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AMES Issue-Based Programs combine the key aspects of our commitment to media access and outreach, by focusing on the production of issue-based videos for the specific purpose of education and advocacy.

These programs provide youth from marginalized communities with a safe environment in which they can reflect on issues of concern to them and get instruction from an accomplished group of peer mentors. Whether tackling issues of prejudice and discrimination, climate change or health, the videos made during these programs tap into and draw from the multiplicity of visions and experiences of people who have 'been there' and have dealt with these issues first hand.

These videos have also become an integral part of a series of youth-created Resource packages that include custom-made activities, glossaries, and guidelines for generating safe and honest discussions in the classroom. These packages are currently being used in high schools throughout British Colombia.

Deepening our commitment to peer education and advocacy, youth facilitators are currently going into schools around the province, hosting screenings and leading discussions on the issues tackled in the various packages we have developed.

ISSUE-BASED RESOURCE PACKAGES

PEER PERSPECTIVES is a youth-driven, video-based program that takes fresh approaches to long-standing social problems. Rooted in belief in community-based advocacy, it draws from stories and experiences of culturally-diverse youth to create educational resources that address issues that are hard to get students to discuss: issues such as discrimination, social exclusion, cultural and sexual identities. The program features three youth-made films, accompanying learning resource packages, and a team of experienced and trained youth facilitators that are touring classrooms.

For more details, including video clips, follow the link to our dedicated PEER PERSPECTIVES page.

SMOKE SCREEN 1: ANTI-SMOKING ADS BY AND FOR GIRLS

SMOKE SCREEN: Behind the Scenes is a 20-minute documentary that takes you behind the scenes of the Smoke Screen 1 project, where you will get:

• a sneak preview of the making of the Smoke Screen 1 ads
• insight into why the girls got involved with this program
• to hear candid views on what makes girls smoke and how hard it is to stop

The 21-page Teacher's Guide that accompanies the doc includes background info, links and lesson plans. It delves into issues like:

• what motivates girls to smoke
• tactics used by tobacco companies to target girls
• the health impacts of smoking

This doc and guide are currently being used in high schools throughout BC.

SMOKE SCREEN 2: Through the Eyes of New Canadians

Smoke Screen 2: Through the Eyes of New Canadians is a tobacco prevention/cessation resource to help teachers and community leaders keep youth smoke-free. The documentaries in this resource package feature a series of dynamic and engaging youth-made ads as well as candid interviews with young immigrants and refugees about their views on smoking and the reasons they feel compelled to create media messages to discourage their peers from picking up or continuing the habit.

The accompanying guides contain lesson plans for teachers wanting to use this material in their ESL classes and/or to meet the prescribed learning outcomes of Health and Career Education 8 and 9 or Planning 10. In the interest of reaching the broadest base of students possible, the package contains several versions of the documentary and two facilitator’s manuals: one for ESL classes/teachers and one for general use.

PAST ISSUE-BASED PROGRAMS

GET THE WORD OUT (GWO) (2002/2003)

In late 2002 and early 2003 AMES began running an innovative new program to help non-profits “get the word out” about their causes while providing multi-barriered youth with hands-on media production experience. In addition to providing non-profits with affordable advocacy videos, this program has been effective in:

• providing professional development and mentoring opportunities for some of AMES most enthusiastic students
• raising the profile of both emerging media artists and AMES through an ever-extending network of Vancouver-based non-profits
• introducing high school students to the media arts and inspiring them about video’s potential as both an artistic medium and an effective advocacy-tool.

Among the organizations we worked with on this initiative were:
Galiano Island Conservancy, Check Your Head. Anti-Patti-Project Purple Thistle Centre, Tribal Harmonics Dusk ‘Til Dawn, BC Self Advocacy Foundation and Headlines Theatre

This project was made possible through financial support from: The Vancouver Foundation, The United Way of Lower Mainland & VanCity

SPEAKING OUT (2003)

Speaking Out was a video-based research project rooted in the principles and practices of peer education and community-based advocacy. Over the course of a three-week media production and research intensive, Speaking Out saw 8 women with first hand experience as sex workers getting a fully subsidized opportunity to:

• learn facilitation techniques and host a series of discussion groups with their peers
• reflect upon the individuals, agencies and circumstances that contribute to their ability to exit the trade and/or reduce their exploitation within it
• get the technical know-how to create videos that express their views on the problems facing sexually exploited youth
• propose potential solutions to those problems

Working with relevant community-based organizations, the videos, summary of findings and recommendations were used to bend the ears of decision makers and enhance existing education and outreach programs.

FUNDED BY: The Status of Women Canada and the Community Mobilization Branch of the National Crime Prevention.

The Pride House Project (2002/2003)

AMES' first video ethnography program brought together community and university-based youth to learn image-based research techniques. This video component was part of a larger research project that was spearheaded by the Pride Care Society, to create a better understanding of the living conditions and in particular the housing needs of homeless queer youth. The program, involved 7 days of 'video boot-camp' on Galiano and 3 days of post-production at AMES' Urban Outreach office in Vancouver. It ended with the production of a series of videos, one of which promoted the importance of Pride House, a safe house for queer street youth.

We assisted in the creation of a public information film for Vancouver's Down Town East Side Women's Centre.

The 2001 AMES/IDERA Anti Racism PSA project, undertaken in collaboration with the International Development Education Resource Association, led to the creation of five youth-produced Public Service Announcements, tackling the subject of anti-discrimination.

Youth Action on Climate Change: Fall/Spring 2001

In September 1999 ten AMES grads and ten young environmental activists came to Galiano Island for ten days to produce Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to educate the television viewing public about climate change and global warming. A total of 16 PSAs were produced and 9 of these were broadcast across Canada in 2000. We are aiming to run this project, created in partnership with Molloy & Associates, Gumboot Productions and the Gulf Islands Film and Television School again in the fall of 2001. A selection of works from this program can be viewed at www.youthinmedia.com [For making this program possible, AMES gratefully acknowledges the financial support of: Environment Canada]