Passion Projects
In early September 2008 the first Passion Project was launched with a group of young women 16-24 yrs of age in the Metro Vancouver area. We created a group of ten young women who were interested in inspiring communities and raising awareness on the issues young women were facing in today’s world.
Over the next nine months the team took part in innovative life skills workshops on self awareness, self-care, team building, leadership, and mentoring. They receive theatrical training from local performance artists and actors. Once the training was completed the Passion Team put on a performance; show casing how each girl meets her life challenges head on at Havana’s theatre in Vancouver, BC. The show was a hit!
The participants worked together to come up with the performance details, their monologues, and a poster campaign that will be distributed to schools in 2009/2010.
With all the overwhelming support from the community 5 members of the Passion Team returned in September 2009 to start the Passion Project II along with a few new members.
The team worked with actress and producer Jessica Harmon on creating a short documentary with more stories to continue their campaign of raising awareness on the issues girls face on a daily basis.
A number of the girls from our original project have now gone off to college and university (some of which stated that it was not in their agenda two years ago) but still stay connected with initiatives they have taken on themselves with our support.
Some things they’ve done and are doing:
Tina from Vancouver, BC designed our beautiful business card
Alex L and Angela W put on a school wide talent show at University Hill Secondary (teachers included) and raised money to buy AfriPads for our last trip to Uganda and Kenya and was part of a sustainable foods video with our very own Lori Petryk
Alex R utilized our connections and started a blog that is out of this world
Esther of Langley,BC is attending college and working finding a passion with mission based work and offers volunteer support. She even did her first mission trip this year to India!
Ashley of Delta, BC is attending UVic and has helped us develop new promo material as a volunteer
We have set the bar HIGH for 2010-2012. Our goal is to reach out to 400 young women in British Columbia. Each group will be part of the this movement. Getting connected to themselves, their inspiration, and their communities; not just for now but for the rest of their lives.
Passion kicked off this movement at Burnaby Youth Custody Center. Their community project was created with the theme of forgiveness and acceptance and displayed Dec. 20- Jan 14th at the UBC Robson Square in downtown Vancouver adjacent for the public skating rink.
People from all over North American viewed and contributed to the figures made of sustainable materials. Check out our article in the Vancouver Observer
For an outline of Passion Project material please see our blog
passionTOaction
A new project was launched in Spring 2011! Lead by the amazing Jennifer McRae of Simon Fraser University, the project aimed to engage a group of young women in the Metro Vancouver Area in discussion, dialogue, leadership about sustainable communities.
The five dynamic young women from New Westminster, West Vancouver, and Kitsilano areas who participated in the pilot project met weekly to engage in discussions and community events, location discoveries and connected with mentors who shared their passions for sustainability.
It was a powerful journey over the four month program that resulted in personal and professional development, community event participation, and an opportunity for the participants to take part in Lori Petryk‘s new show called Good for You, Good for the Earth on Shaw cable.
Here is what Hanna says about the passionTOaction experience:
The p2a program has gone by so fast; its amazing to think back on all our accomplishments within such a short period of time. I have distinct memories from each p2a meeting which I will hold forever, along with the inspiration, self discoveries and knowledge I picked up along the way. I genuinly thank both of you wonderful role models, for putting time and effort into empowering young women. It means so, so much. If every girl were given the opportunities, tools, connections and information we recieved, I believe our world would see revolutionary changes. I know we have not finished p2a completely , but I felt I must state my thank you’s while they’re still fresh in my mind. So, Thank you
Passion Blogs
During the process of the Passion Projects the team volunteered their creativity and stories in a blog.
View our Blog Here at:
http://passionteam.wordpress.com
Our Poster Awareness Series
Thanks to our amazing volunteer Brooke Allen, Artist and Emily Carr Institute instructor, we have a beautiful poster series available to schools and youth centres. Poster series costs $20 to community agencies and schools with 100% of the proceeds go back into new programming.
For more information please email us.
“Thanx big time… I fell some sort of change inside of me” – Ninah
