Send Steph Off Singing!
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Building Bridges of Song: Help Send Steph Off Singing to Community Choir Leadership Training in BC!
Dear Family, Friends and Supporters,
It is with great joy and gratitude that I share with you that I have been accepted into the Community Choir Leadership Training (CCLT) program for this fall, in Victoria, BC. I am so excited for this opportunity to pursue my life’s work and officially join the ranks of Community Song Leaders in North America. In the spirit of a true community builder, I am inviting you to embark on this journey with me by making a small (or large) financial contribution to cover the costs of tuition. Thank you in advance for your support, it means so much to me.
The CCLT program has been a major step for many of my mentors and heroes in the world of leading group singing. Mila Redwood, founder of Sing for Joy and my mentor here in Toronto, completed the program in the fall of 2014. The program equips each participant with the tools, skills and experience necessary to create and lead a vibrant community choir within the growing Ubuntu Choirs Network. It is one-of-a-kind in the world, and accepts only 14 applicants globally each year. The program includes a two-week residency session in Victoria, BC, six months of additional participation via tele-conferencing and a full year of mentorship. I am so excited and ready for this opportunity, and know in my heart that it will empower me to step fully into my role as a Community Song Leader, building a more connected and harmonious world through song.
Upon my return to Toronto, my hope is to support Mila full-time in growing Sing for Joy. Mila and I share a dream of creating a Singing City, in which affordable and enlivening communal singing experiences are accessible within walking distance of all people. We are currently working on creating a singing group called Songs Without Borders to create connections between Canadian newcomer refugees and long-time Torontonians. We are also making plans to start a chapter of Sing for Joy in the west end of Toronto. One of my personal projects throughout the summer and fall will be to develop and lead this choir. For more information about Sing for Joy, visit singforjoy.ca.
In the long-term, my mission is to create a choir for people who live on the streets in Toronto, similar to S.O.S. in San Francisco, California, and the Choir of Hard Knocks in Melbourne, Australia. I believe that inclusive singing spaces are ideal platforms for building individual resilience and crucial connections between people, which in turn allow for more meaningful exchange and social justice. I also intend to be involved in founding a training program for song leaders in Toronto and serve as a community choir mentor, supporting and empowering aspiring community song leaders to start their own singing groups. May the benefits of community singing spread as far and wide as possible!
Today, I am reaching out to my community to support my path, by sponsoring all or some of the total cost of the CCLT program tuition, which is $2500 and does not include the cost of lodging or travel. Ever since taking a leave of absence from my full-time work in order to pursue song leading, I have only been making just enough money to cover my rent in Toronto and buy nutritious food. The majority of my funds come from working part-time as a nanny for two beautiful girls. Your support is crucial to ensuring that I can dedicate my time and energy to enriching our communities and inspiring other change agents, as opposed to covering the costs of living. This being said, more important to me than the money is the feeling of being supported. If you can only donate $5 or love, send it my way and let me feel your love! Think of it as a financial high five or hug. Do it now before your life gets busy again and my call for help becomes but a mere whisper in the deepest recesses of your mind...
In the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu regarding the Ubuntu Choirs Network: “I am, because you are. I need you to be you so that I can be me. A choir is a choir only because its different parts work together harmoniously. Yes, a person truly is a person only through other persons." Thank you for being who you are, so I can be who I am.
For more information on the program and what I will learn, please visit the website at: www.communitychoirleadership.com.
With Love and Gratitude,
Steph
the restless inchoirer
Note: Funds will be withdrawn directly into my bank account on a daily basis as soon as GoFundMe has conducted a standard precautionary review.
About Steph (the restless inchoirer):
Steph Drouin is a big believer in the power of song as therapy, and for building community. For the past year and a half, Steph has been assisting Mila Redwood, Founder and Director of Sing for Joy, in leading two community choirs in Toronto, each made up of approximately 50 members, and seasonal Big Sing events, which invite the wider Toronto community to join the choirs in song and celebration of the community's achievements. One such achievement is the diversity of the choirs' membership, supporters and partners, including a growing contingent of newcomer refugees, the iconic Dr. Ysaÿe Barnwell and local song writer, Coco Love Alcorn. Outside of Sing for Joy, Steph leads weekly song circles in the acute schizophrenia unit at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), bringing the joy of song into a space that otherwise feels like a prison. Most recently, she has become the founder of the “Fiercely OK Movement”, which strives to reawaken the world to the inner strength & wisdom of all people that is too often obscured by mental health labels. She wrote a choral song called Fiercely OK that serves as the anthem for the mental health promotion campaign. The song reminds us that our value as human beings is non-negotiable and totally independent of body, feeling, and mind states/sensations.
Steph's present work with choirs is informed by her experiences of studying and singing with choirs all around the world. As a child and teen, she was a proud member of the Cantabile Choirs of Kingston. As a student in McMaster University's prestigious Arts & Science program, she sang with the University and Women's Choirs. In her final year of undergraduate studies, she undertook a research project with the aim of determining if and how an inclusive community choir could be built to foster individual capacity and community in the North End of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The project was a huge source of inspiration and validation, setting her on a clear path of community development through music. After graduating with a minor in music in 2015, she embarked on a great “inchoiry” to Australia and New Zealand, with the question of: how do we create inclusive, resilient and sustainable communities? While on this journey, she sang with 24 diverse and inclusive community choirs, and volunteered with intentional farming groups. She returned home deeply inspired and ready to get her hands dirty as a song leader. She believes that training as a Community Song Leader will serve as a crucial next step in expanding her capacity for creating positive change and sharing her gifts with her local and global communities.
To "inchoir" about my travels and experiences with singing groups around the world please visit: http://therestlessinchoirer.blogspot.ca.
