Spider’s Web launch in the news!
Lit for Life's Jo Altilia in the ring.
Spider Jones’ Youth Empowerment Initiative launched in the Chalkfarm neighbourhood last week, and Literature for Life was proud to be there along with him inside the ring. The launch was covered by The Toronto Star and CTV.
More from The Toronto Star:
“…in addition to basketball, Jones’ initiative will seek to provide youth with other activities like boxing, broadcast skills and literacy programs that encourage children to learn.
The Youth Empowerment Initiative is a pilot program that will also provide youth in Ward 7 with computer training and other mentoring programs. It has already helped provide the Chalkfarm neighbourhood with a swimming pool and a community centre.
Other organizations involved include Doorsteps Neighbourhood Services, Greenwin Inc., TD and Literature for Life.
For Jones, the desire to empower youth comes from personal experience. In 2006, he told the Toronto Star how fearful he was as a young kid, and called low self-esteem the “number 1 predator of our children today.”
“It steals your confidence away. It steals your joy. It steals your aspirations. It fills you with self-hatred. It fills you with doubt,” he said.”
The beginning of a new paradigm for Toronto’s most vulnerable communities
From news release: On Thursday June 23 at 12:00PM, Spider Jones and his Believe to Achieve Organization join TD, Greenwin Inc., Doorsteps Neighbourhood Services and Literature for Life to launch Spider’s Web Youth Empowerment Initiative, and a community basketball court sponsored by TD.
This pilot project, headquartered at 160 Chalkfarm Drive in Toronto with day to day operation being supervised by Doorsteps Neighbourhood Services, will offer underserved youth in Ward 7 a safe haven where they can learn the skills necessary to overcoming adversity through boxing, computer training and mentoring. Literature for Life will provide a literacy program encouraging children to read and participate in learning.
Motivational speaker/journalist, Spider “Chuck” Jones will be joined by a TD representative, as well as Kevin Green, President of Greenwin Inc. and Ward 7 City Councillor, Giorgio Mammoliti to launch the initiative, which will ultimately cater to all Ward 7 youth.
“We need to engage our children in these turbulent times and teach them how to make the right choices and deal with peer pressure,” says Jones. “Education is the liberator of all. It’s not where you come from in life; it’s where you’re going that counts.”
Adds Councillor Mammoliti: “This is a great example of how the private sector has stepped up to the plate to support a community in need. My vision for the future of the community I represent and neighbourhoods throughout our city is to have the public and private sector work together to deliver these types of programs in underserviced areas.”
“With the swimming pool, community centre and now, the basketball court, literacy and mentorship program, this site has become a community hub,” says Green. “That’s been the goal from the start.”
“Literature for Life is pleased to be involved with Greenwin properties, TD Bank, The Spider Jones Believe to Achieve Foundation and Doorsteps Community Services to support the literacy component of this project. Each partner brings a unique piece to the project and together we are working to keep the community engaged in positive social change.” says Jo Altilia, Founder and Executive Director of Literature for Life.
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A note from Literature for Life: This new private and public sector partnership has evolved to change a community. Chalkfarm is notorious for being in need of social change as captured in an article published by the Toronto Star in the Winter of 2011. This partnership is the beginning of a new paradigm for Toronto’s most vulnerable communities!
This partnership is interesting as the current political climate has highlighted the need for such collaborations with recent discussions of privatization and the need for social change to curb violence among the youth. The positive social impacts are numerous.
Another noteworthy aspect is the value of education outside of the classroom that is promoted within this initiative.
Literature for Life, will conduct the literacy programming within this partnership using their unique reading circles that often includes Hip-Hop literature by authors Tracy Brown (White Lines) and Sister Souljah (The Coldest Winter Ever, Midnight).
With an office located within the Centre of Social Innovation , Executive Director, Jo Altilia is aware of the positive social outcomes when public and private sectors work together. Partnerships with book publishers has enabled the Toronto-based charity to sucessfully promote the benefits of reading and literacy to marginalized individuals and communities using literature as a tool to break the cycle of poverty.
“They made me believe I could do it, and showed me how”
Literature for Life recently received a glowing testimonial from the Women Moving Forward Program at the Jane/Finch Community Family Centre. The entire letter is here. An excerpt is below:
‘Each LFL facilitator we have worked with comes to the program with a belief that each woman is both capable and deserving of education. Our participants feel this, and thrive under the unwavering support offered. The impact of the work LFL has on the lives of our participants continues long after they have graduated from WMF. One woman, who recently completed the York University Women’s Studies Bridging Program, came back to share her final essay with WMF staff. She received a B+ on her essay, but was even prouder of the professor’s comments, which spoke of her ability to weave her thoughts and argument seamlessly throughout her essay. The woman asked that I pass the comments on to Jo, because, as she stated, “without [LFL], I wouldn’t be where I am today. [They] made me believe that I could do it, and showed me how.” This sentiment is one that all of our graduates share.
The most profound outcome of the LFL program, however, is the impact that LFL’s work has on the families of our participants. As women become more confident in their ability to read, they begin to share this with their children. Women who had never been to the library with their families before LFL are now going regularly, and have started a routine of reading with their children. As the mothers in our program return to school, they become even stronger role models for their children. They are able to help with homework, and many share that they now sit at the kitchen table with their children, doing homework side-by-side. As a result, their children are also beginning to see a different future. As one woman shared, her nine-year-old daughter is now planning to go to university like her mother, “and she won’t accept any grade lower than a B+”.’