The experiences of other arts-based outreach and learning projects, (for example Frontier College's Beat-the Streets photography and mural projects, and drama groups with the Inner City Drama Association in Edmonton), have shown that creative activities help learners who are "closed" out of self protection against repeated failure to open up again, to begin to trust and share and process and thus to be more available to learning opportunities in the future. Arts-based projects are ideal as outreach tools for at-risk youth, to bring them back to learning and to provide opportunities for referral to existing literacy and social support programs.

The youth-at-risk in our target groups indicated a clear, excited preference for hands on, creative educational activities. Video making was the top choice for all groups, with "draw/paint/create something" and "build something and write about how you did it" as the second and third preferences. We have chosen photography for phase one of the project because our 4-week pilot phase is too short for participants to gain the technical skills involved in video making while still maintaining a literacy focus.

We piloted the four-week photography / literacy project with 6 target group youth from March 18 to April 12, 2002. Revisions to the model and activities were made throughout the pilot. Thanks to the co-operation and support of The MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Ontario, youth photographs were exhibited in a local gallery space. The exhibition used youth-written descriptions of the project and their work as well as youth written invitations to the opening. Counselling and referral were provided to learners by the instructor and project co-ordinator throughout the pilot to increase likelihood of further literacy / upgrading / skills training involvement.

Finally, we are excited to announce that a proposal to extend the project into Phase 2, to develop a similar video-making model and accompanying learning activities, has recently received funding from the National Literacy Secretariat, and will run from July 2002 through November 2002. The resulting manual and learning materials package will be distributed in December 2002.