Why I like this job
I like that UforChange has so many people from diverse backgrounds coming together with a common passion, being the intersection of St. James Town, youth, art and community development.

Goals & hopes for the project and community
Helping the goals, dreams and hopes of the youth come alive, being a part of a team that works to create amazing experiences and opportunities for hundreds of youth, including jobs in creative fields, ensuring new skills are learned, that we help develop their raw talents to showcase to their communities and help to create better futures. I also hope that people look back at the project as a transformational point in their lives having created “designated youth/community space” in St. James Town so that programs like this can happen, that UforChange sparks the confidence for youth to create art, start new businesses, go to school (college, trade or university) and land good jobs.

My creative outlet is
Movies, eating, dancing (well, if you can call it that), schmoozing, public speaking, swimming, listening to music and one day, I'd like to travel but I don't get time these days.

I'm hosting a lunch with 3 VIP guests. They are
Steve Jobs, Li Ka-Shing and Oprah Winfrey

Why I like this job
It's unique culture. Coming in everyday and enjoying the atmosphere that the participants and staff create. It makes you feel like your moving the movement.

Goals & hopes for the project and community
I want to see the project be permanent for the future youth of St. James Town. I want this community to shake off any bad reputation and show all Toronto what its youth are capable of: success.

My creative outlet is
Doodle, cut & paste, & everyday life

I'm hosting a lunch with 3 VIP guests. They are
Lady Gaga, The real Harry Potter, & My Nonna<3

Why I like this job
I don't just like this job, I love it! It's so great to work with such a diverse group of youth and to help them further their artistic skills.

Goals & hopes for the project and community
That it offers participants a creative outlet, and inspires them to follow their dreams in the arts.

My creative outlet is
I love trying out all kinds of arts and crafts. At the moment I'm really into knitting and baking...but most of all I love photography!

I'm hosting a lunch with 3 VIP guests. They are
My 3 best girl friends.

Why I like this job
Because I'm surrouded by the arts in general which everyday inspired me to do a better job and to be better artist.

Goals & hopes for the project and community
I wish this project can stay for many years so it can reach more and more youngsters so thay can also have they chance to change their lives in a constructive and positive way. Therefore, the community can have a much better environment.

My creative outlet is
My creative outlet is Photography, Film & Video and Visual Arts.

I'm hosting a lunch with 3 VIP guests. They are
Cab Calloway, Tin Tan, Roco (la Maldita Vecindad).

Why I like this job
The jerk chicken. The participants.

Goals & hopes for the project and community
For everyone to reach their full potential; for every participants’ eyes to be opened to skills they never knew they had; to have St. James Town as an artistic hub of Toronto.

My creative outlet is
Writing: playwriting, poetry. Acting: stage acting, a fool, improv. I’m interested in baking delicious things and smiling at strangers on the street. Don’t break your gaze, it’s better that way.

I'm hosting a lunch with 3 VIP guests. They are
Cher, Robert De Niro, Queen Elizabeth I

Tamer studied English literature at York University, and completed his master’s degree at Lakehead University. As a Teaching Assistant, Tamer lectured on variety of literary subjects, including, Politics and Catholicism in John Webster’s the Duchess of Malfi and Shakespeare Revealed: Understanding Shakespeare through His Sonnets. Tamer was also the president and editor of The Artery: a semi-annual publication of literary works by Lakehead University students, alumni, faculty and staff. With his team at The Artery, Tamer hosted spoken word events, and initiated contact with creative groups like Literary Thunder Bay and Random Acts of Poetry to form a solid and accessible network of literary groups within the community of Thunder Bay. Today, he is the copy editor and writer at UforChange.

Tamer’s interests include Early Modern English drama, contemporary British fiction, and Russian literature. He enjoys writing, and his major influences include William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, Hanif Kureishi and Robertson Davies.

Christopher Paunil owns his own boutique wedding dress operation while also keeping a studio at Toronto’s Fashion Incubator. He has had shows featured in Alternative Fashion Week, and has been a staple in Toronto’s fashion community for half a decade.

Workshop Focus:
The Fashion workshop teaches participants pattern making, sewing, ?tting, drafting, how to use sewing machines and surgers, and budgeting and material purchasing. Youth in this workshop also learn about coordinating fashion shows and the creative problem solving involved. The workshop also explores cultural dress and fuses this with contemporary design. Original fashions by the participants are showcased at a live fashion show open to the community.

DJ L’Oqenz is a powerful force to be reckoned with. Her passion for music and undeniable skills on the turntables have made her a sought after commodity at home in Toronto and abroad.

