Eighteen Catholic high schools were represented at the ninth annual Social Justice Symposium in Toronto Dec. 6. Photo by Miguel Martinez-Torres

Students can help fix their communities

By 
  • December 15, 2012

TORONTO - When attempting to solve social problems like homelessness, students need to be prepared

to keep trying and trying again in the face of heartache to accomplish their goals, students at a Dec. 6 symposium heard.

The annual Social Justice Symposium hosted by Brebeuf College School heard from two Irish students — Colm Keena and Eoin McSweeney — from the Presentation Brothers College in Cork, Ireland, who told the audience to go out into their community, find a problem they would like to fix and then work to fix it.

Keena and McSweeney are past presidents of SHARE (Students Harness Aid for the Relief of the Elderly), an organization that cares for more than 200 residents and involves more than 50 students from 19 schools in Cork. The two speakers were invited to pass on inspiration and wisdom to Catholic high school students at the ninth symposium titled, “There’s no place like home.”

All Toronto Catholic high schools, public and private, were invited to this year’s event on ending homelessness. It was organized by the Social Justice Club at Brebeuf. Presidents of the club, Adam Nemes and Darren Pereira, presided over the event held at the University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto.

“As you saw from the presentation of the students in Ireland, they (students) can help build housing that reduces homelessness in Toronto,” said Michael Da Costa, the Social Justice Club’s staff advisor.

“If a school does not have a social justice club, we hope that they’ll go back to the school and start one. If they already have one, hopefully they’ll get some ideas from today of projects they can take on to make our society a more just place.”

The symposium opened with a Mass at St. Basil’s Church and featured a morning of motivational speakers and an afternoon of workshops for the 18 high schools represented at the event. Workshops were run by Canadian Jesuits International, Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Sisters of St. Joseph, Trek for Teens Foundation, Children of Hope Uganda and Habitat for Humanity.

Students also learned about problems with social housing and the lack of affordable housing in Toronto through an online report from www.peoplepowermedia.net.

Sr. Mary Rose Marrin of the Sisters of St. Joseph, who spoke about the WRP Neighbourhood Housing project that was initiated and sponsored by the women religious of the archdiocese of Toronto, said that “doing good is not easy.” So it is essential, she said, to have a vision and a leader to carry that vision.

One of the take-home messages for students is that “students are being given the gift of education and probably post-secondary education will follow for many of them,” she said.

“They have the gifts and the opportunities to use those gifts for people in need.”

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