ARTS IMPACT: Improving the odds for at-risk youth

Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada, Summer, 2000 by Jenifer Milner

Changing families, economic trends, time and work pressures on parents: these forces create challenging lives for our youth. The 1.5 million Canadian children living in poverty poignantly reflect society's vulnerability. Canada has the second highest rate of child poverty among 18 industrialized nations; that's one in five disadvantaged children. The House of Commons resolved in 1989 to end this situation by year 2000, but figures continue to spiral upward and the need for solutions with them.

The more we examine poverty's effects on children, the more we identify how the arts can make a difference.

For example, children living in poverty "show almost three-and-one-half times the number of conduct disorders; almost twice the chronic illnesses; and over twice the rate of school problems, hyperactivity, and emotional disorders as children who are not poor," says Dr. Paul Steinhauer, staff psychiatrist at Ontario's Hospital for Sick Children.

The arts address the damage of disadvantage by fostering resilience. Studies show this trait can be enhanced through several factors. These include building personal characteristics (i.e. self-esteem), strengthening support networks, and providing opportunities for participation. The arts meet needs in these and other areas.

Arts programs in the United States -- the industrialized country with the worst child poverty rate -- succeed in "attracting, engaging, and retaining even the toughest kids," according to the Arts Programs for At-Risk Youth. Americans for the Arts (1997). For instance, the "last chance" New York Alternative School in Tillson, New York, has doubled graduation rates since implementing an arts partnership in 1992. Locally, an increasing number of organizations provide arts programs for disadvantaged youth. The following groups represent just a few of those expanding access:

Art Starts in Schools focuses on increasing exposure to the arts for BC school children. This spring, Art Starts produced a pilot project specifically for inner-city schools: artists from a variety of disciplines presented more than 100 workshops during Multiculturalism Week. The positive response to the workshops from teachers and students has led Art Starts to plan a series of arts-based anti-racism projects for inner-city schools next year.

Arts Umbrella educates children in the visual and performing arts. This organization also boasts an extensive outreach program. It makes arts experiences available at no charge to more than 13,000 East End and inner-city elementary school students annually.

Ailanthus Performing Arts Centre for Youth supports its students overall development. Ailanthus aims to ensure "all participants become college or university graduates." And the centre's students benefit from artistic training, plus tutoring, counseling, personal and school intervention, and legal assistance, if necessary.

Arts programs can play a role in improving the odds for children in need. They provide avenues through which we can encourage and nurture our youth, while instilling or reinforcing much needed life skills. Dr. Steinhauer paints a clear picture for Canadians: "We have a choice. We as a society can either provide the supports hard-pressed families need to prepare their children for success in school and in life, or we can avoid doing so, in which case we will pay later -- and much more and with much less to show for it -- as we try to pick up the pieces of their developmental failure."

Jenifer Milner is the Communications Manager of the Vancouver Cultural Alliance. This article first appeared in the VCA newsletter and is reprinted with permission.