AiR meeting notes 27th Oct

[reehamification]

AiR
Meeting # 8: 27th October 2011

At this meeting we had Abdi Aden, a youth worker from City of Whittlesea, join us in sharing his thoughts on the project.
Abdi was involved in creating art programs for young people, specifically from migrant background, and interacting with families.
Here are some points he mentioned from his experience:
Problems faced with getting young people/kids involved in the arts:

• Access: Gaining access to kids and their families can be challenging for program organizers.
• Parent consent: Getting parental consent could be the hardest step for the reasons mentioned below.
• Spare time: families hold studies and work as priority worrying that arts programs will take their kids’ time and focus.
• Misconception: Arts are meant for certain groups, for eg. ‘photography is for gay people’.
• Trust: parents not familiar with the program environment and its organizers might be reluctant to send their kids to the program. Especially if there is no mode of communication between parent and child (for eg if the child has no phone).
• Lack of organization (on program’s behalf): Sometimes the organization hosting the arts program might be disorganized in its conduct and communication with participants and families, which can discourage parents.
• Future: Parents might see no future employment opportunities for their kids in the arts and might not have an understanding of what skills can be developed through an arts project.
• Space: participants need to have alternative spaces away from home to build relationships with other participants. Abdi mentioned that they once organized an Art Camp where participants spent a few days building relationships and experiencing arts. However, funding such venues and camps might be difficult.

Note from Reeham: In my previous experience in organizing community camps for young Muslims, arts workshops were amongst the most successful activities. Perhaps we can get a community camp organizer or participant involved to talk about this?

Abdi mentioned some tips he uses with parents/families about art programs:

• Make sure the program coordinator builds rapport with families/parents/youth etc. Families need to TRUST the idea first.
• Familiarize the community with the arts.
• Be clear about what the result of the art program.
• What are the benefits gained after the engagement in the arts program?
• Address how skills developed in an arts program can benefit employment in other fields.

Here are some ideas mentioned in terms of where and how the video we’re proposing can be utilized:

• Leadership programs: discussing with participants how art can be important to your respective communities.
• Community festivals: speaking at an event where the audience involves families and youth. This provides opportunities for questions to be asked by families/young people about the initiative.
• Competitions: for young people linking the video to an outcome and a prize.
• Employment programs: Linking up young people interested in the arts to professionals in the field.
• Youth camps: activities related to the arts, community engagement, etc.
• Youth groups: afternoon group activities at community/youth centres can involve this in their programming to discuss the arts with the young people/families.
• Youth worker training: on the validity and importance of arts programming.
• Drop-ins: Speaking at community centres, organizations, institutes, youth groups etc.
• Schools: speaking at schools, especially to grade 6 students/teachers.
• Next step: Video credits can indicate where young people interested in pursuing arts projects/programs can go to; for eg. ‘Go to [organization name]’, ‘Check out [website]’ etc.

Abdi also mentioned how personnel are employed/hired by government organizations to drop in and discuss such programs. However, their lack of success is due to the fact they do not necessarily understand how to relate the information they have to different cultures and in different languages. More training is required in these aspects.
This is also where it is crucial to get community workers and youth workers involved as they are at the front line in communicating with the communities they work with and as such can gain access to youth members and their families.