Sm-ART Youth Project 2014

The Sm-ART Project

Through constant year-round exposure to diverse arts disciplines in and outside of the classroom, this project enables underprivileged children to nurture a questioning mind, to understand the self and beyond, and to locate meaning in their young lives. This programme is founded on the concept of inter-generational teaching and learning with volunteer training and contribution.

Led by AFTEC’s founder Ms Lynn Yau, the weekly music and drama classes are organized and taught by renown musician, Ms Nancy Loo, and educator, Ms Priscila Chu.

Year 3 Programme

The Year 2 (Silver Level) programme focuses on further exposure to the arts and differentiated learning on Cultural Days.

In Year 3 (Gold Level), students will learn the skills of creating, following an action plan, developing and completing an Individual Project to graduate from Sm-ART Youth.

Through the interaction with youth leaders and adult volunteers during the cultural activities, students are enriched and empowered. At the same time, volunteers learn to understand the power of the arts as agents of change.

The programme also serves as a platform for structured “training-the-trainers” for the MA students from the Centre for Behavioural Health, Department of Social Work and Social Administration, University of Hong Kong.

Quantitative and qualitative data are collected from students, parents, art educators, teachers and volunteers to assess the impact of the programme on children’s educational, personal, social and aesthetic development.

This project was quoted by the Korea Arts and Cultural Education Service (KACES) as Best Practice Model and is a Star Project under UNESCO’s Arts in Education Observatory at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.