My design mission began with a series of focus groups to gather as much information possible. Focus groups were used as “a data collection method used to reveal people’s thoughts, perceptions, and experiences” related to this project (Wayne 2013, 264). We returned to the homes of the families that opted into the focus group and asked them to meet us at certain locations based on whether they were men, women or children. The women were to meet in my quarters on that Friday night while the children were to meet in Raquel’s home that Friday afternoon while their parents were still at work.
The men were asked to meet at Trevor’s quarters on Saturday afternoon. At this time, I also brought the IRB approved parental consent forms for the parents of the child participants to sign. Before the focus groups began, I reviewed the results of the surveys to create planning points. The summation of the results were that most people thought the largest issue occurring was the intracommunity violence. They replied that their favorite childhood activities were interacting with one another outside without worry and they would like to see more community interaction.
They surmised that the way to progress would be through recreation centers with community involvement and counseling services for the community. The children’s meeting was a divided meeting with 5-10 year olds in one area, 11-14 year olds in another area, and 15-17 year olds out in the front room. They were asked a range of questions pertaining to favorite activities, community fears, and improvements to the community that would make their lives more fun. The children wanted to participate in activities that exposed them to their culture and gave them things to work towards.
They expressed a love for dancing and soca music. They wanted to learn to dance and play music like the musicians they saw in the media and in the surrounding areas. Others expressed that they loved the artwork such as the murals and graffiti that they saw in their own neighborhoods and wanted a place to do such artwork without being penalized. Lastly, they proposed a sports area where they could come to play soccer and basketball freely together without worry. The women’s focus group was conducted later on in the day.
The focus groups with the women were conducted in waves throughout the afternoon as women were released from work in hourly waves. Being that some many women showed up with their concerns, it was beneficial to myself and my informants that they came in waves by the hour. Over 5 hours we have 400 women involved in the focus groups. Women expressed the need for counseling as many of the children had witnessed and participated in traumatizing events that served to withdraw them from the community. Most of the women had been involved in drawing, dancing, and music as a child and wanted their children to take part.
When we discussed the recreation center that many women mentioned, they were concerned out it costing money for membership which would deter their children as the parents did not have much money to give them for outside activities. From the women’s groups it became clear that the desired expressed by the children resonated with the women as well and that they would like personal services for their children’s emotional and mental health. That following day, we convened at Trevor’s place where he introduced me to the male focus group and we began with an open dialogue about the answers that their families sent in through the surveys.
The men expressed a need for a place of order and structure for everyone to convene and interact and where the parents could come and monitor what their children are doing and even participate themselves. The men wanted the children to be more involved with the elders so that they could gain wisdom and knowledge from them. The men expressed a need for everyone to learn the art forms and the ethics of the elders and become more in tune with their culture. Their ideas directed me to the inclusion of the elders of society into teaching and directing the actions of some of the activities.
Design At this point, wrote out a potential program plan to share with Mr. Hamilton that incorporated the ideas of the community that were revealed during the surveys and focus groups. The plan was to used the building that he was constructing as a community center for arts and recreation. A subdivision of the community center would include a personal development wing for personal growth and development. It would be a safe place for the children to do homework, receive counseling, and do planning for their futures.
Some of the arts and music classes would be taught by elders and community artists. Studies, also, showed that elders participating in community based activities experience improved health (Radda & Schensul 2011). The next course of action was to seek out potential elders and community artists that would be willing to commit some time to educating the children and the course of benefits that these leaders would receive as compensation for their time and wisdom. The people we found said that they would do it for free as long as it would be a safe place for the children at all times.
We established funding from several organizations such as Socio-Environmental Fund CASA and the Latin America Program of the Open Society Foundations. The Latin America Program of the Open Society Foundation works to foster open societies that are safe, inclusive and respond to citizens’ needs. We were provided with their Right to Education in Inclusive settings grant which supported the arts and personal mental and emotional health education in a safe space (Open Society Foundations 2015).
The Socio-Environmental Fund CASA granted funds based on the premise that our project created social mobilization for the common good and established strong participation of the youth (Fundo Casa 2016). At this point we needed to establish a chain of command, volunteerism, get instruments, establish lesson plans, acquire mental health professionals, connect with surrounding schools, and create Partnerships with arts organizations and stores. Moreover, we needed to establish a way to measure change and happiness in the community center and surrounding community.
Being that we measured the unhappiness of the community by lack of community involvement in positive activities and the presence of the high crime rate, I concluded that tracking the number of people that volunteered at the centered, attended the classes, and attended the performance saturdays would give a measure of the community involvement. Community members would be asked to submit feedback on performance days on the classes and personal development that could them be studied for happiness measurements and the crime rates could be monitored from week to week.
We connected with local schools who agreed to spread the word about the opening of the community center. The schools connected us with local art stores which we then convinced to offer supplies on a biweekly basis by agreeing to advertise their businesses outside the community center for people to buy from them. Local school counselors agreed to be on staff after school hours for 3 hours with at least 4 counselors on site Tuesday through Saturday.
Art education is central to Trinidadian culture because it is an expression of the rich historical heritage of Trinidad spanning from Spanish, aboriginal, African, French, British, Indian and other cultural influences that encompass the people (Wagar 1973, 132). For our arts program, we included Painting, Sculpting, Installations, community murals. One outer wall of the building was set aside as a mural wall where the community could come together and paint a mural together once a month.
Installations artwork would incorporate trash that the kids found in the streets to create abstract projects that way turning street trash into artwork. Kilns would be added to one of the rooms near the opening to the center so that fumes from pottery could expel out through the windows and not cause overheating. Painting classes would be in the room next to the pottery room and create an openflow environment from the pottery to painting rooms. Art students would volunteer from semester to semester in exchange for course credit and in some instances extra credit by their schools.
Caribbean soca has a close relationship to calypso music. The music attempts to engage and establish a relationship of understanding with the audience while also delivering undercover messages through music (Leu 2000, 49). Thus this was the perfect music to incorporate into the center. It established a shared culture and understanding that crossed generational lines and therefore made it essential to the project. Some of the women banded together to find places that would donate instruments to the community center for those who wanted to take in depth classes on instruments.
Steel pan music being quite possible and accessible, Trevor went out in search of discarded metals that could be melted into steel pans for the community to use for jam sessions. The performing arts section was to be in the back of the center so that performers could easily access the shell shaped stage in back of the community center. The performing arts were meant to be “transcultural” and appeal to everyone regardless of “race or ideology”. To promote unity and self worth the dancers were supposed to be “ encouraged to improvise, their statements becoming increasingly individualistic” (Jones 1982, 175-179).
Organized dances would be orchestrated by community dancers and local school dancers. Drawing from the rich culture of Laventille, community participants would learn dances including: Bongo, Kalinda, Shango, Soca, Somba and Limbo dancing. Implementation Working with the the community volunteers and elders, we created a calendar to promote the celebration of Laventille’s rich culture. Cultural celebrations demonstrate “the power of the fine arts to unite people through creativity, cooperation, and self expression” (Damm 2006, 57).
Monday- Thursday would be devoted to classes in the arts and recreation with Saturdays devoted to performances. The first Saturday of the month would be devoted to gallery presentations of the art work created by the community members. The second Saturday would be devoted to dance recitals showcase the diverse art of expression through body movement. The third Saturday would be devoted to music recitals and community jam sessions to relieve stress. The last Saturday of the month would be devoted to community wide soccer games and creation of the building’s mural for the month to come.