Community Arts Programming as a Factor in Newcomer Youth Inclusion: The Toronto Situation

The value of engaging newcomer youth through community arts programs is examined within the Canadian context, specifically within Toronto. Expanding upon the existing literature and studies concerned with newcomer youth settlement needs, themes of social, structural and spatial exclusion set the context for discussion of using arts-based methods. Relating these to theories of social inclusion, social capital and critical social theory of youth empowerment, a primary investigation involved interviews with a private funding foundation, the Laidlaw Foundation, and a focus group session with newcomer youth from Beatz To Da Streetz, an active community urban arts program. The implications of this study are a demonstration of the positive process and outcomes of using arts methods for newcomer youth inclusion, but that the lack of support and resources available to such programs, particularly from federal and provincial sources, limit the impact of such programming.