants en classes d'accueil à l'école secondaire Saint Luc

Un projet de théatre à venir en 2019

Les participants seront introduits à la méthode théâtrale de Boal et exploreront le théâtre comme outil pour s’exprimer et partager leurs histoires. Ils seront amenés à identifier des actions collectives qu'ils peuvent entreprendre pour améliorer leurs situations. Ces histoires et propositions de solutions seront la base pour la création d'une pièce de théâtre que les participants partageront avec la communauté et les décideurs. Les élus et les dirigeants locaux seront invités à être spectateurs, une action qui modifiera la dynamique du pouvoir dans notre communauté et permettra aux participants de présenter leurs expériences d'injustice et de défendre leurs besoins.

Ce projet vise à utiliser le théâtre pour encourager les participants à développer une voix critique. Les objectifs incluent : Développer l’estime de soi et valoriser les connaissances et expériences des communautés multiculturelles à travers la production culturelle. Créer une cohésion au sein du groupe de participants marginalisés en partageant des expériences et histoires. Engager les participants dans un examen critique des dynamiques de pouvoir et encourager la prise de parole. Créer un changement social en racontant les expériences vécues et en engageant un dialogue avec les décideurs