Project Summary:      This is a new UMAYC project which will be a series of public art works that involves a diverse range of youth coming together to create their own images for public spaces that are usually occupied by advertising, billboards, bus shelters, street posters and postcards. There will be a series of workshops, each series is nine days, with ten participants per group. These images will then be installed into the urban landscape, reclaiming these public spaces.

 

Anticipated Results: Big Picture, Media Interventions is a series of public art works that will use billboards, bus shelters, buses, flyers, and street posters to challenge the appropriation of public space for corporate advertising. It is a part of a multi-level community art project that engages and involves Vancouvers youth in deciding and creating the landscapes of their communities. By creating a safe environment in a series of workshops, this collective echoes project, will open dialogue and inspire critical analysis of consumer images

in society. From this participants will design and make images that alter our relationships to public space and personal identity. Big Picture challenges stereotypes, promotes awareness on social concerns, anti-showcases consumerism, and works towards healthier communities.

 

Impact for youth participants

 

This series of workshops provides Vancouver youth an opportunity to work collectively to visually represent their lives and perspectives. With the involvement of Aboriginal youth as part of the larger project, they will address themes and issues of youth and consumerism, youth and advertising, youth and public image. The youth enter into a positive dialogue of critical assessment with the consumer culture that both targets and marginalizes them. The result of these workshops, visual art works, will then be

showcased throughout Vancouver using outdoor advertising space reaching a diverse and large audience. Here the youth are empowered to represent themselves, their perspectives and visions, presenting to the public an alternative awareness.

 

Partnerships

 

Collective Echoes is expanding and creating new partnerships. For this project we have the support of : Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre, Vancouver Youth Voices, Refwire Magazine, Dusk til Dawn, Street Youth Job Action, Urban Native Youth Association, The Studio, Adbusters, Access to Media Education Society, Check Your Head, Portland Hotel, Urban Youth Alliance, and Gab Youth Services at The Centre.

 

Intended outcomes:

 

v     Raise issues and share ideas,

v     Enable people to have direct input in transforming imagery,

v     Build community connections,

v     Provide a platform for a voice outside the community

v     Pay youth honoraria,

v     Creates higher self-esteem and open future positive possibilities.

 

In the short term Big Picture will take back public space and improve the images we see in these shared spaces. It will raise issues concerning our society and bring communities together through teamwork to create images to identify with. In the long term, Big Picture will benefit communities in a substantial way by initiating solutions to social concerns, providing visual landscapes of possibilities, and create friendships and unions between people.

 

 

Recreation Project

 

Project Summary:      This is a new UMAYC project. The project will be for urban Aboriginal youth who need a positive, safe and healthy environment to pursue recreation, social, and cultural activities. Attempts will be made to balance recreational, social, educational and cultural aspects within the whole project. There is a need for organized sporting events and leagues. The Friendship Centre is a suitable and central location for these events and is well equipped with facilities and supplies.

 

Anticipated Results:

 

Impact on Youth Participants

 

The Recreation Program will create greater awareness around health and wellness as well as traditional values.  In particular, the Recreation Program will provide youth participants with more sport programs, outdoor recreation trips and valuable workshops.  The ideal outcome is to provide youth with more confidence, greater empowerment, increased community involvement and leadership skills.

 

Partnerships

 

The Recreation Program will be in partnership with the Urban Native Youth Association, Our Elders Speak Wisdom Program, the West Coast Family Night Committee and the Pow Wow Family Night Committee.  Other partnerships include the Vancouver School Board and Brittania Community Centre.

 

Improved Integration of Services targeting Aboriginal Youth

 

The Recreation Programs greatest strength is the possibility of opening the gymnasium over the weekend and providing consistent and organized time slots for intermurals for youth of all ages.  Currently, there are no organized sporting events for youth.  Also, the Recreation Program will continue the development of Girls Talk, a program for young girls that hopes to teach more self-confidence, cultural knowledge and the practice of cultural knowledge.  Family and community involvement will also be addressed and encouraged in the program. Finally, youth will play a huge role in the shaping of the program to provide opportunities for empowerment and resume building.