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The Youth of Today Exhibition, Schirn Kunsthalle Museum, Frankfurt - Photo: MarenYumi, Creative Commons Attribution Licence 2.0
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Youth Marginalization in Context
Youth Arts Programming – Effects and Outcomes
Best Practices
Funding Support
Lessons to be learned? International approaches to policy and funding for youth arts
Conclusion
All Resources
Youth Marginalization in Context
There is considerable research documenting disturbing trends of youth (1)disengagement across Canada, with some youth communities experiencing disproportionately high rates of social exclusion and marginalization (Gaetz 2004, Jenson 2000, Juteau 2000, Omidvar and Richmond 2003). Despite overall gains in income for Canadians over the past decade, recent immigrants, visible minorities, Aboriginal peoples, lone-parent families headed by women and persons with disabilities are over-represented in the lowest income groups (Canadian Council on Social Development 2006). Youth who experience poverty, racism, homelessness, unemployment, under-education, gangs, addiction and abuse face an increased risk of encountering criminal justice, health, and social service agencies as youth and adults. These issues are not internal to specific communities, but are produced in connection with broader political, economic, social and cultural conditions.
Political trends since the mid-1990s have contributed to conditions of economic vulnerability through a reduction of overall funding for social services, restructuring of social programs, and a downloading process from federal to provincial and municipal governments who are left to pay an increasing portion of the cost of providing social services while having limited means to raise revenue for their growing demand (McKeen and Porter 2003). An erosion of the social safety net, such as highly restrictive qualifications for employment insurance, the shift from welfare to workfare, and a lack of affordable housing and daycare, has thus had disproportionate economic, social and psychological effects on low-income adults and children (Browne 2003). These effects are exacerbated by the interplay of poverty with other social processes, such as racism, to compound problems of exclusion and marginalization.
The retrenchment of funding for social services and the shift toward marketization and privatization in the delivery of remaining services has also severely damaged both the amount and types of arts and recreation programming available. Arts and recreation programs are now often subject to user fees, making them inaccessible to many. A lack of funding has left community recreation infrastructures in serious disrepair, so even when barriers to participation such as user fees or transportation costs are removed, suitable facilities to house the programming are difficult to find (Browne 2003).
1. Definitions of youth vary widely depending on policy jurisdiction. This analysis defines youth as those individuals ranging in age from 12 – 29 in the interests of capturing the full range of Canadian youth programming and policy that includes a focus on the arts.
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References and Resources
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