Who was the GetOut! Team?
From 2004 to 2006, GetOut! involved a whole bunch of us folks at the City of Vancouver, partnered with youth and other members of the community from all over Vancouver.
| Former Coordinators Steven R. Dang Juan Gabriel Solorzano Past Youth Reporters |
Former Mentors Analee Weinberger Brian Smith Elise Finnigan James O’Neill Justine Starke Sam Beresky Rebekah Mahaffey Thor Larson |
Steven R. Dang, Coordinator
Steven kept GetOut! going, while studying over at UBC. There, he was looking into how young people get engaged in their communities through the arts, sport, culture and other activities. You may have also seen Steven at work on other projects around town—such as the Creative City Network of Canada, the Vancouver Youth in Film & Video Network and other stuff. For more good times, Steven swam, traveled, wrote, gardened, acted, sang and played the violin.
Juan Gabriel Solorzano, Assistant Coordinator
Born and raised in Mexico City, one of the largest metropolises in the world, Juan always enjoyed travelling, immersing in other cultures and seeing things from new perspectives. For the last four years before joining GetOut!, he had been discovering Vancouver’s outdoors and vibrant multicultural landscapes. In the process, he got a degree in geography and a masters in community and regional planning. Joining the Get Out! Ideas Factory team was an exciting adventure in pushing for social change and making a difference, but most importantly for making friends with some of the coolest people in the city.
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Former Youth Reporters
The GETOUT! Youth Reporter Team engaged young people in the documentation and evaluation of GETOUT! programmes and initiatives. Specialized training was provided to Youth Reporters to work in a variety of media (text, video, audio, photography, animation, creative writing, etc.) to produce Internet documentation and community-based Internet journalism. Older Youth Reporters mentored younger reporters in the community and youth participants in GETOUT! programmes to tell their own stories. Their stories were published here in the GETOUT! Ideas Factory. To learn more, see the GETOUT! Youth Reporters: Getting ready... video.
August Bramhoff
August was “The Photographer.” August was very excited to be involved with the GETOUT! Youth Reporters, and the unique youth-driven initiatives in the city. When she was not snapping photos, she could be usually found outdoors or hiding out with my typewriter late at night.
Ivy So
Ivy’s passion for journalism blossomed in the remote, deserted corner of her high school… The Yearbook Room. After nights of toiling at writing and editing pages of copy and tweaking the picas on page layouts, that desolate corner of the school building became her second home. But, of course, as all good things eventually come to an end, so did the stressful, yet oddly rewarding, yearbook days from high school. Since then, Ivy has been seeking means of filling the void—she is currently a columnist and graphic artist for The Buzz – the SFU Business Student Newsletter, is involved with the radio show “Y57: Youth in 57 Minutes” along with Ovey, immerses in hours of Photoshop and InDesign, and is a self-proclaimed blog-aholic.
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Kasia Kromka
When she joined GetOut!, Kasia only just begun adventuring into “young adult” life and hoped to begin travelling as soon as possible. She said that she usually says yes to everything that came her way which is what brought her into GETOUT! You'dfind her at the beach during the day and out till the wee hours at night. You’d never go hungry with Kasia because she was always with snacks on hand or whipping up a meal in the kitchen. Kasia couldn't just sit around; she was always out experiencing the scenery or at least looking through the racks of Value Village.
Ovey Docilis Yeung
Ovey's name is pronounced “O’vay”. Her interests fell on anything from sports to hobbies to just socializing! She played the piano, danced and sang. She would take her camera everywhere with her, and was involved in “youth leadership” in Greater Vancouver for several years and worked on many youth projects! Ovey especially loved broadcasting! Because she loves sooo many things, she found that journalism was the only thing that really covered a bit of everything... from politics, music, lifestyles, sports, and just plain scoop! That is how she got involved with GetOut! Besides being a youth reporter for GetOut!, Ovey was involved in another GetOut! sponsored project: a youth-run radio show called “Y57: Youth in 57 Minutes.” Check it out on 102.7 FM (Vancouver). Look out for Ovey …cuz she might be covering your story soon!
Tyson Radons
It was all in a day’s work for this multi-faceted young man. Tyson had wanted to be a reporter since grade nine and had found a fascinating way to explore it through GETOUT! Knowing that what he was reporting is true and accurate but with his own sense of style, was what draws Tyson to reporting. It was a way to make a positive difference in the life of his community. Youth are challenged every day of their lives, and expected to excel in most of what they do. Education, grades, money, jobs, parents, success, stress, direction, media, influences. But what's fascinating is how individually they deal with these matters. Youth reporting was a way for Tyson to expand and explore some of the issues other youth face in a creative way. Time will tell if his efforts improve or expand the mind of one of his readers, watchers, or listeners. GET OUT and make a difference.
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» Contact our Youth Action Team facilitators at info (at) heygetout.ca
Analee Weinberger, Pacific Cinematheque [pic to come]
Analee worked in the Education Department at Pacific Cinémathèque, a film institute in downtown Vancouver. She loved being involved in developing fun and innovative programming in film and video for youth & kids, and she got to work with a diverse group of inspiring people in the community through the digital filmmaking and media literacy workshops that we facilitate. In addition to the great ‘Get Out!’ crew, the team she was part of also worked on projects in schools and with other organizations around town like the National Film Board and the Vancouver Art Gallery, creating opportunities for youth to express their creative visions and learn media production skills. Analee came to this work through a background in documentary film and video for social change, so many of her projects are issue-based or involve making digital filmmaking accessible to youth who face barriers to media production programs. When not tinkering with camcorders, Analee likes reading, writing, and taking long rides on the Harley.
