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.
A variety of high-risk youth groups are involved in the program, including youth in alternative education programs, Indigenous youth, newcomer youth, youth of minority groups and youth who identify as LGBTQ2S+.
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.
The project wraps up with youth sharing their project with their peers and the larger community through a youth art gallery celebration.
The purpose of showcasing the art is to celebrate the youth’s work while enabling them to truly demonstrate their understanding of the issue of sexual exploitation, as well as raise public awareness.
Click here to see some of the artwork created by past participants of the Youth Art Engagement Project.
Contact Program Facilitator, Courtney Liem, at (236) 889-1891 or [email protected]
Children of the Street is dedicated to preventing the sexual exploitation and human trafficking of children and youth in British Columbia. We achieve this goal through education strategies, public awareness initiatives, and family support. Children of the Street is a program of PLEA Community Services Society of BC.
We acknowledge that we work, live and play on the unseeded territories of the Kwiketlem, Tseil-Waututh, Sto:lo and Qayqayt peoples.