VOICES OF A NEW GENERATION
The main objectives of LYA projects are to:
- Use creative writing to develop the young people's communication skills by improving their grammar, diction, spoken and written English;
- Use creative writing to develop the young people's research skills in order to promote social, political and cultural awareness;
- Use creative writing to promote active literacy, honest writing and critical thinking;
- Use creative writing to develop young people's interest in an area of the school curriculum (literature) that has always been seen as a waste of time by many young people;
- Stimulate young people's ambitions to pursue further education or training in order to seek gainful employment;
- Use creative writing as a forum for promoting dialogue among young people from socially and economically disadvantaged communities and older members of their community, government bodies and the wider society;
- Offer young people from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to deal with the problems of identity, lack of ambition and sense of displacement by using the arts to give them a voice to air their concerns;
- Provide young people from socially and economically disadvantage areas, opportunities to build confidence, gain valuable social experiences and access to forums and places that their social status sometimes curtails;
- Use the creative writing processes to help young people to develop the discipline and focus that are integral to succeeding in the wider world as an adult (in order to break the cycle of poverty and criminality).