YOUTH ARE AWESOMEA PROGRAM OF YOUTH CENTRAL

Sled Island!  We’re all about it here this week at Youth Are Awesome as you can tell…

What we’re most excited about is the fact that Random Task Collective is headlining the Milk Young Buds Stage at Sled Island tonight, happening at Loose Moose Theatre!

Random Task Collective (RTC) is a wicked band from Calgary that hosts an all-ages concert comprised of young local musicians each week called, The Collective on Sundays.  The Collective on Sundays started earlier this year, and was such a cool idea that YouthScape Calgary and Calgary Youth Foundation Opening Doors (a program of Child & Youth Friendly Calgary) decided to fund it!

RTC didn’t stop there – all-ages nights are all the rage right now, and bassist Connor Harvey Derbyshire approached Sled Island to do an all-ages night during their festival.  Before they knew it, Milk had been brought on as a sponsor for the event and now Sled Island is upon us!

So make your way down to Loose Moose Theatre and check out this band of awesome guys…they made this all-ages night for you!  While you’re there, you can also check out Ruben Young and Susie Forsyth – two artists that performed at the ConocoPhillips Youth of Distinction Awards and we think they’re pretty awesome too 🙂

Child & Youth Friendly Calgary and YouthScape Calgary will have a booth there so you can check out how to get involved in making your own youth-driven projects happen too!

Learn more about YouthScape and RTC’s story here…

You’ve probably heard the rumblings about the Sled Island Music Festival that’s happening around Calgary (we’ve blogged a bit about it here), but did you know that Sled Island’s all about film too?

This Sunday, June 28^th at the Plaza Theatre starting at 5pm, Sled Island presents Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme (A Hip-Hop Documentary).  Just as the title suggests, the documentary is all about freestyle rap and includes footage of hip hop greats The Roots, Mos Def and Notorious B.I.G.

The film has garnered a lot of attention at film festivals across the States and won tons of awards.  And – as If you need more reasons to check it out – the film is free with your Sled Island pass or just a $9 donation!

This week marks the start of Sled Island, which means sweet concerts happening all over Calgary throughout the whole week.

One of the places you can visit to hear some cool new bands is…Tubby Dog? Yes, Tubby Dog!  Every day this week you can grab a dog and catch your favourite acts…don’t forget to take pictures and tell us how it goes!

All the shows at Tubby Dog are all ages and F-R-E-E! 

Visit www.sledisland.com for a complete list of shows!

The Calgary Foundation invites you to Have Your Say in Calgary’s VitalSigns 2009 survey that measures our city’s quality of life in 12 key issue areas.  Calgary’s VitalSigns was launched by The Calgary Foundation in 2007 to spark discussion, encourage connections and inspire action.  By taking the pulse of our community, Calgary’s VitalSigns provides a snapshot of Calgary’s strengths and weaknesses today so that, collectively, we can create the city we want for ourselves and our children in the future.  The survey is quick and simple.

Sign up at  www.calgary-vital-signs.com

The survey ends June 30^th, 2009 so make sure you get your opinion in now and share this invite with your friends!

Calgary’s VitalSigns report card will be published in the Calgary Herald on October 6, 2009.

Aspiring directors take note: This summer is your chance to show off your film-making skills to the rest of the world…

The Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) may seem far away (it’s not until the fall), but in the mean time, you can keep busy with the Youth by Youth Cinema Competition 2009, presented by CIFF.

All you need to do is turn your cool story idea into a 30 sec. – 7 min. long film and send it in to CIFF by July 31, 2009.

Click here for the details and start rolling!

PS. Word on the street is there also over $2000 in cash and prizes to be won…

Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life is fantastic annual event meant to raise funds to fight a disease that affects so many people.  Events happen all over Canada, and Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life – Calgary 2009 is just over a week away on June 19^th, 2009. 

People all over Calgary are signing up in teams to participate in this all-night walk to fight cancer.  The 12 hour event not only raises money to help find a cure, but also celebrates those who have been lost to cancer, and honours survivors of the disease.  In fact, a beautiful ceremony is held at sunset where luminaries are lit to pay homage to those lost and provide inspiration for those participating in Relay for Life.

It’s super easy to sign up – grab a bunch of people you know who are passionate about fighting cancer, and then visit the Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for Life site to create a team.  If you won’t be able to make it to the event on June 19^th, but still want to help, there also instructions on how to donate.

