Enabling Change

YMCA Academy Community, Experiential Learning No Comments

In the beginning of May the YMCA Academy participated in the program Enabling Change. Throughout the week students from 3 classes spent the day in wheelchairs to experience some of the challenges and barriers people in wheelchairs may experience within the school and the neighbourhood. At the end of the week Enabling Change came to the YMCA Academy and brought in some athletic wheelchairs. They gave us the opportunity to play wheelchair basketball with a professional wheelchair basketball player.

One of the ways OWSA (Ontario Wheelchair Sports Association) educates people on wheelchair athletics is through allowing people to participate in a game of wheelchair basketball. We learned from https://www.megaslam.com.au/, that wheelchair basketball is a way for people in wheelchairs to continue to live an active healthy lifestyle. Students at the Academy were very excited to have the chance to participate in this activity and learned a lot about the sport.

Enabling Change is a program within the OWSA. It is an organization that aims to educate students about; invisible and visible disabilities, proper vocabulary when talking about disabilities, understanding the barriers faced by wheelchair users, inclusiveness and respect. The YMCA Academy decided to participate in this program to see how accessible our school is, and to see if any improvements need to be made to make our school to be more accessible.

These are the few things that some of the YMCA students had to say about the activity:

“I now realize some of the difficulties people in wheelchairs face because maybe their favorite place isn’t accessible, and how we should make those places accessible” – Archie Grant

“ The moment I sat in the wheelchair I didn’t even know how to turn, it was a really hard and time consuming thing to learn but eventually I got the hang of it. I now see how people in wheelchairs feel”- Mahadir Khan

“This activity showed me more about the daily life of a wheelchair user and showed me the struggles of it and the benefits” – James

“This program is a good way of recognizing some barriers within our school and community that you would never have thought about, as well as strategies to make our community more accessible to everyone.” – Jonah

Overall this opportunity was a very positive experience and left the students with a better understanding of the daily life of someone in a wheelchair. Enabling Change helped give us a new insight into how accessible our school and community is. The students at the school found a new perspective towards wheelchairs and realized how accessibility is important not only in school but all over our community.

Check out more photos from this event on our Facebook page!

For more Information: https://owsa.ca/education-awareness/enabling-change/

Introducing: Meatless Mondays!

YMCA Academy Community, Environmental Stewardship, Healthy Living No Comments

YMCA Academy students participate in the "Meatless Mondays' program
On Monday, March 24th, Lunch Duty Supervisors, Katie and Rein, along with help from Rein’s Food and Nutrition Class kicked off our weekly participation in Meatless Mondays.

The idea of Meatless Mondays is to commit to eating meat free, one day a week, in order to improve our health, the environment and consider animal welfare. The Food and Nutrition class visited all Period 3 classes, presented the concept, and encouraged their participation at the school by bringing in, or buying, a meat-free lunch every Monday.

With roughly half the school population participating, we expect that this movement can be sustained long term, with the hopes of eventually having the whole student body participate. Every Monday, I find myself greeted by excited students, eager to show off their meatless meals.

Katie and I will be tracking participation, and collecting recipes from students to share with everyone interested in joining the movement.

Youth Exchange Canada: Toronto – Day Six

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom, Community, YMCA of Greater Toronto No Comments

On April 28th, 2017 it was the last day of the Youth Exchange before the twins had to leave. We had an amazing day but to tell the great tale you must read till the end. Starting off with Ripley’s Aquarium at 10 am in the morning the YMCA students and twins saw lots of cool things, like seahorses and sharks. It was amazing seeing all of them swimming around. Evan: “It was awesome because all the fish were very cool”. And one of the teachers Rein thinks: “I like how the inspiration for Drake’s Hotline Bling video came from the luminescent jellyfish tanks!” So Ripley’s Aquarium was pretty fantastic, and I don’t think it could have been any better.

Now for the CN Tower- it is one of the coolest places to be in Toronto! YMCA Academy students and the twins saw how tall the CN Tower is but we weren’t scared, we laughed at how tall it is. Just joking, but we all had a great time and we enjoyed the glass floor and taking pictures and videos of the city. After taking the long elevator ride down we checked out the gift shop. Then we had some free time to do some more shopping at the Eaton Centre and games store before enjoying dinner at our school, the YMCA Academy.