Analee is helped out the GETOUT! Youth Reporters.
Brian Smith, BC Coop Association
Brian worked at the BC Co-operative Association as the Director of Youth Programs and a camp called The YES. When he served as a GetOut! mentor, he had been there for about a year and before that worked within the disability movement getting young people to engage in dialogue on a citizenship that is predicated on the fact that we care about each other. At BCCA, he focused on the initiatives that can be collaboratively inspired, developed and implemented which provide the opportunities for the possibilities that exist among young people to happen. In other words, more and more he has been looking for ways to support and facilitate the actualization of youth-driven initiatives. Other than that Brian ran and rode a bike pretty seriously but usually with a great big smile.
Brian helped out the MADSKILLZ Collective .
Elise Finnigan
Elise was originally from Winnipeg, also known as “Winterpeg.” As a youth she helped start a community art centre in the inner city neighbourhood where she grew up, called Art City. This experience had an enormous impact on her life. Prior to Art City, she worked for an organization in Budapest, Hungary that helps Roma (gypsies) with human rights issues. On a less serious note, she enjoyed basketball, volleyball, and music.
Elise helped out the Tupper GETOUT! Youth Action Team.
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James O’Neill
James grew up in the Vancouver area, and enjoyed the city’s diversity, geography and complexity. Although he consider ed Vancouver home, he had some great opportunities to travel the world. The latest trip, before joining GetOut!, was to Cambodia where he worked with disadvantaged youth in a computer training and employment centre. Through my travels James witnessed a lot of struggles, but also a lot of opportunities for youth to become involved with their communities and environment. James also enjoyed cycling, reading, yoga, and jogging.
James helped out the Marpole GETOUT! Youth Action Team.
Justine Starke
Justine worked with the Eastside Youth Group at Champlain Heights from February 2005 to 2006. Together she and the team put on a very entertaining and fun filled talent show which was led and implemented by the very inspiring youth action team in the Eastside Youth Group. In her other lives Justine researched and wrote about education for sustainability, focusing on universities as potential sites of innovation in modeling institutional approaches to social and ecological justice. She loved hiking, biking, sailing, swimming, laughing, and playing – and working with youth to create a future society capable of living in equilibrium with the planet and its many living communities.
Justine helped out the Eastside Youth Group.
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Sam Beresky
Sam was born in an old pink and green farmhouse outside of Portland, Oregon U.S.A. When joining GetOut!, he was an alternative transportation advocate – meaning he would much rather walk or take the Seabus than get into somebody’s car – and he was excited about making the world a better place through social change. Sam was not an artist or musician but he loved both and could talk about them for hours. In fact, before he moved to Vancouver, he wrote music and theatre reviews for a local newspaper in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Sam helped out the Eastside Youth Group.
Rebekah Mahaffey [pic to come]
Rebekah was really into books, the theatre, music, and social justice when she joined GetOut!. She grew up all over the place living in Indonesia, England, and Libya before moving to Canada when she was a teen. She still loved travelling and worked in Sri Lanka.
Rebekah helped out the Tupper GETOUT! Youth Action Team.
Thor Larson
Thor was a Masters student at UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning. His academic interest involved community development and participatory planning processes. His involvement in GETOUT! was as a researcher and editor investigating a number of issues relating to youth health and programming in Vancouver. He was really interested in the barriers and challenges youth face in accessing recreational, cultural, and art spaces in the city, and how innovative programming can capture the energies of youth disengaged from mainstream youth services. Thor had a history of involvement in local youth culture as a long-time skateboarder, and participant in the local music scene through playing in bands and writing zines.
» Thor helped out the GetOut! Youth Reporters.
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The GETOUT! Youth Action Teams were groups of youth around Vancouver who wanted to help actively engage their peers in arts, sport, culture, recreation, community service and activism. With the help of GETOUT! Mentors, the teams got active, grew and worked for change in their neighbourhoods and communities.
Together, the Youth Action Teams also documented and reflected on their experiences to share lessons learned about participatory planning and programming with City youth programmers and other youth-serving agencies.
- Eastside Youth Group
- Killarney GETOUT! Youth Action Team
- The MADSKILLZ Collective
- Marpole GETOUT! Youth Action Team
- MY Circle Youth Action Team
- South Vancouver GETOUT! Youth Action Team
- Survival Guide to High School GETOUT! Youth Action Team
- Tupper GETOUT! Youth Action Team
- Youth Power Squad
- GetOut! Youth Reporters
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The GetOut! community was BIG...
In the year 2005 to 2006, GetOut! developed or sponsored over 70 different projects and programs, involving over 3,500 organizers and youth all over Vancouver.
Folks from these projects and programs, and from other cool places, joined up to help out by taking part in things like the GetOut! Community Advisory Committee, a Planning with Youth Salon and various GetOut! Networks.
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