Sites

Research was conducted at three sites: The first, a high school in Cote St Paul is an English-Language secondary school under the direction of the English Montreal School Board. According to my interviewee Allannah Murphy, the students at James Lyng, “experience a high degree of social and economic disadvantage” and many have “serious learning or behavioral difficulties”, yet despite these factors the staff at James Lyng do their best to “enrich the educational and life experiences of our students, offering them a range of appropriate, supervised educational activities.”

The second site, Head & Hands is a youth community health centre located in NDG. Head & Hands is a holistic health and social services organization with a mission to “to work with youth to promote their physical and mental wellbeing”. The organizations approach is “preventative and non-judgmental, with a fundamental commitment to providing an environment that welcomes youth without discrimination.”

The third site, Atwater Library and Computer Centre (ALCC) is one of Canada’s oldest lending libraries and is located in a heritage building in the centre of Montreal. It was in part due to the libraries desire to make a stronger connection with the neighborhoods and communities directly adjacent to their location that I have had the opportunity to create the professional relationships that have led to this research. The mandate of the ALCC is, “to build a strong, sustainable and cohesive community through cultural, educational and social programs and by bringing together Montreal’s diverse population.”

Programs and Interviewees

The following extra-curricular learning programs were organized by employees of the above three sites. The Digital Literacy Project collaborated with employees from these programs to develop and teach the media training workshops that are the subject of these interviews.

The Digital Literacy Project (Atwater Library and Computer Centre)

The Atwater Digital Literacy Project, an initiative of the Atwater Library and Computer Centre (ALCC), helps youth and community organizations learn creative web technologies (blogging, audio, video, digital photos) to talk about things important to them, strengthen ties to their communities and build networks of friendship. In the past three years, the DLP has collaborated with W.O.R.D, the Sense Project, and James Lyng to develop a variety of media workshops for youth. I have interviewed two facilitators, Matthew Santoro and Kate Lavut, and organized to have myself appear as a respondent in my role as coordinator for this program. Matt and Kate have each taught video production workshops with the Sense Project and James Lyng. In addition to appearing in an interview, Matthew also agreed to interview me about my role in the DLP.

The Sense Project (Head & Hands)

The Sense Project is a peer-based sexual health education program organized by Head & Hands. During the program, high school students and volunteer animators who are typically Cegep and university students take part in a series of in-class and extracurricular workshops on sexual health. The Sense Project has partnered with the Digital Literacy Project over two years to develop a video-making workshop for the peer educators, and a web design course for the volunteer animators. I have interviewed the Executive Director of Head & Hands, Marlo Ritchie, the Sense Project fundraising coordinator, Christina Foisy, and the Sense Project workshop coordinator Jos Porter. Marlo spoke more generally about media literacy and the mandate of Head & Hands, while Christina and Jos dealt specifically with media training as part of the Sense Project’s series of workshops.

W.O.R.D – Writing Our Rhymes Down (James Lyng High School)

W.O.R.D is a youth-led literacy program working with inner-city youth in Montreal that uses positive hip-hop music and culture to educate, engage and empower youth through literacy, critical thinking and self-esteem development. W.O.R.D has collaborated with James Lyng, The Digital Literacy Project and Tyndale Saint-Georges Community Centre (not included in this study) for two years on an after-school hip-hop literacy program with children and youth. For this program I chose to interview the two main coordinators, Lynn Worrell and Neil Botehlo.

Community –Learning Centre (James Lyng)

The Community Learning Centre at James Lyng is a program mandated to develop “collaborative school-community relations”. These relations are described as, “schools/centres, community groups and other public and private sector agencies working together to improve the opportunities for life-long learning for youth and adults and contribute to the overall development of the community.” The CLC has collaborated with the Digital Literacy Project on a series of video workshops for James Lyng students, and has hosted and supported W.O.R.D’s afterschool literacy program. Allannah Murphy is the coordinator of the CLC at James Lyng and her interview is the only participant who is an employee of the English Montreal School Board (EMSB).