Mikw Chiyâm welcomes students who face significant barriers in their personal and academic life offering them an alternative space for creative expression where they can thrive and feel motivated to continue engaged in their education.

Goals:

• To promote student retention and increase graduation rates
• To encourage student excellence in the arts
• To motivate students to engage in their education and to carry that motivation into other classes

Objectives:

• We propose projects that foster creative expression and that respond to the students’ artistic passions and interests.
• We offer opportunities for experiential learning where students can learn from observing and interacting with others in a shared space
• We promote positive attachment to school understanding the classroom as a rich community of learners and artists.

Mikw Chiyâm encourages students to develop an awareness of their role in their community and of the consequences of their actions in order to develop a sense of responsibility and conscious decision making.

Goal:

• To form responsible and engaged citizens who are accountable for their actions and their impact in the community
• To promote commitment and give tools to help students accomplish projects from beginning to end
• To create awareness of how everyone’s actions impact the learning community and the program directly

Objectives:

• We invite students to reflect about their own learning process setting expectations and outcomes for themselves.
• We require students to improve and maintain their attendance level in order to remain in the program.
• We collect data on student enrollment, participation and grades.
• We provide constant support for artists and teachers through weekly conference calls and continuous communication.
• We are attentive to the feedback we receive from students, teachers, artists and other community members to continue developing the program in accordance their needs and experiences.
• We structure our program in compliance to the Quebec Education Program (QEP)

Mikw Chiyâm creates opportunities for students to collaborate, communicate and connect with their local community.

Goal (what):

• To create connections with existing community organizations and programs
• To create opportunities for collaboration with local artists and other members of the community
• To engage youth outside the program in creative programming
• To generate intergenerational links and communication with parents and elders
• To expand and strengthen the links between the school and the community
• To connect students to working artists from their communities and from other places in Canada

Objectives (how):

• We foster reciprocal learning opportunities between teachers and professional artists.
• We create partnerships with existing organizations and programs.
• We require participant artists to engage with the local community and organize activities open to the public.
• We build and constantly expand a database of local artists
• We organize art shows to share work with the community at the end of each residency.
• We invite youth to present in the N’we Jinan Festival where they can represent their community and meet other youth
• We create a network of support between the program administrators, artists, teachers, students and community.