Youth Employment Program Receives Solicitor General Community Safety and Crime Prevention Award

A small, youth employment program is making a big difference in its community and has been recognized for its efforts.

Kaleidoscope , is a work and life skills program focused on preparing at-risk youth for future employment, operating in Richmond and Vancouver. The program pays participants while they embark on a 16-week film production experience that offers them the opportunity to learn many skills including communications, teamwork, film production and job search skills. Participants create several films throughout the course both documentaries and dramatic productions.

Haroon Bajwa, Coordinator of the Community Assessment and Action Network (CAAN) in Richmond, nominated Kaleidoscope for the Community Safety and Crime Prevention Award, after seeing one of Kaleidoscope's productions about the lure of gangs, in particular for young immigrant youth.

Award recipients are selected by representatives of the provincial Safe Communities Working Group – which includes representatives of government, police and community organizations. The 10th annual awards ceremony was part of the 30th annual BC Crime Prevention Association training symposium.

In his nomination, Bajwa wrote:

In 2007, this innovative program and its young film team produced Rite vs. Right, a film depicting the experience of youth and gangs. The film was inspired by the real-life experiences of two of the youths involved with the film production. Both of these young men were attracted to the program because it offered them pay while giving them the opportunity to be creative and, in the process, training them for a world that was the opposite of the one they were trying to escape.

The young men, on whose lives the film was based, had made a conscious decision to try and change their lives and credit Kaleidoscope with doing so. The process of creating the film also inspired the others on their production team and other young people who have since seen the film.

“The creation of Rite vs. Right was not only a transforming experience for those involved, it has also served to make this community a safer place as it has enabled these young people to come out of gang life and into positive employment experiences,” says Donna Ross, Career Coach with Kaleidoscope.

There has been a great deal of interest in the film since its premiere, with crime prevention educators expressing an interest in using the film to educate youth about the dangers of gang life.

It is this kind of impact that inspired Bajwa to nominate Kaleidoscope for this award.

(Rite vs. Right) succeeded in entertaining and educating everyone who viewed it… it validates the Kaleidoscope motto “We're not just building skills; we're building character for life and work.” And, by doing this, Kaleidoscope has contributed to making our community safer by making our youth better citizens!

Ross and Randy Keats of Kaleidoscope received the Community Safety and Crime Prevention Award at a ceremony on October 4 th . Also attending was Phil Hood, videographer and two of the youth, Jordan Lee and Gloria Gore. To view Rite vs. Right or to learn more about Kaleidoscope, visit www.mccecd.bc.ca/kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope is a project of Mennonite Central Committee BC Employment and Community Development. The Government of Canada has contributed funding to this initiative.

Come and hear more from participants in this program at the annual Fraser Valley Arts and Peace Festival .