YouthMADE is a multifaceted media arts production and outreach program that inspires those who have been targets of hate and discrimination to become creative agents in overcoming it.
The primary outcomes of this initiative are:
- The creation of 2 youth-driven resource packages (one aimed at high school aged students and teachers, the other at elementary) that feature the work of youth and
- The development and delivery of a series of arts-based youth-facilitated workshops to students, teachers and administrators.
It is a dynamic example of peer education in action, YouthMADE brings young people to the ‘front of the classroom’ through a series of interactive youth-facilitated workshops that incorporate the core values of the project: Creativity, Critical Analysis and Compassion. Using the power of youth-voice and digital storytelling to speak directly to youth, YouthMADE workshops give young people an opportunity to generate conversations that are meaningful and relevant to them.
The ‘big picture’ goal of this project is to help make BC schools and the various communities that surround them more compassionate, inclusive, creatively engaged, critically aware and socially just. At heart of this project is the belief that digital storytelling is a transformative and powerful tool for building relationships across and between ‘difference’.
YouthMADE was developed by the non-profit group, Access to Media Education Society (AMES), in partnership with the Vancouver School Board, and is available to all grade levels.
