World Literacy of Canada | Big Day Out 2009

Big Day Out 2009

Big Day Out 2009 has now come to a close. Thanks for a hugely successful summer to everyone who participated! Enrollment information for Big Day Out 2010 will be posted in the spring.

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Big Day Out is an excursion day camp designed for youth aged 8-13 in the Jane and Finch community. The camp runs for three sessions of two weeks each during July and August and takes participants on exciting and educational trips around Toronto, exposing them to arts, culture, and career opportunities. Guest speakers are also invited to deliver workshops on topic including journalism, comic book art, and music. Campers document their trips through writing and photography, and their work is published in the Big Day Out publication, which is then distributed to participants, libraries, and schools in the community.

The Jane and Finch neighbourhood in the North York region of Toronto has faced numerous social and economic problems since it was originally developed in the 1960s. Designed as a model suburb to accommodate the culturally diverse immigrant and refugee population surging into the city, it quickly became a hub for poverty and crime. Many of the youth living in the Jane and Finch community have very little mobility and rarely leave the neighbourhood to visit other parts of the city. This is due to the high portion of families that have two working parents and little expendable income for day trips or family outings. The inability of youth to venture outside their surrounding neighbourhood makes it difficult to see the possibility of a future that extends beyond the narrow scope of the Jane and Finch neighbourhood.

With support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, World Literacy of Canada and the Big Day Out Collaborative invite Jane and Finch youth to see beyond their neighbourhood, but also to strengthen its future by becoming the next generation's leaders.

mural at jane and finch

Project goals for ‘Big Day Out’:

To bring participants on excursions that allow them to experience the unfamiliar and adventure beyond the Jane and Finch neighbourhood in a safe and educational atmosphere.
To improve literacy skills in participants by encouraging imaginative and informative writing of journalistic articles as well as the editing of others’ writing.
To increase the confidence and pride of participants by making each a published author/journalist.
To create a reproducible day camp model for other neighbourhoods with similar demographics.
To ease the transition from middle school to high school by bringing together youth in an informal system of mentorship.

The Big Day Out Collaborative:

The Oakdale Community Centre
The Hincks-Dellcrest Centre
Investing in Families

Sponsors:

To learn more about last year's Big Day Out project, click here.

For futher information please contact Melissa:

By email melissa@worldlit.ca

or by phone 416.977.0008