Harmony
ImpACT

Empowering youth to be the change through the use of dramatic arts

Overview

ImpACT: Theatre 4 Change is a leadership program that empowers youth through the use of dramatic arts. Regional and global topics are infused in the education and training to create a forum where students can explore issues on diversity and equity.
Using their own experiences and feelings, students will acquire the skills necessary to explore different options and examine the consequences of their actions, and the impact of change in a safe environment.

This program is unique in that it uses a variety of methods and techniques to educate and inspire program participants. Through interactive and interdisciplinary techniques, ranging from performing arts and drama therapy to role play and conflict resolution, students will be given the opportunity to create dialogue and to develop effective communication skills.

The aim of art is to represent not the Outward appearance of things, but their inward significance – Aristotle

Why are the ARTS so important?

• Allows youth to build important life skills through game-playing that reflects the world around them and celebrates multiple perspectives of their diverse community.¹
• Gives youth the tools to make good judgments about qualitative relationships and discover that problems can have more than one solution.²
• Engages children in a process that aids in the development of self-esteem, self-discipline, cooperation, and self-motivation.²
• Participating in art activities helps children to gain the tools necessary for understanding human experience.²
• Provide minority youth with opportunities for positive self-expression and offers pathways to fulfilling careers.
• Nearly 70% of educators see behavioral changes in students, that have been exposed to the arts.³

Good art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us. – Roy Adzak

Goals and Objectives

ImpACT aims to encourage youth to:

• Increase social justice and diversity awareness.
• Learn vital theatre techniques that can be utilized both inside and outside of the classroom.
• Empower youth advocates for change by implementing conflict resolution methods and utilizing communication skills.
• Gain confidence and validation through self-awareness and grasping ideas surrounding identity.
• Learn from, and interact with, individuals from diverse backgrounds.
• Link cultural awareness to the process of conflict resolution.

Outcomes

• Enhance students’ awareness and appreciation of their culture and its impact on their interpersonal relationships.
• Develop students’ ability to function effectively and productively in a diverse global world.
• Raise student’s community awareness, through ensemble theatre, to show that each of us is part of a larger whole.
• Build leadership through public speaking and theatre performance skills.
• Change participants’ attitudes towards peers of other backgrounds and individuals labeled as ‘other’.
• Give participants a sense of personal achievement through participation in a school-wide/classroom presentation.
• Give youth the opportunity to become exposed to the arts and anti-oppressive education.

Format

ImpACT is an 8-week program open to youth with and without theatre experience. Although the methods used in the program are primarily from the theatre, the main focus is to initiate dialogue about oppression, identity, discrimination, power and privilege and advocacy. The final expectations for participating students will be to create an art-focused project and resource that addresses topics of diversity, raise awareness, initiates school-wide dialogue, and create solutions to existing issues within their schools and communities.

The arts cuts across racial, cultural, social, educational, and economic barriers and enhance cultural appreciation and awareness. -Dee Dickinson

¹ YouthARTS Development Project, (1996).
² Mulder-Slater, A. (2001). Why is Art Education Important.
³ Eisner, Elliot. (2000). Learning and the Arts: Crossing Boundaries.