Help Save a Life Today!

Every now and then – a very small project with a very big heart and purpose comes along!  BSL was really honoured to work together with the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa recently to help create the “Know What to Do – Preventing Youth Suicide” K-Card.  Quite simply – if you know of anyone that is experiencing any of these signs – this pocket-sized guide very clearly helps you know what to do next! 

For more information go to www.facebook.com/preventingsuicide

KNOW WHAT TO WATCH FOR:

• Changes in behaviours, friends or normal activities
• Changes in physical health and/or hygiene
• Low energy, poor concentration
• Declining school performance
• Increased absenteeism
• Marked personality change
• Increased risky behavior
• Prolonged negative mood or attitude
• Preoccupation with appearance and/or body image
• Comments about feeling worthless, helpless or hopeless
• Comments about suicide and/or dying

Copies of the guide can be ordered from the Ottawa Public Health Information Line at:
 613-580-6744  613-580-6744
TTY: 613-580-9656; Toll Free: 1-866-426-8885Monday to Friday from 9 am to 4 pm 



BSL's 'Exquisite Corpses': Way More Fun Than it Sounds

On January 25th, BSL inaugurated its new social committee at nearby Alpha Soul cafe in Ottawa's Hintonburg neighborhood. The committee kick-started its term with a spirited brainstorming session on everything from possible group outings to party plans for the upcoming retirement of a colleague.

A surreal experience
Among the many state-of-the-art idea generation tools that the team employed that evening was the always-fun 'exquisite corpse' game (also called 'picture consequence'). Invented by early Surrealists, the exquisite corpse is a collaborative method by which an image or text is assembled from parts made without any knowledge of the whole.

In our case, the goal was to create characters by having one person draw the head, another draw the body and another draw the legs. Because the sheet of paper was folded after each portion was finished, later participants had no way of knowing what had been drawn before them - which led to some... ahem... interesting results.

More madness than method
Judging by our illustrations, it is hard to tell how this was supposed to tie into planning staff events or how it can even be of any use at all to BSL. Actually, we're probably still very far from using this mad method on any of our clients' projects - unless some of you request it (hint, hint).

On the other hand, it was definitely a lot of fun to sharpen our creative chops on a non-work-related assignment. The democratic and mostly anonymous process removed all sense of competition and helped loosen the rigid thought barriers that we sometimes impose on ourselves. If nothing else, making exquisite corpses was a great team-bonding exercise that all of us would want to do again.

My advice is to go ahead and try the game with friends and/or colleagues (template available below). All we're asking is that you make sure to share whatever Frankenstein-like creatures you put together.

We don't want to be the only ones with weird corpses in our digital closet...