Youth Hubs

The Active Inclusion Program (AIP) is a two-year design, delivery, and evaluation of a new socially conscious dance performance program. The program was created to disrupt discrimination, intolerance, hate and racism as a method for increasing awareness about Canada’s cultural diversity, issues affecting underrepresented populations in fully participating in society. The design, delivery, and evaluation are entirely youth driven. They are not only involved in the implementation but also in the delivery and evaluation of the program. Priority is given to the following underrepresented populations: Indigenous, people of diverse abilities (including those with mental health issues), low-income, remote and rural areas, LGBTQ2S+, minority languages, visible minorities and racialized, newcomers, refugees, and women.
https://sqxdance.org/what-were-up-to/active-inclusion-program-aip/

5X Festival is the essential festival and digital community elevating South Asian youth culture. Their vision is to build a world where they belong and thrive. Their flagship event is a multi-day, multi-venue festival covering music, visual art, fashion, and culture. 5X also builds an online community through social media, 5X Press, and created content.

Their project, Backstage: A Conversational Short-form Content Series, is bi-weekly series produced for youth on YouTube and social media focusing on the stories behind the emerging creators in their community. Focused on artist discovery, and drawing from the performances featured at the 5X Festival 2021 Live, this series of 2-3 minute videos will add an interview component to the mix. Each iteration will be launched with a featured guest hosting an Instagram Live Q&A from the community.
https://www.5xfest.com

A youth oriented performance creation lab for digital work in dance, theatre, performance art and interdisciplinary experimentations. This program, a mixture of remote workshops, information sessions and mentorship, will guide young artists through the research, creation and production phases of a screen based performance work of their own. Targeting youth across BC, the online format will create an accessible work environment providing guidance through digital creation utilizing free tools such as open source software and mobile apps. They will provide an educational opportunity that will give young artists all of the tools that they need to begin creating work that could go on to be presented in online showcases, live performance series, film festivals or unconventional screen based formats. This program will focus on empowering artists to shape by bringing their own interests and connect participants with artists that are most aligned to their interests whether that be dance-on-film, sound art, 3D animation, text based theatre or work that requires specific cultural understanding.
https://www.futureleisure.net/news

Haida Gwaii Radio will continue the second year of their House-to-House (H2H) project, which was brought to life in fall of 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions posed challenges to their in-person Cedar House Sessions project. H2H is a fully online coffeehouse-style event for local emerging performers and a showcase for a main act. They’ve had success reaching local and off-island performers and audience members with a few online sessions in fall 2020. This spring/summer, they plan to test out a new concept producing an outdoor performance video “sessions” to produce a 6 to 8 online performances to be pre-recorded by local videographers, with sound and film editing by two local technicians. The end product would be an extended performance in the style of Cedar House Sessions but offering a “higher-level” product using the skills their team has developed over the past couple of years.
https://www.facebook.com/haidagwaiiradio/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC8_3WJ7XXf6uaqoQbksWfQ

The goal of the Inside Out Project is to engage and support young Comox Valley artists as: artist/leaders, mutual mentors, technician/videographers, storyteller/actors, also as audiences in a multi-media artistic lemniscate (a loop that keeps looping)!  It’s how they think of the theatre as a community building~building community. The idea resulted from brainstorming after a staff and volunteer “virtual hangout” about wanting more active LGBTQ2 inclusion at the theatre, and how to overcome the primary barrier of perception. Inside Out involves working with 2-3 multi-disciplinary artists (youth members of our local theatre community who are also visual artists) to create 1-3 murals inside the theatre. The creation of the murals will be video-captured by youth videographers and mentored by staff and prior-year Mentorship and Youth Engagement participants). The resulting video will be screened either as part of the 2021 fall Season Launch, and/or as part of a fall Centre Stage-at-the-Sid as a living video backdrop behind a youth theatre/dance or music performance completing the inside/out loop: a growing circle of light that starts on stage, expands through the performer and public spaces of the theatre, and (using their new video­ recording/live streaming system in a layered way) returns to the stage and flows out to the audience and out into the community to reach viewers.
https://www.sidwilliamstheatre.com/about/

Live from Stagyn will be a live stream and feast of youth-oriented and created contemporary Indigenous music at the heart of the Nlaka’pamux Nation that will feature a live audience (subject to BC Health Orders). The August 7 live stream will be available as a direct webcast from their website, streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, and simulcast on the Lyttonnet community television channel that serves the Nlaka’pamux Nation. 2RFM also leveraged partnerships with 2 Rivers Remix, VirtualFeast.ca, Lyttonnet, and SoundON to inspire and empower Indigenous youth in remote isolated reserve communities with a showcase of young artists from local Canyon nations (Nlaka’pamux, Secwepemc, and St’at’imc). In addition to performing, some of the artists will be interviewed about their music and their journey as Indigenous artists. Sto:lo/Nlaka’pamux host, Ronnie Dean Harris, will be the cultural guide linking traditional feast sharing to today’s virtual feast of contemporary Indigenous artistry. Nlaka’pamux elder, Charon Spinks will welcome the audience with a Nlaka’pmxcin prayer and stories weaving the land and Nation.
http://stagyn.2rfm.ca

Smithers Community Radio continues their outreach to emerging artists in their surrounding communities for the purpose of advancing their careers, providing a wider audience, and to provide opportunities to make an income.
This year they are focusing on outreach and inclusion of emerging artists in the Northern Region, not serviced by a community/campus station. They will specifically seek marginalized populations including Indigenous Youth. To meet this goal, they have hired an Indigenous Outreach Coordinator to work with them to develop connections to Indigenous artists and communities throughout the region.
They plan to continue to host their Lounge Car Sessions with 8 x 30 minute sessions where artists will perform in the Lounge Car or virtually. These will be broadcast on the radio, and recorded on video to be uploaded to their YouTube Channel. Performers will receive a quality recording of the video that they can use for future promotion or album creation.
http://www.smithersradio.com
https://www.facebook.com/SmithersCommunityRadio/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmyMeasHnwLWdtPtjIgvUmQ/playlists