Day 16: Volunteer project work

Day 15: field trip debrief and poverty

Journal #2: Field trip debrief

What does UGM do?  A success story: CLICK to watch

More success stories about people fighting addiction and the role of UGM: CLICK to watch

Group discussion.

Work on volunteering assignment.  Make contact and get your volunteer contact form signed.

Day 14: Field trip

An eye-opening field trip today to the DTES.

Great meeting with the non-profit agencies today.
A beautiful day for a guided walk through the DTES with members of the VPD.

Day 13: Guest speaker

Talk on homelessness, poverty and mental health

Asking some difficult questions.  The outline for the guest lecture today:

• The impact of poverty
• Myths & held beliefs/stigma
• What is a stigma?  Stigmas isolate people.  Occurs when we project and reinforce attitudes and stereotypes that judge and label those who we see as different
• Society often has an "us and them" approach to social issues...it doesn't affect me and I'm not like them
• Poverty by the numbers.  Basic stats.  Between 1980-2005 the average earnings among the least wealthy Canadians fell by 20%.  1 in 7 (or 4.9 million) people in Canada live in poverty.
• Poverty costs Canada as a whole between $72 billion and $84 billion annually.
• Effect on Children and Families
• Indigenous peoples: In 2014, 64.1% of food bank users were Indigenous Persons.  Over represented amongst the homeless population in virtually all urban centres in Canada.  1 in 2 Status First Nations children lives in poverty
• Other groups.  1 in 5 minority families live in poverty as opposed to 1 in 20 non-minority families.  Women from Minority groups living in poverty were almost twice as likely to work in manufacturing jobs than other women living in poverty
• Elderly: Nearly 15% of elderly single individuals live in poverty
• The role of Mental Illness and trauma
• Mental health and substance use.  In the past year BC has been struggling with an epidemic of opiate drug use that has resulted in unprecedented numbers of deaths in the past year.  Fentanyl has surfaced as the most deadly opiate yet and has caused many of the reported deaths.  Front line workers are now having to revive users sometimes two or there times a day.  
• How to help

How to help change the conversation about poverty: CLICK to watch this CBC clip

Inside St. Paul's emergency room: WATCH the CBC documentary

Day 11&12: presentations

Well done group!

Some very inspiring biographies presented.

Bring field trip forms for Monday!

Day 10: Guest speaker

Lennie from the Salvation Army (has worked 30 years in social services).
Talking about poverty/homelessness in the local community and how the Salvation Army helps.

Why do people get into drugs and homelessness?  Abuse.  Others.

Salvation Army has an expanding homeless shelter in the city.  Going from 10 beds to 35 (in 2018).

Camp volunteers.  Working with sorting clothing.  Helping out working in a kitchen to help feed people. Food bank.

Why are people homeless?  Cost of living is increasing.
Welfare is only $500-$600 a month.
For people below the poverty line in Richmond, a popular place is the food bank.

Thank you for sharing your stories about past experiences.
Ex. 15 year old was abused.  Developed a $500 a day cocaine addiction to help mask the pain.  Turned to prostitution to help pay for her drug addiction.

Types of poverty worksheet.

Day 9: Volunteer project

$10 for field trip.

Field trip forms signed.

Home work: continue to come up with a list of places to volunteer at.
When choosing a site, remember "how is this related to a social justice topic?"

Biography presentations on Wednesday.

Day 8: Project

Field trip $.

Rubric for biography assignment handed out.
Please follow criteria.

Journal #1 on bias due today.
Make up journal day is this upcoming Monday at lunch.

Day 7: Intro to poverty

Collect field trip $.

What is Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

What is the poverty cycle?  Where would you intervene in order to break the cycle.

What is the Human Development Index?
How is poverty in Canada measured?
Why is it so difficult to compare poverty between Canada and other developing nations?

How is poverty measured?  CLICK to watch

What is poverty costing us in BC?  CLICK to watch

Day 6: Moral Compass and Global Citizen

Field trip: Please bring $10.
Aiming to go in two weeks.

Analyzing Canada's moral compass: CLICK to read and look at stats

Globalcitizen.org
(fill in the worksheet on the following Ted Talk by Hugh Evans)

What does it mean to be a Global Citizen? CLICK to watch

Day 5: Journal #1 and research

Ice breaker activity.

Journal #1 (due this Friday).
Paragraph.
What are my biases?  How do they affect the way I see the world?
Where do my beliefs come from (eg. family, peers, school, religious teachings, media, experiences).  To what degree are they unique to me?
How do my personal experiences and circumstances (eg. age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, family, socioeconomic status) affect my perceptions?

Time for biography research.

Day 4: Research for biography assignment

Presentations due on September 20/21

Day 3: biography project

Current events: Hurricane Irma slams the Caribbean.  Muslim group persecuted in Myanmar.
CLICK to watch

Biography project handout.
Example of the powerpoint to accompany your biography presentation.

Johann Olav Koss:  CLICK to watch his role with Right to Play

Day 2: Long term change, empathy, and bias

Intro to SJ 12: Kahoot.

How do we make change that is long term/everlasting?

Relational attitudes handout.

What is empathy?  A look at the video by Brene Brown

Define bias, prejudice, discrimination, stereotype

What is unconscious bias? Click to watch

Handout; Structured self assessment

Day 1: Welcome to a new semester

Course outline
Parent/guardian form signed please.
"Getting to know you" ice breaker.

True/False:
a) Free speech is truly free
b) We should limit free speech

A look at the timeline of events in Charlottesville: CLICK to read and watch
A paradox of tolerance.  What does it mean?  Click to view
Protest/Counter protest in our back yard: CLICK to read and watch

Outline SJ term project.