An Ottawa program that helps at-risk and homeless youth is mixing art, activism and academic research to shed light on their experiences and share their unique perspectives with the community.
The Passion 4 Youth Fine Arts Program (P4Y) started in 2009 to empower young people in need through creating art and music. Every week, a group of participants between 16 and 25 years of age meet at the Dominion-Chalmers United Church on Cooper Street, where they are given a hot meal plus paint, canvas, clay, musical instruments and anything else they need to express themselves.
For the past three months, University of Ottawa PhD candidate Susannah Taylor has also attended P4Y meetings. She wants to research how social structures – such as laws and policies –– affect the day-to-day lives of “street-engaged” youth.
Leading up to the program’s bi-annual art show at the end of November, Taylor held discussions and focus groups to learn about the youths’ experiences with a variety of Ottawa systems, including the police, transportation, and education.
When she asked them to channel their stories into pieces for the first-ever “Critical Impressions” art show and performance, held at the University of Ottawa on Nov. 28.
P4Y has never done anything like this research collaboration before, says Moira Davis, a P4Y program facilitator, who added that the themes of the resulting artworks have been surprising.
“I consider myself someone who knows the youth and their stories really well, and I still made assumptions about what was important to them . . . It made me realize there’s a lot of people out there making false assumptions, too,” says Davis.
Many youth chose to depict very personal struggles in their art, such as substance use and mental health, explains Davis. There was a huge variety in the artwork, including a colourful canvas with shards of mirror inspired by experiences with multiple-personality disorder, a poem and sculpture about immigration, and a story about a traumatic brain injury illustrated with intricate pencil sketches.
“It seems to me a lot of the youth want to give the community a glimpse into what their experience has been like,” Davis adds.
Hope Zonruiter has been visiting the P4Y program for about a year. She says Taylor’s research is important because it actually involves the young participants the research is ultimately trying to help.
“A lot of us are activists, so these discussions weren’t out of our bubble. We’re passionate because we’re all very affected by social structures like transportation, the Children’s Aid Society or welfare,” she explains. “We have a lot to say, and it was like, thanks for finally asking us!”
Taylor says she hopes the youth will continue to participate in her research in the New Year by presenting their art and ideas to other academics, city officials, and community leaders who could be inspired to make meaningful social changes.
P4Y is run by Centretown-based Ottawa Innercity Ministries, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Kevin Schafer, a long term OIM volunteer, has been working with the arts program since it was created.
“I wasn’t sure, coming in as a middle-aged, suburban person, how the youth would relate to me. But the music immediately gave us a bond,” says Schafer. “Some of these youth are phenomenally talented.”
Those talents are the focus of P4Y’s strengths-based approach, says Davis.
“The youth start to see themselves in a more positive way, so they’re not just focussing on the negative labels that are being shouted at them all the time,” she says.
Moving into the fifth year of P4Y, its participants, facilitators and volunteers hope the program will continue to grow, ideally adding a second youth group and a wider age-range.
An average of 500 youth use Ottawa shelters each year, and P4Y wants to engage as many of them as possible.
“This is a lot more than just art, this is investing in their lives,” says Schafer.