Community Outreach

Our award winning Youth Animation Programs build the confidence and resiliency needed in order for youth to set and achieve their goals.

Recognized in 2007 by Governor General MichaËlle Jean as a positive step towards sustainable community, our programs equip youth with fundamental life, teamwork, creative thinking and personal management skills needed to participate in today’s labor market.

Quickdraw Animation invests in Calgary youth in the following ways:

• Supporting independence and well being
• Developing life and employability skills
• Mentorship and support for those in crisis

We will invest financial support in the following ways to address these identified priorities:

• Scholarships & Awards
• Bursaries
• Capital Equipment Costs
• Program Costs

Youth Animation Project

About

Quickdraw Animation Society’s Youth Animation Project (YAP) assists 32 youth who face barriers to employment to either prepare for employment or return to school. The project, helps to develop life and employability skills through community service.

Throughout the project, youth engage with a unique community-based endeavour, in which they develop skills and work as a team, while providing a valuable service to the community. It is expected that the majority of participants will complete the program.

Throughout the program, participants develop an employment action-plan, a resume/portfolio and a short animated movie, based on the issues and themes identified by community partners.

By completing the program activities, the youth experience reduced barriers to employment and increased ability to enter and participate in the labour market.

Participants

Participants of the YAP program are youth between the ages of 15 and 30 at the time of intake, who meet the following criteria:

• Presently experiencing barriers to employment and in need of assistance in order to overcome those barriers
• Not presently attending school full-time
• Legally entitled to work in Canada
• Having a lack of significant attachment to the labour force, and/or having poor career-development prospects under current circumstances
• Not in receipt of employment insurance

In the selection process, preference will be given to those who:

• Are willing to participate in services while moving towards employment or education
• Have interests relating to the project
• Have sufficient physical and mental health to benefit from services.

Community/Client Partners

Client Partners include: Calgary Public Library, Calgary Police Service, ARUSHA Center, Alberta Wilderness Association, Calgary Sexual Health, CJSW and NUTV.

Community Partners include: Youth Employment Center (YEC) and Momentum.

Aboriginal Youth Animation Project

Our Aboriginal Youth Animation Project (AYAP) build the confidence and resiliency needed in order for youth to set and achieve their goals.

The Aboriginal Youth Animation Project consists of a 25-week employment-training program. Managed by Quickdraw in partnership with USAY and AFCC, AYAP will accept one intake of 14 youth into the project.

The program is designed to enhance the employment, creative, personal, and social skill sets of the Youth participants, and to enable storytelling through the creation of an animated movie. The films will be based on issues relevant to the Aboriginal community, with the documentary and the collection of films created during the project serving as a valuable asset to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities. The project will be anchored in community partnership with USAY and the AFCC. AYAP will continue to embrace cultural values and endeavors to enhance youth leadership capacity and personal development through various components of daily programming.

Throughout the project, participants will be guided through the development of a personal action-plan, gaining access to a host of cultural and life skills related resources.

Through the development of an animated film, participants will learn skills such as teamwork, collaboration, planning, visualization, time management, project-management and communication.

Throughout the production process, participants will gain fluency in a variety of computer office and graphics programs, including: MS Office, Adobe Photoshop, iStop Motion and Final Cut Pro, Toon Boom; skills that are in high demand in today’s labor market.

Partners

Quickdraw Animation has sought and will continue to seek partnerships with a number of Aboriginal community organizations with the intention of increasing not only the support being offered to the youth of AYAP, but also increase personal and social support networks available to the participants.

By pairing Quickdraw Animation’s unparalleled animation and new media expertise with organizations and programs such as the USAY, the AFCC, Canadian Red Cross Tipi of Courage, Pathways, and The Youth Employment Centre the Aboriginal Youth Animation Project will take a holistic approach towards employment training, utilizing animation’s power and wide appeal to empower Calgary’s urban population of Aboriginal youth to take ownership of their future and goals.

Additional organizations that Quickdraw has established collaborative relationships with include: The Native Ambassador Post-Secondary Initiative (N.A.P.I), The Bullhead Adult Education Centre (Tsuu T’ina Reserve), the Aboriginal Youth Network (Mount Royal College), The Native Students’ Centre (Students Association of Mount Royal College), EMMEDIA Gallery & Production Society, the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers (CSIF), Stride Gallery, The New Gallery, the EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts, etc. Throughout the project, we may access resources provided by these community groups.