| Purpose : |
This Phase 2 project builds on the networks and partnerships established in Phase 1. Four Arrows RHA will employ four Youth Workers, one in each Island Lake community, to implement programs of arts-based activities. The project will utilize local artists, occasional visiting artists, and Four Arrows staff to provide drop-in arts and crafts activities, to lead and to provide training in leading talking/sharing circles (especially among young women and girls), and to form groups that are devoted to developing more advanced skills, particularly in creative or performing arts. The activities will target both youth in general and young women in particular, but will also include inter-generational activities. This project will complement other Four Arrows youth initiatives in sports and recreation which also serves to strengthen protective factors to reduce crime. The increased protective factor strategy includes a) Regular schedule of creative arts activities for youth on a ‘drop-in' basis, minimum weekly in each community; b) Regular schedule of creative arts activities combined with talking/sharing circles for young women on a ‘drop-in' basis; c) Training for project staff, health staff and other resource workers is using creative arts as a resource for healing and wellness, and for talking about difficult or painful issues; d) Establish intergenerational creative arts groups to pursue higher level of creative output and/or performance; and e) Regional inter-generational arts-based events twice a year.
Program activities will bring youth into relationships with peers, adults and elders who will be positive role models and mentors. This process protects against youth seeking self-esteem and peer approval through gang and crime involvement; and it protects against people (especially girls and women) being victimized through their silence. Talking/sharing circles among girls and young women will provide social and emotional support that will enable them to name and reduce the incidence of violence against women.
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