A few months ago we had the pleasure of meeting with Lauren, Bev and Betty-Lou of North South Partnership for Children. At the time, they had just launched their Southern Youth In Motion (SYiM) campaign and the first issue of SYiMzine. They told us about their plans for a showcase in the fall as a means of thanking the youth for participating in the project while also providing an opportunity for youth from southern Ontario to meet with youth from the province’s northern communities. We thought it sounded like an amazing opportunity and wanted to offer ArtBridges’ help in any way we could. We connected Lauren with with Michael Cywink, a community artist we first profiled back in June 2011 (read ArtBridges’ posts about Michael here) and helped lead a donation drive to secure art supplies that were then gifted to the youth as a thank-you for attending the event. In the end, SYiM was able to purchase 15 gifts, including a professional pencil set and hardcover sketchbook. We’d like to thank Lauren, Bev, Betty-Lou and the entire SYiM team for hosting such an important event, Michael Cywink for his on-going dedication to community arts in Ontario, everyone who donated and supported the event and most of all, the youth, for contributing and sharing their art! We look forward to seeing what’s next for Southern Youth In Motion and wish them all the very best!

– Cora-Rae Silk, ArtBridges

Above mural created with community artist, Michael Cywink, and SYiM youth at the SYiM showcase
(Toronto; December 1, 2012)

“Southern Youth in Motion (SYiM) is an advocacy campaign for youth across Ontario, it aims to connect youth from southern Ontario with youth in northern Ontario’s First Nation communities through art projects, an online magazine and our first ever Southern Youth in Motion Showcase.

The SYiM Showcase took place on December 1st, 2012 where we brought youth from Ontario’s northern communities: Wapekeka, Weagamow Lake, Sandy Lake, Fort Hope, Kewaywin, Kashechewan and Thunder Bay to meet youth from southern Ontario: Kingston, Windsor, Waterloo, Hamilton and Toronto. All of the youth who attended the showcase created arts projects to present to their northern or southern peers. Their arts projects included: paintings, songs, spoken word/poetry, drawings, videos, PowerPoint, etc. It took such bravery and passion to share their art pieces with our group.

At the showcase, the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, Irwin Elman attended and shared inspirational words with our young people to continue their passion for art and continue advocating for young people in northern Ontario. Also, a wonderful elder, Pauline Shirt joined us and was a huge part of our day, she passed her knowledge and wisdom to all of the youth who attended and shared her traditional teachings with our group. We also had Michael Cywink, author, muralist and artist attend the showcase and help paint a mural with all of the young people throughout the day. The youth had many opportunities to share their art, their voice and create a mural that brought the group together as one.

After each youth had the opportunity to share their art, we had a northern youth ask to share his response to a southern group’s video (here’s the link: http://vimeo.com/53194973). He shared some of his experiences living in northern Ontario and answered some of the questions that arose from the video: “Are there malls in northern Ontario?”, “Is there drinking water?” – the connection between northern and southern youth was amazing to see, the SYiM Showcase was our first step to bridging the gap between northern and southern Ontario.

The next step for SYiM is to launch our next SYiMzine: Showcase Edition, SYiM Showcase Video and SYiM Showcase Multi-media Presentation. We hope to utilize three different media types in order to fully capture the voices of SYiM Youth and share what took place at the SYiM Showcase.

This is just a brief idea of some of the outcomes from our day, here are also some quotes from youth that they sent me on Facebook:

Thanks again for everything :)you were the one who made both me and jareds dream come true, performing for you’s and all.

It was awesome meeting you as well, I hope to be able to make it to more events like the one that was over the weekend. Thank you again for everything, I had a blast.

I had the best time of my life meeting with new ppl… It was like salt n pepper on moose meat lol jk hugs n thanks again for the invite 🙂“

– Lauren Akbar, Youth Engagement Coordinator
SYiM, North South Partnership for Children

To read other ArtBridges’ posts about SYiM, please click here.
See ArtBridges’ Google map for contact info.