Shoppers coming to the Berkeley Bowl on weekday afternoons are treated to a unique shopping experience. It's the Art Cart, a gayly decorated chest on wheels carrying a variety of unusual items for sale. There are tote bags, mugs, candles, t-shirts and more, each with a unique decoration. It is a project of Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA) centered in their new studio at 1740 Alcatraz. Founder Sally Hindman explains, “it an art jobs training program that empowers and transforms the lives of homeless and low income, extremely resilient, strong, creative, powerful youth that need a forum for making their voices heard creatively. We work with youth that are couch surfing, former foster youth, youth that are in shelters, transitional housing.” Aged from 16 to 25, the youth may be referred by various agencies or come on their own, having heard about it from a friends.
Founded in 2007 YSA grew out of Hindman's experience with Chaplaincy for the Homeless and her interest in art for social change.. “What we found was that there was a whole lot of money that had been put into services for the quote runaway youth that were hanging out on the street because they were visible but the youth of color who were couch surfing and struggling, aging out of foster care and so forth, those youth were getting nothing. … They're falling through the cracks.” She explains they “need attention and community that supports and loves them. This is serving those kids. Mostly youth of color, but of any color too.”
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