One STAGE at a time!

STAGE project grads (back, to r) Suzanne Thomson, Artemis Forster, John Dufour, Natasha Alexander, Ross Jackson, Kierston Drier, Sondra Savoia, Shelley Kavanagh, Frida Orellana, Deb Robertson, Kristen Grieve, (front) Laura Iannarelli, Matt Brisby, Alex Brasche, Brian Frazer, Mary Horzempa.

The founding members of the CCS STAGE project recently celebrated their graduation. Deb Robertson, Caledon Community Services' volunteer coordinator, announced the successful completion of three intensive weekend workshops on youth victimization.

The training was facilitated by art therapists Suzanne Thomson and Shelley Kavanagh.

STAGE stands for Student Theatre for Awareness, Guidance and Education.

Using the Caledon Community Services mandate of "helping people help themselves," it will provide opportunities for its mentors to help their peers who have experienced any form of victimization in their lives, by helping them move from "victim to survivor to thriver, one STAGE at a time."

The theatrical performance will aim to educate young people about different kinds of victimization and encourage them to pursue their own healing through a secondstage theatre performance of new recruits. The 12 youth mentors meet every week at CCS with STAGE artistic director Mary Horzempa to develop a theatrical presentation for the Caledon community. This presentation will tour the schools and other community venues in the 2007/08 school year.

This Caledon Community Services' program has been made possible through the generous funding of the Ministry of the Attorney General, Ontario Victim Services Secretariat. For more information about STAGE and other CCS programs, please call 905- 951-2300, 905-584-9460 or visit online at www.caledoncommunityser vices.org.