{"id":35767,"date":"2025-01-30T17:29:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T22:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=35767"},"modified":"2025-01-30T17:29:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T22:29:22","slug":"students-illustrate-the-human-stories-behind-homelessness-as-they-look-for-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/students-illustrate-the-human-stories-behind-homelessness-as-they-look-for-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Students illustrate the human stories behind homelessness as they look for solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is evidence of homelessness all around us, but how many of us stop to listen to the human stories behind a growing problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoping to challenge stereotypes that surround the plight of the unhoused and to build up a bank of community empathy, Pickering College students \u2013 with a little inspiration from Aurora \u2013 did just that as they celebrated the first successes of their SPARC initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SPARC \u2013 Student Projects Advancing Real Change \u2013 is a new program launched by the Newmarket-based independent school earlier this year. It is designed to provide students in Grades 6, 7 and 8 with further opportunities for experiential learning in their community by addressing real-world challenges being faced by residents of York Region and around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once students have identified an issue, they set out to form connections with leaders, educators and others with a knowledge of the issue to learn more, build upon this feedback with independent research, all in the aim of coming up with real solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not every path begun by students took them in the directions they originally targeted, but students are able to recalibrate, redirect, and pivot to find their best way forward \u2013 and their best recommendations for the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI describe it as a marathon because you\u2019re going week by week, it feels like you\u2019re going mile by mile, and you\u2019re feeling that push to the finish line,\u201d says Pickering College\u2019s Director of Middle School Julie Clement. \u201cAny project that anyone works on, it can be a struggle and, as you move through it, there are setbacks as you go. To see the students get to that celebration [of their successes last Wednesday] and the pride they took in their work, and to know that all the people who were involved were able to support them \u2013 it wasn\u2019t just about the students, it was really about the community as a whole and celebrating how the community can come together to solve different issues [and] engage with one another in meaningful ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably one of my biggest prides as an educator to have this program be implemented at Pickering College and have such positive feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such student group tackled the issue of homelessness as part of the Social Justice and Advocacy pillar of the SPARC program. Here, the students researched the issue of homelessness and formed community bonds with organizations that support the unhoused, such as Blue Door Shelter and 360 Kids. They also worked with Aurora Councillor Ron Weese after they were inspired to forge ahead with putting a face on homelessness following the Town\u2019s decision to turn down the building of a men\u2019s transitional and emergency housing building last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur goal in this project was to create engaging stories that show the human side of homelessness and answer the question, \u2018How can books help us understand and support people facing homelessness?\u2019 said student Ray at last week\u2019s celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe focused on homelessness because we wanted to raise awareness, challenge stereotypes, and build empathy,\u201d Keith continued. \u201cWe wanted to especially emphasize this overlooked issue and create a more informed and understanding world. Our focus was a final project where groups of students created storybooks. Our books all had different art styles, mediums, problems, themes and more. This showcases the diversity of the problem and the many shapes it can take. During this project, we especially learned about the stigma around homelessness and how it leads to misconceptions and unfair perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their work struck a particular chord with their fellow students, Clement adds, noting that students hope Councillor Weese will share the books with his fellow Council members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should there be another vote on the Aurora shelter proposal, Clement says students want to continue being involved in the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of the students expressed interest in going to Council meetings and being delegates from the community to voice their opinions related to those issues and really advocating \u2013 not just through the book they have produced, but sharing their viewpoints,\u201d says Clement. \u201cThis project was to teach them to advocate. Every single project is to build in our students empathy, no matter what \u2013 no matter who they are working with. We want them to empathize with the organization that is having an issue or is struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional pillars of the SPARC program include \u201cDesigning for Now and the Future,\u201d \u201cEnvironmental Stewardship,\u201d \u201cTechnology: Coding and Robotics,\u201d and \u201cIdentity and Community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the Design for Now pillar, students worked with Paws & Boots on the Ground, a non-profit which trains and supports service dogs. Here, students developed innovative nameplates for dog crates on which trainers and staff can record vital information about the pup-in-training. They also developed new spins on whelping pens and training ladders tailored for the service dog community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students working under the Environmental Stewardship program explored various methods of stewardship for bees, chickens, invasive species, sustainable agriculture, and water, most of which they were able to test and put into practice at the school\u2019s outdoor education property, Blue & Silver Farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne thing I learned in this SPARC group is how agriculture can play a key role in environmental sustainability by using crop rotation, soil fertilizing and reducing chemicals like pesticides to promote healthier ecosystems and more sustainable food growth,\u201d said student Kayla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology students worked to help community elders \u2013 \u201cWise Ones\u201d \u2013 to code and develop games tailored for each individual elder\u2019s interests, while Identity and Community students worked with Newmarket\u2019s Elman W. Campbell Museum, History Hound Richard MacLeod, and community leaders to get to know the community around them and create historical walking tours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs SPARC evolves, we\u2019re looking at how we can personalize it more, how we can connect with people that we already have relationships with in the community but maybe we\u2019re not working at the level where we\u2019re able to exchange in different ways; not only are they helping to educate our students, but we\u2019re helping them meet a need that they have,\u201d says Clement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future community partnerships, she said, include the York Regional Police for mall safety and the SPCA and their community outreach department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pickering College\u2019s SPARC program celebrates first successes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/2025-01-30-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9iT","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 07:54:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35769,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35767\/revisions\/35769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}