Caledon Community Services brings 'STAGE' to Caledon

Student Theatre for Awareness, Guidance and Education, or STAGE, is an exciting new youth program offered through a partnership between Caledon Community Services and Caledon Youth Services. Through generous funding from the Ontario Victim Services Secretariat (Ministry of the Attorney General), STAGE will offer youth-to-youth mentoring using theatre to engage young people on the topic of youth victimization.

"As we bring young people into STAGE, they will develop a travelling performance piece that will engage youth throughout Caledon and give voice to a subject that often remains hidden," noted Deb Robertson, volunteer coordinator at Caledon Community Services. "We are already gathering together a terrific team of professionals and some very dynamic, talented young people. It's creative, exciting stuff with amazing potential to help our community's youth address some very difficult issues."

Caledon Youth Services is also eager to begin this partnership.

"We have traditionally engaged young people in recreational activities and we've found that within those activities, they talk about the things most important to them. Their relationships at home and with their friends are always a topic of conversation so STAGE is a perfect way to extend our outreach to our community's youth," said Tom Linkletter, program manager.

Executive director of Caledon Community Services, Monty Laskin, indicated that youth programming is a priority for the agency.

"It is our hope that Caledon will embrace this exciting new initiative and that it will generate important discussion amongst many stakeholders such as the school system, the OPP, Children's Aid, and various other community services involved with children and youth. Most importantly, this is about reaching young people who may not be safe in some of their relationships and helping them understand that there are things they can do right away to change that."

To find out more about the STAGE project, please contact Deb Robertson at 905-951-2300, 905-584- 9460 or drobertson@caledoncommunityservices. org.