Graffiti is the foundation of a skill building set which can be directed and honed to provide sustainable employment opportunities. Graphic Arts, Production Art, Scale, Model drafting and design, and a host of other employment opportunities will be created through the SCYAP Inc. URBAN CANVAS PROJECT.

Graffiti is the foundation of a skill building set, which can be re-directed and honed to provide confidence and self-esteem building through positive artistic opportunities.

Currently, graffiti is the only form of visual art publicly present in much community. By implementing multiple murals, you will be allowing youth to choose a safe and constructive creative outlet that has never been offered in the past. By increasing the amount of visual culture through murals, positive attention can be given to those interested in the arts, enabling notions of positive legacy to the individuals and the community.

Concepts

It is through a combination of community support, engagement, inclusion and skill development that opportunities for our young people can be realized. SCYAP continues to be successful in using art & culture based ventures in community building, crime prevention/intervention, youth personal development and as an anti-graffiti initiative. The process is not an overnight solution but a long-term developmental initiative that uses peer influence and education as its prime ingredients. By building within the community a comprehensive collaborative plan that incorporates numerous artistic ventures geared to the engagement of young people, we can develop the basis for positive peer influence, education and positive group contagion. These endeavours also embed extensive practice of skills and habits that school and effective family life increasingly demand: teamwork, persistent effort, self-monitoring, creative problem posing and problem solving, and negotiation of argument and critique.

Art Builds Community Public

Art plays a vital role in community development and revitalization as it builds identity and unification through a transformational, communal growth. The creation of a public art focal point in your neighborhood will transform an underused and often vandalized property into an attractive legacy, which in turn will increase the desirability in community residency. Historically, art has served the public through expressing social ideals and communal image. Suburban neighborhood structures are predominantly young, and without much visible culture or history for residents to position themselves in relation to. The incorporation of a public art focal point in your neighborhood will speak to the growth and development of the individual, as well as the community as a whole. Currently, the exterior of Lawson Heights School is being painted without permission by the youth in your community. We would like to turn the negative attention directed towards youth around, through enabling one exterior wall to become a community focal point. The resulting mural will inspire pride, connect generations, and enforce youth with a sense of positive importance.