Dear Family, Friends and Supporters,
It is with great joy and gratitude that I share with you that I have been accepted into the Community Choir Leadership Training (CCLT) program for this fall, in Victoria, BC. I am so excited for this opportunity to pursue my life’s work and officially join the ranks of Community Song Leaders in North America. In the spirit of a true community builder, I am inviting you to embark on this journey with me by making a small (or large) financial contribution to cover the costs of tuition. Thank you in advance for your support, it means so much to me.
The CCLT program has been a major step for many of my mentors and heroes in the world of leading group singing. Mila Redwood, founder of Sing for Joy and my mentor here in Toronto, completed the program in the fall of 2014. The program equips each participant with the tools, skills and experience necessary to create and lead a vibrant community choir within the growing Ubuntu Choirs Network. It is one-of-a-kind in the world, and accepts only 14 applicants globally each year. The program includes a two-week residency session in Victoria, BC, six months of additional participation via tele-conferencing and a full year of mentorship. I am so excited and ready for this opportunity, and know in my heart that it will empower me to step fully into my role as a Community Song Leader, building a more connected and harmonious world through song.
Upon my return to Toronto, my hope is to support Mila full-time in growing Sing for Joy. Mila and I share a dream of creating a Singing City, in which affordable and enlivening communal singing experiences are accessible within walking distance of all people. We are currently working on creating a singing group called Songs Without Borders to create connections between Canadian newcomer refugees and long-time Torontonians. We are also making plans to start a chapter of Sing for Joy in the west end of Toronto. One of my personal projects throughout the summer and fall will be to develop and lead this choir. For more information about Sing for Joy, visit singforjoy.ca.
In the long-term, my mission is to create a choir for people who live on the streets in Toronto, similar to S.O.S. in San Francisco, California, and the Choir of Hard Knocks in Melbourne, Australia. I believe that inclusive singing spaces are ideal platforms for building individual resilience and crucial connections between people, which in turn allow for more meaningful exchange and social justice. I also intend to be involved in founding a training program for song leaders in Toronto and serve as a community choir mentor, supporting and empowering aspiring community song leaders to start their own singing groups. May the benefits of community singing spread as far and wide as possible!
Today, I am reaching out to my community to support my path, by sponsoring all or some of the total cost of the CCLT program tuition, which is $2500 and does not include the cost of lodging or travel. Ever since taking a leave of absence from my full-time work in order to pursue song leading, I have only been making just enough money to cover my rent in Toronto and buy nutritious food. The majority of my funds come from working part-time as a nanny for two beautiful girls. Your support is crucial to ensuring that I can dedicate my time and energy to enriching our communities and inspiring other change agents, as opposed to covering the costs of living. This being said, more important to me than the money is the feeling of being supported. If you can only donate $5 or love, send it my way and let me feel your love! Think of it as a financial high five or hug. Do it now before your life gets busy again and my call for help becomes but a mere whisper in the deepest recesses of your mind...
In the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu regarding the Ubuntu Choirs Network: “I am, because you are. I need you to be you so that I can be me. A choir is a choir only because its different parts work together harmoniously. Yes, a person truly is a person only through other persons." Thank you for being who you are, so I can be who I am.
For more information on the program and what I will learn, please visit the website at: www.communitychoirleadership.com.
With Love and Gratitude,
Steph
the restless inchoirer
Note: Funds will be withdrawn directly into my bank account on a daily basis as soon as GoFundMe has conducted a standard precautionary review.
About Steph (the restless inchoirer):
Steph Drouin is a big believer in the power of song as therapy, and for building community. For the past year and a half, Steph has been assisting Mila Redwood, Founder and Director of Sing for Joy, in leading two community choirs in Toronto, each made up of approximately 50 members, and seasonal Big Sing events, which invite the wider Toronto community to join the choirs in song and celebration of the community's achievements. One such achievement is the diversity of the choirs' membership, supporters and partners, including a growing contingent of newcomer refugees, the iconic Dr. Ysaÿe Barnwell and local song writer, Coco Love Alcorn. Outside of Sing for Joy, Steph leads weekly song circles in the acute schizophrenia unit at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), bringing the joy of song into a space that otherwise feels like a prison. Most recently, she has become the founder of the “Fiercely OK Movement”, which strives to reawaken the world to the inner strength & wisdom of all people that is too often obscured by mental health labels. She wrote a choral song called Fiercely OK that serves as the anthem for the mental health promotion campaign. The song reminds us that our value as human beings is non-negotiable and totally independent of body, feeling, and mind states/sensations.
Steph's present work with choirs is informed by her experiences of studying and singing with choirs all around the world. As a child and teen, she was a proud member of the Cantabile Choirs of Kingston. As a student in McMaster University's prestigious Arts & Science program, she sang with the University and Women's Choirs. In her final year of undergraduate studies, she undertook a research project with the aim of determining if and how an inclusive community choir could be built to foster individual capacity and community in the North End of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The project was a huge source of inspiration and validation, setting her on a clear path of community development through music. After graduating with a minor in music in 2015, she embarked on a great “inchoiry” to Australia and New Zealand, with the question of: how do we create inclusive, resilient and sustainable communities? While on this journey, she sang with 24 diverse and inclusive community choirs, and volunteered with intentional farming groups. She returned home deeply inspired and ready to get her hands dirty as a song leader. She believes that training as a Community Song Leader will serve as a crucial next step in expanding her capacity for creating positive change and sharing her gifts with her local and global communities.
To "inchoir" about my travels and experiences with singing groups around the world please visit: http://therestlessinchoirer.blogspot.ca.
Organizer
Stephanie Drouin
Organizer
Toronto, ON