“The Youth are Our Future” is a common phrase we often use to express the importance of supporting and guiding the youth of today. While the generations currently in power will eventually retire, our youth are the one’s we expect to pick-up where we left-off to create a better world for everyone. However, due to the changing nature of life’s experience -including increasing loads of responsibility, biological changes, identity crises and a determination of one’s role in society- youth often face a lot of pressure with very little support in navigating this big world. The challenges can be even greater among youth who identify with minority statuses or marginalized communities. To ensure that all our youth are able to practice self-determination and have all the support they need, we are offering various programs. These programs fall under three major sections: (i) Thinking for the Future, (ii) Empowerment through the Arts and, (iii) Self-Exploration.
Continue reading for a program overview of each section:
SECTION 1.1: THINKING FOR THE FUTURE
Lacking a certainty of one’s future is linked with poor mental, physical and social health outcomes- particularly amongst youths. Being racialized, occupying a low socioeconomic status and living in under-resourced neighborhoods further compounds access to positive career opportunities, in turn heightening experiences of uncertainty. That is why we want to ensure that all our youth have the resources, role models and opportunities to think, plan and prepare for their futures – without any limits. Below are a list of our proposed programs for the youth:
A. Mentorship Program
To help with personal and career exploration, youth will be paired (or grouped) with community members who work in an area of the youth’s interest. This mentor-mentee relationship will hopefully foster personal growth, interrelationship building, emotional and resource support to kick-start youths’ professional lives.
B. Journeying to Post-Secondary
This program will focus on aiding youth to both apply and succeed during their post-secondary education. The program will be divided into two separate sub-programs with one geared to students interested in applying and another to those in college. Themes explored will include: exploring colleges and programs; how to write a letter of intent; how to build academics and extracurricular; where to get funding; how to live on a budget; living away from home and succeeding in your program.
C. Career Events
Employment is a key determinant of health and often a need for youth who need to support themselves financially. To help youth find meaningful work, we plan to host a series of career-related/job-finding events and workshops. These include:
• Summer Job Fair
• Career Panels
• Fall Job Fair
• “How-to Build” Experience
• Preparing resumes and cover letters
D. Field Trips
We want youth to be aware and connected to the histories and ongoing realities of communities within and around the country. To encourage this state of continuous learning and ensure that all youth have the opportunity to engage in this type of activity, we will be organizing a set of discounted field trips to different sites as decided by the youth.
2.2: EMPOWERMENT THROUGH THE ARTS
Gaining skills and having opportunities to express oneself through the creative arts has been shown to positively impact youth well-being . Besides being a way to convey emotions and thoughts in a safe space, the arts as a tool for empowerment allows youth to actively partake in the shaping of their environments through the work they produce collectively. Whether that is through framing their community and related issues, communicating action to power, or just sharing or advocating lived experience, programming in the creative arts is very important in allowing youth to recognize their importance within the community and influence positive social change.
As such, we aim to have programs focused on the development and encouragement of the use of creative skills. Below are a list of our proposed series:
A. Photography 101
This will likely include different levels (e.g. photography for beginners, photography for intermediates, etc.) and will focus on skill development in this area led by professional photographers in the community. The program will include various projects including a photo-voice project where, by the end of the program, students will select a selection of photos that they feel tell a story they wish to share. All art projects produced will be shared during an annual/semi-annual art gala featuring various works the youth put together. Work will also be shared on our youth-led blog and Instagram page.
To make the program accessible, we will be providing a limited number of cameras for youth to use.
B. Writing to Be Read, Writing to be Heard (Creative Writing)
This creative writing program aims to encourage and enhance creative writing amongst youth as a tool for expression. With the guidance of seasoned writing talents from the community, youth will be mentored on the art of writing to express. Sub-themes in this program area will include writing narratives, poetry, spoken word and even play-writing. Writings (and other visual artwork) will be compiled to produce an anthology (possibly online, in-print, or both). Contributions to the youth-led blog will also be encouraged.
C. Visual Arts with your Hands (Traditional and Digital 2-D Art)
This program stream will focus on 2-D traditional and digital visual art forms. This will include illustration, design and comic art. Again, leveraging community talents as mentors/teachers and facilitators, youth will be given an opportunity to explore or advance their artistic talents within a supportive environments. Opportunities to meet with professionals in the field and publish their work in various mediums (including our blog, Instagram and anthology) will be provided.
D. Establishing a Social Media Presence
Social Media is a great tool to use for sharing message, organizing communities and building a personal brand. Too much use, and it can also lead to negative self-perception. For that reason, navigating and building a strong (and positive) social media presence is challenging and bound by its own set of rules. With many youth already using social media forums, we want to develop programming that would help youth engage with social media more critically while developing the appropriate skills to creatively express themselves. Using the guidance of popular local social media presences, youth will be given the skills and opportunity to develop their own social media presence. They will also be able to develop and participate in the running of a CHANGE youth blog and Instagram account.
E. Coming Together in a Single Project: A Film-Making Project
Building off all our previous creative art programs and after gauging youth interest, we hope to introduce a culminating film project. Together with community member(s), youth will watch films to explore how movies influence or reflect dominant discourse/popular ideas and how to use this medium to express their own. As a final project, participants from all creative arts programming will be offered an opportunity to develop a film and/or a play together using the skills they’ve learned from their respective programs (e.g. creative writers produce script/playwright, visual arts produce storyboard, photography contribute to actual filming). Mentorship and support will be provided by mentors from community members in these areas. The final product(s) will be showcased on our blog and at the gala.
F. Annual Gala
An annual or semi-annual event where the youth are able to showcase their work
SECTION 2.3: SELF-EXPLORATION
Self-esteem and a high sense of self-worth are necessary for youth success and are linked with a number of positive outcomes including improved mental health, lower rates of aggression and violence, higher rates of positive social relationships and a more positive outlook to life. However, with the many challenges of growth – heightened by social and political pressures – youth (especially racial or socioeconomic minorities) are at an increased risk of having low sense of self and esteem. While programs focusing on the professional and academic growth are abundant, support for self-exploration and love is limited yet a necessity for success. That is why we feel the need to provide programming encouraging self-love and growth at CHANGE.
A. Getting and Staying Woke
This program will allow youth to critically engage with media and discourse surrounding populations throughout the world. The goal will be to understand how media, language and politics impact social cohesion, sense of well-being and self-love on both a macro and micro scale. In doing so, we aim to: (i) recognize our own prejudices and systematic barriers differentially impacting segments of the world’s population; (ii) recognize the ways pervasive discourse impacts our own conceptions of self-worth or capability; and (iii) improve interconnectedness amongst youth who would or may have otherwise ascribed to dangerously divisive narratives against each other or oneself.
B. Learning to Love Yourself
Through various themed workshops, youth will be able to make time to recognize and explore themselves while learning to truly accept themselves for who they are. Workshop themes will be organized to allow for this exploration from various angles including appearance, ability, identity, healthy living and ‘success.’
C. Social Circle
This would be a weekly session where youth will discuss various topics related to self and society together. Sessions would be facilitated by a youth leadership community member and will encourage critical thought, openness to new ideas and a safe-discussion environment.