Youth Art Engagement

A multi-session project that engages high-risk youth within the Lower Mainland in the creation of an artistic project aimed at raising awareness about the issue of sexual exploitation while fostering youth leadership and youth voice.

Youth participate in nine 2-hour sessions facilitated by young adults who provide ongoing mentorship and guidance to participants. Each session includes one hour for activity-based learning and one hour for social justice art experimentation and creation.

Youth participants select the type of creative project they would like to pursue, which may take the form of a skit, mini-play, visual art piece, a written project, or other mediums.

At the end of the 9-week project, we hold a gathering with the students and the school community where youth are celebrated for their participation in the project and their artwork is displayed for viewing along with the artist statements. Some students invite their families to admire the artwork they created. In one school, the artwork is now displayed in a permanent exhibition. Last year, one participant noted:

“I really enjoyed being able to try so many different mediums and new things, through this process I realized that creating art makes me feel a lot better about things that have happened.”

Click here to see some of the artwork created by past participants of the Youth Art Engagement Project.