Our programs and presentations are a reflection of the knowledge gained through our interactions with community, youth, professionals, academics, and our own research. Every voice is celebrated, and each person brings something unique to the creative process. We aim to publish our workshop participants’ writing on-line through collective anthologies, as well as organize public readings of their work.
This section will soon feature a full roster of programming as new Changemaker projects are launched. These are some of the programs currently in development:
Youth Workshops
Our workshops will support young people to find a healthy becoming leaders for social change. By amplifying self-expression and creativity, we create a space where youth explore issues that matter to them, engage in meaningful conversations and personal growth. By making art and engaging with others who bring unique and different perspectives to the group setting, youth gain a deeper understanding of themselves and the art process, as well as learn valuable tools for how to create positive change in society.
Seniors Workshops
Our creative writing programs for seniors aim to encourage both novice and veteran writers to develop their own unique and authentic voice in storytelling, and are geared toward poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction and memoir writing. This workshop is offered on a sliding-scale pay structure, where those who can afford to pay for the course help to subsidize those unable to cover the course costs.
The Magic of Memoir: Discover the Power of Finding Your Voice
This is a six-week course where students will watch weekly videos and receive assigned readings. Each week there is at least one assignment, regular group discussion topic in our Facebook group and instructor feedback on your weekly writing.
Other Workshops
These are some previous projects and initiatives that have been carried out by Changemaker founders, which reflect our experience involving the arts, anti-racism education, countering violent extremism, human rights and LGBT activism.
What If I was Wrong: a Canada-Wide Awareness Campaign, Spring 2018
Contributed recorded video interview to a powerful worldwide educational campaign created by Montreal’s Info-Radical Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence in partnership with UNESCO, aimed at raising awareness in teens and young people about radicalization and violent extremism. Videos will be played in high schools and through social and mainstream media across Canada, and accompany educational workshops taught in schools. Campaign outreach is administered by five partner organizations to all five continents.
Combating White Supremacy: A Conversation on Radicalization at Rice University – Houston, TX, March 2018
Appeared a keynote speaker at Rice University in Houston, TX, and also participated in a panel discussion and research interviews with students on campus, as well as local media, as part of a campus-wide discussion on hate, white supremacy, and countering violent extremism.
Confronting Hate: A Fireside Chat at Columbia University, Feb 2018
Participated in a transformative panel on hate and extremism alongside former Taliban member Mubin Shaikh. The topic was “Ex-Taliban and Ex-white supremacist Confront Hate” – discussed strategies for combatting radicalism and political/religious extremism in the 21st century. Had daily meetings with journalists and activists in New York City as part of a collective strategic effort to mobilize a global network to combat hate.
Hadassah-WIZO Fundraiser Event, Spring 2017 – raised $5000
Elisa was invited to headline the annual fundraising drive of a Toronto chapter of Hadassah, a prominent International Jewish Women’s organization. As the keynote speaker, she helped to raise over $5000 to support medical, childcare and educational programs for both Jewish and Arab women and children in Israel.
Consultant, Researcher, “206 Carlton” Documentary, 2017
Elisa provided expert advice, information, archival footage and photography about racist extremism and Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel to help assist the direction and educational message of the film, produced through Ryerson University’s MFA film program. Participated in the project through an off-camera interview.
Removal of anti-Semitic books from online bookstores, March 2017
In collaboration with the Canadian Jewish News, Elisa alerted the media and assisted with the removal of several anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denial books from Chapters-Indigo’s Kobo bookstore and Amazon.ca, including material authored by Ernst Zundel.
LGBT Writers Group Jun 2007 – ongoing
Elisa is the founder, facilitator and admin of a 200+ member Facebook group for LGBT writers in the Toronto area. She started the group over 8 years ago in order to promote, cross-market and encourage the gay and lesbian writers’ community, as well as promote diversity and news of publication opportunities.
Project Changemaker Children, 2004-2009
Fundraised and worked with several small-to-large NGOs to provide basic essentials to impoverished children and families living in third-world countries. Contributed funds, awareness and fundraising campaigns for projects in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Tibet, the Philippines, Ecuador, Colombia, Vietnam and Kenya. Highlights include:
- Contributed to the operational costs of an orphanage for girls in Pamunugama, Sri Lanka, where we funded the daily needs of girls living at the residence and helped to establish a bookstore.
- Covered the high school tuition, as well as uniforms and lunches of 8 Kenyan children living in Nairobi through their high school years.
- Covered the middle-grade tuition, exam fees and uniform costs of 10 Dalit girls living in the slums of Mumbai. For one family in distress, we covered the partial rebuilt of their home and bought them a working oven and stove.
- Provided quarterly/annual grocery shopping trips for several single-parent families in the Philippines, as well as biannual new clothes for the girls, new mattresses and kitchen supplies for the mothers
- Sponsored 2 Tibetan nuns who escaped persecution by fleeing over the Himalayas and seeking refuge in south Indian nunneries
Bywords Literary Journal, Sept 1998 – Jan 2000
Under the mentorship of acclaimed Jewish poet Seymour Mayne at the University of Ottawa, Elisa participated in the editing and production of Bywords between 1998-1999. From the Bywords website: “From 1990 until 2001, the group published poetry and a literary events calendar, making Bywords the longest running publication of its kind in Canada. In addition, they published two anthologies and co-sponsored the Jane Jordon Poetry Contest.”
changemaker.ca 