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Housing is a Sovereign Right Orange Shirt Day Fundraiser 2024

AUGUST 9, 2024

Pre-order your Orange Shirt Day t-shirts now! Limited quantities and sizes available after August 20.

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As we honour the survivors of Canadian’s Residential School system and reflect on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, we as an agency and community must take firm steps towards the journey of ReconciliACTION. 

For the second year in a row, the students in our Classroom Celebrating Neurodiversity have come up with a meaningful way to make a difference for Orange Shirt Day. They have designed a t-shirt to raise funds to support housing security for an Indigenous family in the Tkaronto area.

Last year, with the support from people across Canada, our students raised just over $6,700 for an Indigenous family who recently relocated back to Tkaronto. The family included a single mother of two children, with one child who is on the Autism spectrum. The family has been able to obtain housing, but we know the journey towards true housing security is long.

We understand that social crises faced by Indigenous community members are rooted in intergenerational colonial trauma and are caused by systemic issues. At The Classroom Celebrating Neurodiversity, we believe that support also needs to be systemic in nature. Therefore, the students decided that the recipient of this year’s fundraiser will be the same family. Like last year, this gift does not negate the responsibilities that other community services, provincial or federal programs have towards families in need of their support and services. This money is only intended to fill in the gaps not currently or adequately supported by available services.

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The theme of this fundraiser is ReconciliACTION. We are honoured our students have asked us to join them on their journey of ReconciliACTION by promoting their fundraising event.

Artist Statement

The students’ design honours the most important sacred part of our communities, our children. The model for the design was a 3-year-old from Snuneymuxw First Nation and a relative of a student. He is an intergenerational survivor of residential schools and MMIWGs. He is holding up a sacred eagle feather which includes the sacred fire, reflecting the love and strength of Indigenous people and survivors. The quote at the bottom of our shirt, “We Will Not Ignore” was provided by one of our students from a poem written regarding the crimes against MMIWGs. The arrows at the bottom of the shirt represent our diverse classroom, the 4 sacred medicines and medicine wheel teachings that support our students’ healing in the classroom, and the direction of our journey forward in addressing the 94 Calls to Action.

Students included the QR codes to Phyllis’ story and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Report to spread awareness of Orange Shirt Day and to send a clear message that change and meaningful reconciliation requires education, accountability, and reconciliACTION. 

You can preorder our special Orange Shirt Day T-shirt until August 20, 2024.

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Join us on our ReconciliACTION journey. Support our high school student leaders in their effort to spread awareness, and help us make an important impact for a family – an impact that can be positively felt through generations.

About the Classroom Celebrating Neurodiversity

Our Celebrating Neurodiversity Classroom is a safe and inclusive learning environment for students of all backgrounds who self-identify with having Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) or suspect they have FASD. They are youth who were in search of a program that honoured their diversity and had a different approach to education and healing. Our program offers credits from the First Nations, Metis and Inuit Studies Department and aims to uphold traditional Indigenous knowledge as the way forward in healing and education.

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By 2 months

Has your baby had their hearing screened? YES NO

By 6 months

Does the child?

Startle in response to loud noises? YES NO
Turn to where a sound is coming from? YES NO
Make different cries for different needs (hungry, tired)? YES NO
Watch your face as you talk? YES NO
Smile/laugh in response to your smiles and laughs? YES NO
Imitate coughs or other sounds such as ah, eh, buh YES NO

By 9 months

Does the child?

Respond to their name? YES NO
Respond to the telephone ringing or a knock at the door? YES NO
Understand being told no? YES NO
Get what they want through using gestures (reaching to be picked up)? YES NO
Play social games with you (Peek-a-Boo)? YES NO
Enjoy being around people? YES NO
Babble and repeat sounds such as babababa or duhduhduh? YES NO

By 12 months

Does the child?

Follow simple one-step directions (sit down)? YES NO
Look across the room to a toy when adult points at it? YES NO
Consistently use three to five words? YES NO
Use gestures to communicate (waves hi/bye, shakes head for no)? YES NO
Get your attention using sounds, gestures and pointing while looking at your eyes? YES NO
Bring you toys to show you? YES NO
Perform for social attention and praise? YES NO
Combine lots of sounds together as though talking (abada baduh abee)? YES NO
Show an interest in simple picture books? YES NO

By 18 months

Does the child?

Understand the meaning of in and out, off and on? YES NO
Point to more than 2 body parts when asked? YES NO
Use at least 20 words consistently? YES NO
Respond with words or gestures to simple questions (Where's teddy? What's that?)? YES NO
Demonstrate some pretend play with toys (gives teddy bear a drink, pretends a bowl is a hat)? YES NO
Make at least four different consonant sounds (p ,b, m, n, d, g, w, h)? YES NO
Enjoy being read to and sharing simple books with you? YES NO
Point to pictures using one finger? YES NO

By 2 years

Does the child?

Follow two-step directions (Go find your teddy bear and show it to Grandma.)? YES NO
Use 100 to 150 words? YES NO
Use at least two pronouns (you, me, mine)? YES NO
Consistently combine two to four words in short phrases (Daddy hat. Truck go down.)? YES NO
Enjoy being around other children? YES NO
Begin to offer toys to other children and imitate other children's actions and words? YES NO
Use words that are understood by others 50 to 60 per cent of the time? YES NO
Form words or sounds easily and without effort? YES NO
Hold books the right way up and turn the pages? YES NO
Read to stuffed animals or toys? YES NO
Scribble with crayons? YES NO

By 30 months

Does the child?

Understand the concepts of size (big/little) and quantity (a little/a lot, more)? YES NO
Use some adult grammar (two cookies, bird flying, I jumped)? YES NO
Use over 350 words? YES NO
Use action words such as run, spill, fall? YES NO
Participate in some turn-taking activities with peers, using both words and toys? YES NO
Demonstrate concern when another child is hurt or sad? YES NO
Combine several actions in play (puts blocks in the train and drives the train, drops the blocks off.)? YES NO
Put sounds at the beginning of most words? YES NO
Use words with two or more syllables or beats (ba-na-na, com-pu-ter, a-pple)? YES NO
Recognize familiar logos and signs involving print (Stop sign)? YES NO
Remember and understand familiar stories? YES NO

By 3 years

Does the child?

Understand who, what, where and why questions? YES NO
Create long sentences using five to eight words? YES NO
Talk about past events (trip to grandparents house, day at child care)? YES NO
Tell simple stories? YES NO
Show affection for favourite playmates? YES NO
Engage in multi-step pretend play (pretending to cook a meal, repair a car)? YES NO
Talk in a way that most people outside of the family understand what she/he is saying most of the time? YES NO
Have an understanding of the function of print (menus, lists, signs)? YES NO
Show interest in, and awareness of, rhyming words? YES NO
Read to stuffed animals or toys? YES NO
Scribble with crayons? YES NO

By 4 years

Does the child?

Follow directions involving three or more steps (First get some paper, then draw a picture and give it to Mommy)? YES NO
Use adult type grammar? YES NO
Tell stories with a beginning, middle and end? YES NO
Talk to try and solve problems with adults and with other children? YES NO
Show increasingly complex imaginary play? YES NO
Talk in a way that is understood by strangers almost all the time? YES NO
Generate simple rhymes (cat-bat)? YES NO
Match some letters with their sounds (letter b says buh, letter t says tuh)? YES NO