Jasper Place High School’s Global Café recognized for engaging students to take action
EDMONTON— Public Interest Alberta has selected the Global Café at Jasper Place High School to receive this year’s Public Interest Award for Northern Alberta.The award will be presented in Edmonton at 7:30 PM on Friday April 12th at the Chateau Louis Conference Centre, during Public Interest Alberta’s 7th annual advocacy conference, Fighting for Our Future: People Power vs. Corporate Control,Thanks to Alberta Views Magazine sponsorship of this year’s award, the Global Café will receive $750.The Global Cafe started out in 2011 as an empty room full of potential. A few curious students joined the cause of building an authentic space for student voice in Jasper Place High School. Today, the Global Cafe occupies a unique niche within the school, a niche well-loved by teachers and students, and at the same time fosters relations between the school and surrounding community, and Edmonton at large. It has become a space for engagement, active participation and creation. Students spearhead events and initiatives, from starting a radio station (CKJP), to running a coffee shop, building a website, growing their own tea and composting. This spring, led by Global Cafe youth, students started a campaign called #EdStake in response to provincial government cuts to public education. The Global Cafe has received acclaim and recognition from the likes of educators and mentors in Calgary and Grande Prairie, in the Globe and Mail, and from as far away as Helsinki, Finland, and was recently nominated for a Human Rights Award from the John Humphrey Centre.The award is given to two individuals and/or organizations, one from Northern Alberta, and one from Southern Alberta, who are making an exemplary contribution in one or more of the following ways:• effectively drawing public attention to the importance of preserving and enhancing an element of public services, public institutions, public spaces, the public good or the public interest.• mobilizing support in one or more of the above areas.• promoting effective cooperation among individuals and organizations in one or more of the above areas.• working to strengthen Alberta’s public sphere and public interest in any other effective manner.-30-
Media Contact: Bill Moore-Kilgannon (780) 993-3736