Born Fayola Leach, it was a love of entertaining family and friends that sent the industrious young woman fervently digging through crates to build up her distinctive repertoire. A true lover of music, she is not confined to one genre. Spinning everything from hip hop to house- L’Oqenz has the ability to fuse them all effortlessly.

A true Gemini, she can shift easily from the role of a DJ, to producer, to event manager without blinking an eye or missing a step. She co-hosted “Cypha” one of Canada’s first television programs dedicated to hip hop music. The show acted as a platform for artists like Saukrates, Kardinall Offishal, Common Sense and Gang Starr among others.

Spinning at the 2001 Toronto Urban Festival held at the Canadian National Exhibition Band Shell (CNE) gained widespread recognition. The same year, L’Oqenz made the transition from performing live to orchestrating “The Master Plan Show which aired on college radio (CIUT 89.5 FM) it was on air that she had the opportunity to connect with many incredible artists as well as develop her own personal style.

As a DJ, she has had the opportunity to play shows in Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Windsor, Detroit and New York, Los Angeles, Jamaica and the U.K. She has shared the stage with some of the most respected artists in the business including Zaki Ibrahim, K’Naan, Tanika Charles, Bedouin Soundclash, Saidah Baba Talibah, Motion, ISIS, Masia One, Jean Grae, Apani B Fly, Zion I, M1 of Dead Prez, Bahamadia, Ursula Rucker, Erykah Badu, Hi Tek & Talib Kweli, The Roots and Kool Herc.
Committed to bettering her community, L’Oqenz has set aside time to teach and fundraise for youth in Toronto. She teamed up with DJ DTS and Gena Lee to facilitate a DJ class at Ryerson University, and recently participated in a War Child & Doctors Without Borders benefit.

Workshop Focus:
The DJ Arts workshop teaches participants mixing, scratching and how to set up a sound system. The workshops offer participants a chance to hear new music and learn the musical structures of different genres. Through the exploration of urban music, the participants learn to mix and blend across musical genres, as well as learn the messages of the artists. The workshop leads to a performance at the showcase that exhibits all the skills the participants have learned.

Mark ElRaheb is an Egyptian-Canadian who is currently enrolled in the third year of a Bachelors of Social Work at Ryerson University. He has been involved with the arts since childhood, with his first major role being Jesus in the Nativity Play in the Scarborough community. Mark has been an actor in various academic and community productions, including major roles in Anne of Green Gables and Grease. Further, he adapted the screenplay of Zoolander to a stage play, and both played the principal role, and directed the production. Mark is currently involved in community improvisation, and is enjoying being the workshop leader for UforChange's improvisation program.

Workshop Focus:
The Improvisation acting workshop explores various techniques of improvised situational acting. Using a variety of techniques, participants will use the body, voice, and face as separate tools in acting, and understand the value of the harmonization or contrast of these three tools. Youth will also execute rapid thinking and witty, innovative acting in a time-limited setting. They will discover the integration of humour and issue-based material, and its effectiveness in reaching an audience, while learning how to read and gauge audience reaction. Finally, they will use various media to create original and intelligent improvised scenes.

Michelle Clarke has been working in photography for several years and has her own portrait photography business shooting weddings, events, portraits, and families. Michelle also makes work to be sold shown in local galleries. In 2009-2010, she received an Emerging Artist Grant from the Ontario Arts council to complete a series of landscapes in rural Newfoundland. Michelle has an extensive background in running photography workshops for participants of all ages. She has worked at the Boys and Girls Club, as well as many other youth centers.
Email Michelle

Workshop Focus:
Participants in the Photography workshop learn how to use digital SLR cameras (DSLR), artistic composition and photo manipulation in (Adobe Creative Suite 5) and framing. They explore the community through photography, focusing on both personal driven themes and larger community themes such as underused spaces and interactions. Photos by the participants in this group help add visual life to the website, outreach material and are displayed at the gallery showcase.

Workshop Focus:
In the theatre acting, production and playwriting program, students will: learn the Stanislavsky method, and understand its place on the contemporary stage; understand the psychology of an actor and his/her relationship to a prescribed character; explore “tricks” of performance in front of a live audience; engage in several warm-up and cool-down activities that will encourage fresh thinking and innovation; discover the role of a director in all acting streams; have a working understanding of prop, costume, set, and makeup design; learn about the technical aspects of theatre production, namely in stage management and backstage crew; understand various theatre structures from a historical and contemporary perspective; learn various playwriting techniques, and will produce a one-act play at the end of the 10-week course instruction.t.