Cultural activities for our youth

As a community, we place value in our expression of arts and culture. We pay to go to the theatre, we purchase art at galleries, we buy tickets to see music. The question previous to this asks how to support artists in the community - and the response is to pay for our cultural contributions, and to pay those that provide them.  If we decide as a community that these are things that we want, then we work for a way in which to pay for them, be it outside investment, private grants, community fundraising or government monies.

Britt Chalmers

I think supporting them is important. Looking at grants and initiatives to help run programs, offering support for volunteer organizations, and looking into ways to include these initiatives into the budget.

Chris Heisterman

Living in Tofino and Ucluelet presents challenges. For most of us adults, it is our choice to live here. For our youth, it’s not. We need to be supportive and creative when it comes to funding and creating recreation programs for our kids.

Craig Heber

I'd suggest we can include artist in residence model so that in exchange for volunteering to teach or run programs for kids to seniors, artists can have a studio/home in micro home development and receive credit for this service.

We can create Non-profit Foundation to fund free cultural activities for our youth, promote Tourists and others to contribute to Foundation for a tax receipt as charitable donation.  Council can lobby provincial government to fund these activities as part of school curriculum. Tofino can and should do more in this area to make Arts a focus for our community and it's residents.

Dorothy Baert

Lots. We currently offer community and arts grants which have modestly supported these initiatives. The recently adopted Strategic Arts and Culture plan specifically recommends ways to generate financial and other support. There are many such opportunities available locally and beyond and there is a role for a facilitator, like the Events assistant, who can help build capacity in the local arts community.

Duncan McMaster

Nothing is free in this world anymore and I hear similar complaints that there are not enough sports activities for teens that are not into surfing. Unless the funding formula for schools based on the size of the school population were to change, I don’t think it is realistic to expect a small school to offer the same amount of programs as a large school in large urban centre.
The recently endorsed 3-year ACH action plan and the push for a Tofino recreation centre will hopefully alleviate these issues. We are blessed with many skilled volunteers but suffer from a shortage of facilities.

Eric Kingsley

There is a wonderful woman trying her darndest to get a youth group going on a regular basis. I would encourage everyone to support this one or other youth groups in any way you can. Have space? Suggest a BBQ! Have time? Volunteer to teach guitar or cooking! Have stuff you wanna get rid of? Organize a clothing swap! In short, I see the solution to this one as community involvement and communication.

Jarmo Venalainen

As with arts and culture activities in the previous question, I believe it is a duty of the district governance to use some amount of our community money, our tax dollars which all of us worked for, for the promotion of arts and culture and thereby high school activities related to that. As a community the question for us all to answer is, how much of our community money do we use for arts and culture.  It is my opnion that the answer to that question should be sought by persons most interested in that as you cannot ask another to be interested in something that they are not.  If you did, you would likely not get diligent pursual of the question.

Jason Brown

Again this is another area that we would benefit from the addition of a community centre and library to our town,  I would be happy to support the creation of a community centre.

Josie Osborne

We know that investing in sports and recreation for children and youth is extremely important for physical and mental health, and leads to healthier, happier adults. The same is true for arts and culture. I know that collaborative efforts are already underway between schools, municipal recreation programs, and some amazing adults in our community, but more can be done if more resources are provided, and if there is a leadership to help drive the conversation with the youth themselves. When teens are asked what they want and need and we let them lead the way, we can better provide them with space and resources (maybe it is by reallocating existing municipal recreation funds, seeking additional funds, or partnerships that make for more cost-effective efficiencies). I’ve really enjoyed some of the local initiatives in Tofino recently – from children’s puppet theatre to youth choir to the successful youth-led pitch for some of Tofino’s newest public art (coming soon!).

Stephanie Hugues

Wickaninnish Elementary has electives for the students that include fine arts, and theatre.  The High School could start offering electives to students that include activities like dance, theatre, choir etc. for credit.  The Community Centre in Ucluelet has a fantastic facility with a stage and other rooms that could be used for arts and culture programming.  Embedding arts and culture education in the curriculum is critical for program continuity.  Funding would come through the school district and or partners to ensure long-term success  for our students.

Stephen Ashton

Anytime students are not able to access cultural activities through their school because of lack of money means that the current system of funding is failing.  It is not because of a lack of money as provincial governments spends billions on projects like Site C.   The province needs to be lobbied for increase in monies to public schools and less if not completely discontinuing subsidies to private schools.  This would ensure full support for public schools and their cultural programs.

Tom Stere

As the new co-chair of the USS parent advisory committee, I will work to provide more arts and cultural programming within the schools.  As co-chair of the Tofino Recreation Commission, I’ve always been a strong proponent of the Kids Access Fund to provide access to programming for kids who may not be able to afford these programs. The Tofino Rec Commission also welcomes any arts or culture opportunities suggested for their programs.  I will continue to be an active part of the above committees and would support these programs as a council member.