Learning and Planning Together to Connect with Youth
Good Shepherd ACE Team with project design template. Photo by Paula Knowles.
By ArtEd Lead Consultant, Christie Huff.
ELAN’s ArtEd program had a very busy October as we connected with hundreds of Artists and Educators. The ACE Initiative, funded by the Secretariat for Relations with English-speaking Quebecers, and the ArtistsInspire Grants aim to provide youth in Quebec with opportunities to have diverse arts and culture experiences in English in their communities.
Reflecting on our interactions this month, what strikes me most is how deeply our Artists and Educators care about youth. Our Artists share a desire to help youth unleash their potential, understand themselves and their relationships, and engage with their communities in healthy ways. As Julie Hobbs, Education Consultant, highlighted in our October webinar, Artists create a unique niche for learning in new and different ways that often benefit the vulnerable students in the class most.
We are grateful for every teacher and principal who contacts us about our funding and support – we appreciate their trust in inviting our Artists into their schools!
October Highlights
- Connecting with our Artists: More than 70 artists have now participated in our Orientation session – get to know them by viewing their profiles at artistinspire.ca.
- Professional Development program launched: Including a Webinar on Including Students of All Abilities facilitated by Julie Hobbs, Education Consultant and the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) for Adults who Interact with Youth, facilitated by Trainer, Chad Diabo. The training was offered at the request of ACE Artists who have seen how the creative process often leads to youth sharing individual and collective mental health concerns. Thanks to funding from the CHSSN, 22 Artists invested two days of their time to be certified in MHFA by the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
Artist Craig Sim Webb, who took these photos during the MHFA course, shared his reflection, “Feeling so grateful…a rare chance to meet amazing kindred artists who work in schools, and also soak up plenty of valuable, practical wisdom and strategies for recognizing and helping youth with mental and emotional challenges.”
- Schools are APPLYING! ArtistsInspire Grant applications were approved for 90 schools: An outreach campaign is being launched to reach another 100+ schools. Please encourage the English public elementary and secondary schools you know to apply – the simple process is explained in our brochure.
- Developing ACE Connection capacity in Schools: ACE Facilitator, Paula Knowles, met with eight new schools from across the province to CONNECT with their vision, identify their Arts, Community & Education themes and start building the team who will COLLABORATE to make their projects happen in the CREATE phase. Schools who developed ACE projects in 2018-19 were offered support to continue developing ACE connections and more projects! Look for our November blog post to read more about what is happening in all of our ACE schools.
St. Michael planning meeting. Photo by Paula Knowles.
To learn more about our ArtEd program, follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
To contact us, email ace-initiative@quebec-elan.org or artistsinspiregrants@quebec-elan.org or call 438-979-1171.
