Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto Community Foundation

About this organization

Mission

UNITY Charity is an Arts Based Alternative Education Organization for Youth. UNITY engages youth ages 10 to 18 by implementing school and community programs helping youth express their stress and develop skills for success. UNITY empowers youth to make better choices as leaders, mentors and positive community role models leading to more productive citizens, safer schools, and healthier communities.

History of Organization

Michael Prosserman found his passion for break dancing at a very young age.  Michael started UNITY Charity at the age of sixteen when he realized that he wanted to share his positive self-expression with other young people undergoing various issues. When Michael was growing up, his mother was diagnosed with a mental illness, which caused Michael stress throughout his childhood and put pressure on Michael to mature quickly.  Michael used dance to relieve his stress and let his passion guide his future.

By the age of eighteen Michael had begun to gain recognition for his passion as he was accepted into the pool of performers for Cirque Du Soleil, featured in the movie “Honey” and has subsequently competed around the world against many of the world’s top break dancers.  Michael decided he wanted to share this alternative education with other youth and expanded UNITY as a student club at York University. The idea behind UNITY earned Michael a spot as a finalist for the Top 20 Under 20 award.  However at the same time Michael was devastated to learn that he suffered from a chronic neck condition that would limit his dancing forever.  It was after this life altering revelation Michael decided to make UNITY his priority.  While Executive Director of UNITY Charity Michael has received the Vital People award from the Toronto Community Foundation, and was invited to present at TED x Youth Toronto.

Accolades and Accomplishments

2003-07: The Hip-Hop Away From Violence project was created by Michael Prosserman in his Grade 11 Entrepreneurship class. UNITY is established as a student club at York University. The Hip-Hop Away From Violence program is a finalist for Youth in Motion’s Top 20 Under 20 competition. UNITY became a registered non-profit, and a representative and diverse Board of Directors is formed. UNITY wins the “Courage to Soar” Award at the Top 20 Under 20 Conference.

2008-11: UNITY receives charitable grant from the Laidlaw Foundation, moving from a solely volunteer group to hiring a part-time staff. UNITY receives charitable status from Revenue Canada.  UNITY has been in over 30 schools in the GTA. 30,000+ youth have experienced our inspiring assemblies: 8000+ have experienced our in-class artistic development workshops: 220+ youth have developed as youth leaders and mentors (through after school programs, community events, Kickoff concert, etc.). UNITY creates UNITeam and UNIFECT, which are all youth break dancing and spoken word crews respectively composed of young dancers and poets recruited from our in-school programs.

Programs

>UNITED Voices School Programs
>CommUNITY Programs

1. UNITY School Programs

The UNITY School Program consists of assemblies, in-class workshops, hallway performances and after school clubs. The program engages, develops and empowers students labeled as academically at risk as well as students with leadership and/or artistic potential. The program is an arts based alternative education vehicle which builds student skills while teaching outlets that will allow students to express their stress.

2. CommUNITY Programs

The CommUNITY Programs consist of the Raising Voices Festival, partnered programs, Artist Educator Training, Youth Mentorship Committee, University Volunteer Chapters and third party events. These programs allow UNITY to build its presence in the wider community and reach youth not involved in the United Voices school program including hard to reach youth.

UNITED Voices School Programs

UNITY Day Assembly: Introduces UNITY's unique programming through a combination of personal stories, performances, skits, and video presentations that encourage youth to discover an artistic medium and use it to cope with stress, anger, and develop into positive role models for their peers.

Hallway Performance “Cypher”: The hallway performance “cypher” is an extension of the performance element seen on the same day as the assembly in a more organic manner. In-Class Workshops: In-class workshops provide opportunities for youth to develop skills in a particular art form of interest directly after the assembly experience.

UNITY Club: The UNITY Club provides youth with the opportunity to further develop skills for success by running the UNITY Day at their school. The youth in the UNITY Club are assigned roles to run all the needed lead up and follow up activities for the UNITY Day and UNITY after school program. They are responsible to choose the messages for their UNITY Day, select Club roles, run auditions, rehearsals, performances, recruit peers to join the after school program, participate in the after school program and prepare artistic pieces to lead with their voices in their schools and communities.. The UNITY Artist Educators gives the students more advanced lessons in artistic outlets in the 12 week after school program and prepares the group to create a final piece to present in their schools and communities.

