“I do!” Youth Initiative  

Spoken Word Workshop Facilitator (Request for Proposal)

About us:
Agincourt Community Services Association is a Non-Profit, multi service agency in the heart of Scarborough addressing needs and empowering children, youth newcomers and underserved communities to build a better tomorrow. We provide a range of social services and community engagement projects to the local community and a greater geographic area of Scarborough that includes several of the United Way high priority neighbourhoods. Our main activities include community supports, child and family programs, youth drop-in, young men's and women's programs, Youth Outreach Workers, homeless services, food security programs, community development work, and an information and referral services.
 
Initiative Summary:
“I do!” is an extension of ACSA’s Forced Marriage Project, which works to raise awareness about forced marriages through Adult ESL classes and training for service providers. The Youth Initiative will reach out to young women, a group that is most affected by forced marriages. Outreaching mainly in Scarborough, 30- 60 young women will be recruited to participate in three different art workshops: Spoken Word Art, Graphic Novel Writing, and Journalism. Young women will learn and then express their views and understanding about forced marriages through these media. The resulting works and two weeks of the workshops (fourth and eighth) will be recorded in a documentary to further educate youth, as well as, adults about the issue of forced marriages.
 
Contract Overview:
ACSA’s “I do!” Initiative is seeking a Spoken Word Art Workshop Facilitator to develop a workshop plan and teach spoken word art techniques to a group of 10-20 young women. The workshops will be focused on discussing the empowering concepts of consent and effective communication with respect to peer pressure and dating, dating and rape or abuse, family pressure and forced marriage, and forced marriage and violence.
 
Objective:
Spoken Word Workshops will introduce young women to the topic of forced marriage, as well as, non-consent in dating relationships. By learning methods of Spoken Word writing and presentation, the participants will use real stories about forced marriages along with conceptualization of non-consent or force in dating relationships towards writing a Spoken Word piece that can be recited in the last workshop.
 
Compensation: $30/hr for 8 hours of preparation time and 16 hours of workshops
 
Time Commitment: One night a week from 4-6pm during the months of July and August
 
Requirements and Submission Information:
The facilitator should be familiar with and demonstrate interest in issues of gender violence and be able to speak about it to a group of 10-20 young women. This role is ideal for a young woman who has experience in writing and performing Spoken Word and can impart these skills to a youth group.
 
Proposal should demonstrate an understanding of the link between consent in entering marriages, consent within relationships, peer pressure, family pressure, and effective communication. It should also include a description of approach and methodologies to incorporate this topic into the workshops so that participants’ spoken word pieces are based on this topic. Please, also include a resume and a lesson plan or breakdown of classes with methods for evaluation and participant feedback.
 
Proposal Submission:
 
Proposals should be submitted by e-mail to
 
“I do!” Youth Initiative
 Project Coordinator
Amna Siddiqui at: samna@amfmcanada.ca
 
Deadline:
March 20, 2012
 
Additional Information:
There will be two youth ambassadors who will help engage the participants in class discussion as well as getting participant feedback. The Youth Coordinator will be present to assist in the participant understanding of forced marriage and dating violence.
The project will take place in Scarborough. Location is to be confirmed.
 
Alliance of Multicultural Agencies Against Forced Marriage (amfm canada) is a project of Agincourt Community Services Association