Overbrook community program bringing in youth, local artists, police to counter hate crime
The program will get youth thinking about the impacts of discrimination and hate crime.
by Taylor Blewett
Jul 29, 2021
It’s the “power of articulation” that spoken-word artist Jamaal Jackson Rogers hopes Overbrook youth take away from their participation in a new program focused on the creation of art to combat discrimination and hate-motivated crime.
A $40,000 grant from Ontario’s ministry of the solicitor general allowed the Overbrook Community Association to put together the “Youth Engagement for Safety (YES) Project,” which allows young people in the area aged 12 to 17 to register for a series of free workshops with Rogers (also known as JustJamaal ThePoet), Ottawa muralist Kalkidan Assefa, and filmmaker Mailyne K. Briggs.
The program will get youth thinking about the impacts of discrimination and hate crime –– reporting of which has shot up in Ottawa –– as well as the meaning of diversity and inclusiveness, and to express those thoughts through the art forms being taught over the course of the program.
Of Ottawa neighbourhoods, Overbrook-McArthur is among those home to the most racialized people, Indigenous people, newcomers, and refugees, in terms of population percentages, according to the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study.
In February, the Ottawa Police Service reported that the group targeted most frequently by hate-motivated crime in 2020 was the Black community, followed by the Jewish, East and Southeast Asian, LGBTQ+ and Muslim communities.
Local hate-crime reports rose by nearly 57 per cent in 2020, an increase due at least in part to proper coding of incidents by police and more people recognizing when they’re being targeted by a hate crime, an Ottawa police hate crimes investigator told this newspaper in the spring.
“I’m just looking forward for these youth to get an opportunity to tell their stories,” Rogers said before the YES Project’s first workshop on Monday.
“I follow the American art scene really closely and also the American activism scene really closely, and I’ve seen how powerful storytelling can be in times of reform and transformation.
“I thought to myself, ‘How come Canadian youth don’t get access to these types of opportunities? The power of storytelling and and using that to leverage change?’”
While much of their time will be spent creating film, spoken-word, and mural art, YES project participants will also be invited to a “community dialogue session” with the members of the Ottawa Police Service’s hate crime unit and neighbourhood resource team.
Police partnership on the project was one of the requirements for securing funding from the ministry, according to project co-lead Marjolaine Provost, a vice-president with the Overbrook Community Association. Other partners include the city’s anti-racism secretariat and Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King.
The YES Project is an offering to young residents of a neighbourhood that’s “a little bit ignored by the powers that be,” said Provost, who wasn’t aware of a program like this one being extended to youth in Overbrook in recent history.
“If you think of like, the Glebe, and their community association and all the programming and the facilities that they have … they’re in a complete other league than we are.”
Because of feedback from project partners – youth workers, people at the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre – organizers will maintain a relationship in the background with police contacts, Provost said, rather than directly involving them early on.
The hate crime unit will provide some materials (a project focus is learning about hate crimes and how you can respond if one occurs). The dialogue session at the end of the summer will be optional for the youth participating in the program, and something Provost said they also hope to invite the broader community to participate in.
Rogers is mindful of that fact that “sometimes, police presence can make things feel unsafe,” and said they’re taking care to structure the dialogue, which will include other organizations, so that police don’t have the final word.
“When it comes to understanding how to … bridge community connections and make communities safer, police need to listen too.”
For youth who might not want to attend the dialogue session, Rogers has a counter-consideration.
“This is a chance for you to be present. Whereas before, laws and rules and regulations were made without us even being asked, you know. So now, at least now you get to hear and you get to question,” he said. “Being able to use your own inquisitiveness is extremely powerful.”
Briggs, an entrepreneur and documentary filmmaker and one of the artists involved in the project, said she hopes youth walk away with a skill, or multiple, they could use for their own benefit in the future.
With film, for instance –– maybe it’s something they can use to start a business, or at a new job, in addition to sharing stories “that are meaningful to them.”
The YES Project is still accepting new registrants (who can earn volunteer hours). Those interested can contact [email protected] or the Overbrook Community Association on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Source: Ottawa Sun