Seminar aids youth charity

Leave Violence Out representatives Micah Anshan and Steve D'Alimonte.

Leave Violence Out representatives Micah Anshan and Steve D’Alimonte.

On Nov. 25, the Centennial College East York campus hosted “Talk is Cheap 7.0.”

The event, organized by the Centennial’s Corporate Communications and Public Relations students, was founded in 2007. Each year, a different charity is selected where proceeds made from the event are donated to the choice for that year.

A Montreal-based charity, Leave Violence Out (LOVE) was chosen this year. Its aim is to help prevent youth violence, while allowing young people gain useful life skills and the ways in which to use social and digital media to tell their stories.

LOVE’s Toronto location was represented by East York residents Micah Anshan, grant-writer and fundraising coordinator, and Steve D’Alimonte, program director.

“All of the funds from tonight are going to be going to LOVE’s media arts program. That’s our entry-level program for young people aged 13-19. The media arts program teaches young people to use digital media skills to come to terms with the violence in their lives, and be able to share their stories with other,” Anshan said.

LOVE ‘s media arts program uses a combination of photography, video and other mediums to help participants.

“We give them tangible skills to tell stories, whether it’s a personal story or a story that’s going around the community, or their schools, giving them a way to express themselves,” said D’Alimonte.

Talk is Cheap 7.0 began with an interactive open panel discussion moderated by Martin Waxman, with Monika Rola, Richard Marginson and Mark Munroe. The panel took questions from attendees ranging from how to keep track of your profile’s growth, and how often to post on social media.

Later on, various workshops were hosted in different rooms of the campus. LOVE’s workshop was hosted by Anshan and D’Alimonte, on their experience with social media as a not-for-profit charity.

“Our talk was on how we use social media right now and how we’d like to use it in the future. Since we’re… non-profit, we do have different issues to work with,” said Anshan. “The people that we’re serving are under the age of 18, so we are sort of responsible for their digital legacy and for ensuring that’s all positive.”

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By: Katherine Forte
Posted: Dec 8 2014 3:12 pm
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Filed under: Arts & Life
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