As a first year placement student coming to Serve! twice a week, my initial role was to mainly observe the workings of a not-for-profit agency.  But I quickly came to learn that I couldn’t hide in the background forever.  I am a student at George Brown College in the Assaulted Women and Children’s Counsellor/Advocate (A.W.C.C.A.) program, and while I may not be practicing my counselling skills, I am learning a lot about the issues that affect youth; a population that I am a part of.

I will admit that I was nervous at the beginning, and still am at times, but in the past five weeks I have slowly worked on developing my skills as the team members (youth participants) work on theirs.  I have had a chance to do some one-on-one work for the Don’t Just Sit There, Stand Up Together project and the White Ribbon Campaign (WRC) project, which allowed me to act from my own skill level while helping another.  In particular, I am motivated by the work the team is doing for the WRC (an organization that works to end violence against women), a cause that is close to my heart.

Every time I come into Serve! I find myself challenged by something new.  Even writing this entry is an experience, even though I love to write, knowing that it will be published on the Serve! website.  I am not sure what the next few months will bring, but I hope to not only expand on my own knowledge, but also give something back.

Resources and further information about the White Ribbon Campaign can be found at White Ribbon Campaign
This blog entry was written by Marina Izakov

Ok. So..............Its been a long journey through the Serve! program. When we started out 3 months ago, we were a group of individuals now we are individuals that are making a group. We were really challenged to begin with, we did a lot of activities that were meant to make us work together as a group and enjoy our time here together. Now we are at the point where we have learned as much as we can about ourselves, our strengths and our weaknesses and we are really putting that together to make a difference in our community. Keep it going Serve!

White Ribbon and Serve! are doing an amazing job on getting the word out about the concert and we’re getting a lot of feedback from very talented artist that want to help out and show their talent to raise awareness to END VIOLENT AGAINST WOMEN!. I’m very excited about all the talent response we got back.. I cant wait to see Kamila Miller (Canadian Idol), Boonaa M ( a very talented spoken words artist), Truth IS, Cry (vocalist) and alot more performers.. Two performers that i am extremely happy that will be performing and i can’t wait to see up on stage Matthew Cuff (Part of Touch International) and Tristan Martell and B-Boy Dizzy (Break Dance Crew who has worked on well known music videos). Everyone has been working so hard on organizating the event and i just can’t wait for the event date and have a great and unforgetful show that people will talk about for months.

Being in Serve! has been very interesting! I find I’m starting to realize things about myself that are really interesting. I’m really new to Toronto and its been a blessing to be a part of a training program that matters. I find that I’m over coming isolated feelings and loneliness being in a big city. The Serve! staff and my workmates have been really supportive in helping me be a more organized person. I never really fully acknowledged how disorganized I was till being tested in Serve! . I respect the constructive criticism of the staff. What I hope to achieve in Serve! is to graduate with flying colors, make new friends, learn new leadership skills, and leave the program a new person with positive aspects in life. I really hope I develop a friendship to all in Serve! and pray to God that things in my life go stronger!  For all reading this blog may your life be full of blessing and let the new year give experience! - Tristan aka bboy Mantan3! 

I recently came out to my father. I told him I was transgendered. He took it better than I had hoped, asking for clarification on points he didn’t understand, reassuring himself that I’d thought it over long enough and was aware of the potential ramifications and giving his heartfelt fatherly advise on various masculine issues.

This isn’t really directly related to Serve!, but it’s kinda connected to the issues we’re tackling in Don’t Just Sit There, so I thought I’d share it.

So far, I’m out to my sister, my mom, her girlfriend, and now my dad. The strongest point of resistance has been from my mom’s girlfriend, a hardcore feminist who seems to consider Female-to-Male transpeople to be blood traitors. My mother, possibly influenced by her girlfriend, has expressed the opinion that I’m too immature to make such a decision, an improvement on her initial reaction, which was to tell me flat out that I couldn’t possibly be transgendered. It’s interesting that my uneducated, blue-collar, straight father should be more open to trans-identity than my university educated, white-collar lesbian mother.

“You know,” he said to me, “The church used to castrate young choir boys so that their voices wouldn’t change. The church cut their penises off so they could sing high. Now, if they can do that, I don’t see how any of them could have a problem with a woman wanting to cut her breasts off.”

At another point, he stated frankly, “I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that. You’re not the first, of course. Not by a long shot.” Then he told me a story about an FtM American civil war hero.

I guess this is an uplifting story. I was certainly uplifted. It felt like a huge weight off my shoulders. I likely won’t see any of my parents again until I have a deep voice and a beard. Weird thought. I wonder what my mother will tell people. I’m not sure if she’s ashamed of me or not, but she has been doing her best to ignore the whole issue. I wonder what she’ll do when she can’t ignore it any longer. Time will tell.

I think I may have cured my social anxiety. If I can tell my father that his little girl is going to be a boy, I reckon I can do just about anything.

Peace,
Tyson