Funding and Program Partners

Funding and Program Partners include:

• Ontario Arts Council
• Ontario Trillium Foundation
• Various High School Partners across Toronto (over 20 schools currently)

Program Impact

Through our programming we are developing youth artistic and leadership skills to cultivate UNITY artists, volunteers/interns and other integral stakeholders to engage and mentor other youths. An example of the youth mentorship activities we undertake is UNITeam which is a break dancing crew created by UNITY composed of young dancers recruited from our in-school programs. This break dancing crew has fourteen members from high schools across Toronto, and now teaches two workshops per week in the Malvern community, the Beaches and at the YMCA.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

1) "Health and Wellness: 1,316,000 people (58%) report that they are inactive during leisure time,including 38.9% of youth (almost 94,000 12-19 year olds)";

2) "Belonging and Leadership: Nationally, 65% of recent Black immigrants, 70% of South Asian immigrants and 52% of Chinese immigrants felt they belonged in Canada. In the second generation those numbers had dropped to 37%, 50% and 44% respectively. The greater the discrimination faced, the more someone was likely not to identify themselves as Canadians."

(Toronto's Vital Signs 2010)

Participant Vignette

A student at Sir John A MacDonald CI who is a break dancer became involved in our programming through UNITY’s after school club liaison and supervising teacher. The student had been labeled by their school as “at-risk” and there was great concern that they would not be able to graduate due to poor attendance. On recommendation from the teacher, this student came to UNITY’s assembly auditions where they were teamed with a female student from a different friend group, dancing background and culture. This performance collaboration although a profound shock to the rest of the student body at Sir John A. MacDonald was received enthusiastically at the March 2010 assembly. In preparation of the performance the student attended every scheduled rehearsal, which showed their dedication to their teachers and was a major factor in preventing the student expulsion from school. We selected the student and the dance partner to represent Sir John A. MacDonald at the July 24th, 2010 “Kickoff” Festival at Dundas Square.

CommUNITY Programs

UNITY Festival: Celebrating youth in our programs across the city, giving youth a platform to have their voices heard in a 3 day festival experience.

Youth Mentorship Committees: Teach youth to teach their own workshops and perform in their community with powerful messages. Teach youth life skills, event planning, entrepreneurship, grant writing and much more with opportunities to apply these skills. Current committees: spoken word group and break dancing.

Artist Educator Training: Around 25 artists trained each year with skills to teach workshops, tell their story, write a lesson plan and perform with UNITY messages. This creates consistency and quality in our programs. It also provides professional artist development. Youth are eligible to join after graduating grade twelve.

Funding and Program Partners

UNITY:

Funders: Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council Arts Investment Fund

Sponsors: ING Direct, Rj McCarthy, Mediacraft

Media Sponsor: Much Music

Youth Mentorship Committees:

Partners: City of Toronto Cultural Services

Funders: Toronto Public Health

Artist Educator Training:

Funder: Price Waterhouse Cooper

Partnered Programs:

UNITY strategically partners with organizations who help us leverage program resources to co-create youth focused arts education programs through workshops, summer camps, drop-ins, festivals, and motivational shows. Examples of previous partnered programs have included Ill Abilities Shows, Art Starts Drop in at Yorkdale, Drum Arts, Focus on Youth Summer Camps, Second Base Youth Shelter Workshops, ManifesTO.

We are always looking for new strategic funding and program partners for all of our programs.

Please contact us if you're interested in getting involved in one of our programs.

Program Impact

The impact of UNITY's CommUNITY Programs is focused on engaging, developing and empowering community youth through our unique programming and messages. These programs bring together youth to break down physical and imagined barriers to work together through relatable art forms. Additionally, the CommUNITY Programs allow us to continually engage youth outside of school, allowing UNITY to capitalize on the momentum we have gained through the United Voices School Program. Also the partnerships we create with other organizations increases the number of youth exposed to our programs and creates new and innovative program opportunities for youth.

A successful CommUNITY Program was the 2010 UNITY Festival which had 100 youth from various communities perform, teach and volunteer for a full day at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto, which had 8000 attendees.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

1) "Health and Wellness: 1,316,000 people (58%) report that they are inactive during leisure time,including 38.9% of youth (almost 94,000 12-19 year olds);"

2) "Belonging and Leadership: Nationally, 65% of recent Black immigrants, 70% of South Asian immigrants and 52% of Chinese immigrants felt they belonged in Canada. In the second generation those numbers had dropped to 37%, 50% and 44% respectively. The greater the discrimination faced, the more someone was likely not to identify themselves as Canadians."

(Toronto's Vital Signs 2010)

Participant Vignette

Kareen Wong a member of UNITY's all youth breakdancing crew UNITeam said that: “Unity has also helped develop my leadership skills by giving me opportunities to be in charge of shows. I have helped organize a few shows of the crew UNITeam and by doing so I grew in becoming a stronger leader”.

Other program participants stated: "It helped me be positive, and gave me a sense of fufillment", “It helps people break out of their shells and have confidence in themselves to bare their soul to an audience. It also helps you learn how to express your thoughts on paper”, and "When I feel violent, music calms me".