After dinner we went to the Rogers Centre for the Blue Jay’s game. It was a fun, exciting evening! Waiting in the line I could feel the excitement in the air. Everyone was “Pumped up”, after waiting in line everyone got in and got to enjoy the game for the night. It was an awesome and fun game to get to watch and experience.

Our twins (People from Haida Gwaii) seemed to be excited for the game since some of them would not have ever been to a baseball game. During the game the Jay’s were in the lead for most of them game but in the usual bad luck the Jay’s eventually lost that lead and ended up losing. Overall it was a fun evening. We then had to say good-bye to our twins until we see them in Haida Gwaii in just a few weeks!

Check out more photos from this event on our Facebook page!

Youth Exchange Canada: Toronto – Day Five

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom, Community, YMCA of Greater Toronto No Comments

On Thursday, Academy students came to school and attended their first period classes or “study hall” to catch up a little on the work they had missed this week. Then Dayna’s Leadership class organized activities for all of the YMCA Academy students and for the students visiting from BC. This is important because they got to see the amount of people in our school compared to their school. There are only 7 kids in their high school and there are 70 kids in our high school.

They got to experience our gym because they don’t have their own gym. Some of the BC kids got to meet kids that were not on the exchange trip. We played capture the flag, tag and Rock, Paper, Scissors. Capture the flag was the most fun because everyone joined in running and catching people.

We then had lunch in our school cafeteria or in the area surrounding our school. Then we took the students from Haida Gwaii to Chinatown and Kensington market for a walking tour. The tour guide told us about the history of Chinatown and Kensington market and a lot of fascinating stories about Toronto. We all found it very interesting. After the tour we had time to explore the area. Some of us purchased ice cream or other treats, while some were enticed by the cool displays of sunglasses. A few students from Haida Gwaii, led by Ryan, found quality asian products due to his prior knowledge.

After leaving the market we trekked through rush hour TTC traffic and rain to Lindsey’s home for dinner. They prepared a delicious make-your-own fajita buffet and we enjoyed the rest after another busy day!

Check out more photos from this event on our Facebook page!

Youth Exchange Canada: Toronto – Day Four

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom, Community, YMCA of Greater Toronto No Comments

On Wednesday we went to Variety Village. As part of the YMCA Youth Exchange Canada, we have to spend a day doing community service. As a group we brainstormed different organizations that we could volunteer with. After voting, we decided to volunteer with Variety Village.

Variety Village is an organization that for over 65 years has been working towards “improving the quality of life and integration into society of all people, regardless of their abilities. By offering specialized programs and services, they create a level playing field without barriers, intimidation or other obstacles. Dedicated to people of all abilities, Variety Village is a great place to get fit and have fun.” (http://www.varietyvillage.ca)

Once we arrived, we were given a tour around the building and we learned what they did there. Their gym is filled with equipment for people of all abilities. For example they were on one floor so all people could get around. The equipment could be altered so that people in wheelchairs could use them. There were different sections for the track. Some were for walking, running and 8mph class 3 mobility scooters use.

After the tour we got to work preparing their outdoor space for the summer. We cleaned up the outside of the building. We were raking leaves; we tore down a shed, and put out the picnic tables. Some of the picnic tables only had one seat. The other side was left open so people using wheelchairs could also use the picnic tables.

After refueling from lunch we played a game of wheelchair basketball. It was really fun because it created a level playing field for everyone. We were surprised that it wasn’t as hard as we thought it would be and we were able to move the ball pretty well.

In the evening, at the school, we had an event with the organization, PEO which is the Professional Engineers of Ontario. We all met in the cafeteria room to listen to instructions of what the activity was. Our challenge was to build a boat out of different materials, such as pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, foam etc. and a little motor. Every group came up with a different design for their boat to make it look cool and good for the competition. The two judges were Sue and Russ. They had to time how fast each boat went through the pool of water and how much weight it could hold. This was fun because we were all cheering on each other’s teams and it was surprising because at the end the teachers came into the competition. This activity was a nice break from all of the running around we had been doing this week and it was good to just hang out with our twins.

Congratulations to the top two teams.

  • Team 1: Kali, Lindsey, Bracken and Alex G’s boat carried 440 grams
  • Team 5: Heather, James and Eben’s boat carried 408 grams

Sorry teachers, your boat did not even compare as you only carried 188 grams. Better luck next time.

Check out more photos from this event on our Facebook page!