Britannia youth fight stigma with basketball

Beside the sneaker squeaks and cuts off the new Drake album, young organizers of a Sunday afternoon 3-on-3 basketball tournamenthope something else starts to radiate from the Michele Heights Community Centre.

"I would like [people] to think about us playing basketball, having fun, seeing us smile, looking at us positively not negatively," said 14-year-old Khalid Omar, a member of the West End Youth Motivators, referencingtheshootings and violencein the city's west end.

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"The hashtag for our event is #Balling4OurBrothers and the motive behind it was to raise awareness to the crime that's been happening and the brothers and sisters we've lost due to crime," said 16-year-old MishkaKana, another organizer.

"A lot of the people who have passed in the community have been people we've known personally."

But Kana said she and the rest of the Motivators want to show people a differentcommunity through organizing events such as the tournament, a carnival and a Ramadan dinner.

"[We want to]show people it's not really all about crime and negativity," she said.

"We are positive, we are family, we are close."

'Huge step forward'

The Motivators are youth ages 14 to 20 thatput on events that make a difference in west Ottawa with the help of the city, the Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Centre and the Youth Services Bureau.

Ottawa PoliceSupt. Uday Jaswal, who chairs the bureau's board,said while stigma has attached itself to their communities, he can see these young people's work is making a difference.

"This is a youth event that's being plannedand delivered by youth. When I was here [as an officer] a number of years ago I didn't have that core group of youth leaders I was working with. It was more the police and the City of Ottawa engaging with youth," he said.

"Here now is a change of roles... we're really just supporting the efforts of youth. It's really youth-delivered programming. That's a huge step forward."

Omar and Kanaboth said they're motivated to make things betterby negative stories about crime and gangs on the news.

"[An eventlike this]makes people look forward to this kind of stuff and forget about all the bad stuff and want to come to this more and forget about what's happening," Omar said.

The West End Youth Motivators meet every Friday night at the Michele Heights Community Centre.