This past May, CYFC held the 2009 ConocoPhillips Youth of Distiction Awards – a really cool awards program that honours youth in non-academic categories that revolve around leadership, friendship, and community involvement.  The following young women were the recipients of our Enviromentalist Group award, and they’re doing some really cool things for our earth:

Amy Spark and Brittany Thaxter—better known as the Compost Divas—are two grade twelve students at Lord Beaverbrook High School. After realizing the importance of recycling and composting, Amy and Brittany enrolled themselves in a Master Composting course provided by Clean Calgary. The Compost Divas then created a composting program for their own school, which is now in its second semester. 

In their spare time, Amy and Brittany also took their program to three more schools, motivating and teaching other students about environmental sustainability. To continue educating people on the values of composting, Amy and Brittany will be providing workshops on Change Day at Lord Beaverbrook, Destination Conservation, and the Mayor’s Environmental Expo. In order to continue their legacy, these two girls are also in the process of mentoring grades ten and eleven students to take over the program after they graduate this year, creating a sustainable program that will continue long after they have left.

It’s not every day that you get to chat with the government about issues that affect you like the youth justice system, supporting youth with disabilities, or post-secondary education.

If you are outspoken and or just love to give input on important topics, think about joining the Alberta Children and Youth Services Youth Advisory Panel (YAP).  YAP is made up of around 18 youth that are between 15 and 22 years old.  Do you fit into that category?  Perfect – you could spend a year hanging out with other youth from across the province giving YOUR advice on serious issues!

Interested? Download an application form at www.yap.gov.ab.ca and send it in by July 31^st, 2009.

“Be heard.”

Bullying is a big issue for lots of youth today – want to be a part of the team that helps stop it?

Enter the Alberta Prevention of Bullying Youth Committee: a panel of 15 – 22 year olds working to raise awareness about bullying and altering social ideas about bullying.  The cool part about this team is that it’s comprised of 15 – 18 super diverse youth, with different backgrounds and experiences.  As part of this group, you would help develop strategies to combat things like cyberbulling, and give input on different initiatives, working with the Prevention of Bullying Work Group.  Previous members of the group have given input on Government bullying awareness campaigns like www.b-free.ca and www.teamheroes.ca.

Itching to beat down bullying?  Click here, fill out the form, and return it by June 30^th, 2009, and make change.

Want to improve your presentation skills and learn more about your own safety?  Join the Home Safety Project this summer and you can do both while positively influencing the lives of deserving Calgarians!

This project provides basic home safety information and safety items to marginalized Calgarians, specifically those living in transitional, low-cost, or subsidized housing.  As a part of the Home Safety Youth Action Group, you will be trained in basic home safety and present this information to groups of 10-20 people.  Your commitment will be 1 day of training and 1-2 presentations bi-weekly. This is a great way to stay involved this summer and contribute to the community in a positive and rewarding way!

Orientation Session Thursday, June 4 – 6:30-8:00pm

Learning Village Family Place -Keeler School – 4807 Forego Avenue S.E. – Calgary, AB T2A 2C4

Questions? Call Erica @ (403) 266-5448 or email friendly@cyfc.ca

If you’ve watched the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien you may have noticed something with the background.  

MC Hammer is back with a new A&E reality TV show.  For those who don’t remember MC Hammer was a pop-rapper who rose to fame with this song “Hammer Time”.  He made millions and toured the world.  Steve Urkel even made reference to the rapper on the show Family Matters. 

Well as he got more popular his posse of friends got bigger and bigger.  They essentially mooched off of him.  Eventually MC Hammer lost all of his money and filed for bankrupcy.  Well now he’s back to share his story and love of shiny pants.  

You know that wonderful iPhone app – Shazam? You basically open the app, let it listen to the music you’re hearing and it tells you what the artist and song is.

Well, in the near future, while you’re travelling, you’ll be able to hold your phone up (camera pointing) toward something in front of you and the phone will tell you something about the mountain or building or statue on the screen.

Android mobile phones can already do this using Wikitude, an application that includes a Google Map of 350,000 world-wide points of interest that can be displayed in a list view, map view or cam view. If you hold your phone (pointing the camera) in front of a mountain you can see the name and height of the mountain overlaid on top of it on your phone’s screen. Walking around, you can view a building through their phone, and Wikitude then tags the building on the screen with relevant information about the building.

Top 10 Misconceptions About Technology.
I especially love #6. Finally, people are revealing the truth about internet browser cookies.

#5 is worthy of mention too, as Macs can get viruses.