"I will admit, Scarborough has its issues, but take a look around and you'll see a lot of people doing a lot of good," the teenager wrote recently in an newspaper article.
"Scarborough, it's time for us to come together as a people and do our part to make sure that the world sees us for the community that we truly are."
Denny wrote the article for VIP Voice, a publication that is part of a unique three-year journalism internship that gives youths practical experience in various multimedia fields and allows them to tell their stories and express their views about violence-related subjects in Scarborough.
He is one of 10 kids, aged 13 to 19, enrolled in the program. All live in neighbourhoods deemed at risk several years ago by the United Way of Greater Toronto.
Each Saturday, they meet to study newspapers, copy writing, photography, animation and video-editing.
The program is part of the Violence Intervention Project, co-ordinated by East Metro Youth Services and designed to encourage young people to contribute their own ideas and solutions for school and community safety.
Money for the program comes through the provincial government's Youth Challenges Fund, which was announced in 2006 for youth programs in the at-risk neighbourhoods in Toronto's suburban areas. Queen's Park has committed almost $30 million over three years to the fund.
Seven of the 13 priority areas cited by the United Way are in the Scarborough area, including Crescent Town, Dorset Park, Eglinton East/ Kennedy Park, Kingston-Galloway, Malvern, Scarborough Village and Steeles-L'Amoreaux.
While this small program by itself may not change the overall rate of violence or alter the image of Scarborough, it is having a positive impact on the lives of the 10 young people voluntarily enrolled in it.
During the course of each 36-week session, the teens work on various projects, such as VIP Voice, and then get to attend a week-long journalism boot camp at Ryerson University, says Priya Ramanujam, who oversees the program for East Metro Youth Services. Another 50 students are enrolled in multimedia classes on weekdays.
"The current students come from diverse backgrounds (Jamaica, India, Portugal, Haiti, Trinidad and Sri Lanka), but they all work together well," she says. (Denny's background is Guyanese.)
"Our goal is to give them some experience and a chance to build a portfolio of writing and editing samples they can use with applications for college or university."
As part of their program, the youths toured the Star several weeks ago, meeting reporters, editors and photographers.
The next week they completed work on VIP Voice, their 12-page publication filled with stories about police in schools, gay teens struggling in school, teen mothers in school, a feature on an adult couple who voluntarily help youth in Malvern, Africentric schools and how youth are becoming immune to violence in the media.
Fun for the 10 comes from being able to fight the negativity in Scarborough by highlighting positive aspects of their lives.
For Christef Desir, a high school student with a Haitian background, the Journalism Internship Program offers him the opportunity "to show another side of Scarborough. Too often the media is critical of where we live, yet we can be proud of our community."
For Kiah Welsh, who has a Trinidadian-Guyanese background, the program allows her to learn about all aspects of journalism. " I have my heart set on going to Ryerson," she says.
Measuring the success of such programs is difficult.
Ultimately, a few of the teenagers may decide to pursue a career in journalism once they have ended their formal education.
But the success or failure of the program isn't based on how many future journalists it produces.
Rather, it is derives from building self-confidence and a sense of self-worth in young people. And there's an added bonus if it also helps in small ways to combat violence and improve the quality of neighbourhoods where they live.
By those standards, this small program is clearly a success.
Bob Hepburn's column appears Thursdays. bhepburn@thestar.ca.
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