Providing access to the arts for children; The Reading Partnership presents 360 Stories

BY MICHAEL THOMAS

Can you imagine getting a chance to come up with your own ideas, write a chapter about it, whether it be fiction, reality or something else and in the end have it published with stories from your peers as part of a book that goes on sale?

The reading partnership presents 360 Stories, and this is what this project is all about. 360 Stories is a five-week literacy and illustration design pilot program that engages sixteen grade 4 and 5 students in bringing a book to life. The skill-building program launched in April 2019 and runs at Cedar Ridge Creative Centre every Tuesday morning in the month of April. The students are brought in by bus, provided with a healthy lunch and receive instruction by a professional author and illustrator.

360 Stories is presented in collaboration with The Reading Partnership, an East, Scarborough children’s literacy organization, Story Planet, a Toronto-based children’s story making organization, the Toronto District School Board, and Arts Services, City of Toronto. Toronto Caribbean Newspaper spoke with several people from The Reading Partnership including Julie Frost, a Senior Arts Consultant at the City of Toronto Arts Services.  Frost told Toronto Caribbean Newspaper, “The 360 project is a literacy-based community art education project that is all about providing access to the arts for children in the Kingston Galloway Orton Park community; the city of Toronto provided the space so that these young authors can work on their craft.”

Frost, who worked in collaboration with all the different partners and was a part of the 360 projects from beginning to end explained, “I wanted the participants to feel a great sense of pride in their work while gaining skills and experiencing a new cultural environment.” When asked how she feels about these children who were so excited to be a part of this project Frost said, “For me it made me feel that the next generation of artists and literary leaders are right in our neighborhood; there is so much talent, want and eagerness to participate in their community, and for me that is extremely exciting because the excitement which these students express is contagious.”

Camesha Cox, The Reading Partnership’s Executive Director shares that same excitement too. She told Toronto Caribbean Newspaper “It is exciting for a number of reasons; this project is so much more than just children creating books, it is also them being in a new environment that exists in their community that they don’t always have access to. Cedar Ridge Creative Center is a city-funded space where you don’t often see the marginalize pockets of our community. It is giving these children a chance to be creative; it’s giving them that break from class. We ask for the children who we know are creative and want to share their stories but are having a hard time doing so at school for a number of reasons. We want these students in this environment where they can be their most creative self to create and share a story with no limitations.”

The book called “Secret Powers, Everyday Lives” has a chapter from each child and will be on sale as of Saturday, May 25^th, at Cedar Ridge Creative Center. Cox thanked all of the partners involved and said it is crucial to have collaborated on this project, especially in this era of funding cuts. She also would like the public and all interested to know that The Reading Partnership is a project of Tides Canada, and donations are always welcomed.

Liz Haines, Creative Director at Story Planet had high praises for the program also. Haines told Toronto Caribbean Newspaper, “I feel it is important to spend time and to let individual kids have a chance to be heard. Life goes by quickly, school is bustling, and children can get lost in all of that.” She said she would like to see what is being done in Scarborough take off and happen Toronto-wide, “There are kids in every corner of the city that need and would flourish with the same kind of experience; the more we can hear from young people and see the world through their eyes, the better our world would be.”