UNITY Charity (Mission & Programs)
Mission: UNITY is a youth led and artist driven registered charity dedicated to teaching youth positive artistic outlets for self-expression leading them to make positive life choices helping our communities become safer and stronger.
“Hip Hop Away From Violence” Program: Through our inspirational performance assemblies and follow up artistic development workshops UNITY provides positive artistic outlets for youth to express themselves instead of expressing themselves through violence, drug use, stereotyping, bullying and other negative forms of expression. Our alternative educational format based on hip-hop and urban culture arts programs, events and continual follow-up activities provide youth with a platform to engage in creative artistic outlets. These outlets boost their self-esteem, re-engage youth into academics, introduces a healthier lifestyle and teaches youth to become m entors to their peers.
To engage and inspire youth, the “Hip-Hop Away From Violence” program undertakes inspirational high school assemblies, artistic development workshops, and various follow up projects which develop artistic skill and are based on the culture of hip-hop (spoken word poetry, urban art, and break-dancing).
Connecting with hard to reach youth through Hip Hop:
In terms of contemporary hip-hop culture, youth are bombarded by negative images, whether it is violence, stereotyping of women or a host of other images that distort the true power of the medium of hip-hop. UNITY has found that hip-hop has created a distinctive and universal language that has elements of mainstream culture, as well as its own subculture that speaks directly to youth. The duality and popularity of hip-hop makes it the perfect platform for youth to be, intrigued, inspired, and ultimately engaged with UNITY and their own community. UNITY shows that hip-hop and the arts can provide a powerful and positive message, giving a voice to youth who generally are not given the opportunity to express their daily experiences, both positive and negative.
Empowering youth leaders, mentors and performers:
Our projects empower youth to take on the responsibility of helping their community. To help youth break out of their indifference to larger community issues we challenge youth to think critically about the needs of their peers, school and wider community and their personal role in these areas. The youth in our programs then create artistic pieces to express their feelings on these issues and share their art with their peers. With UNITY support our youth become community spokespeople using their messages to inspire positive change.
www.unitycharity.com
