The Youth on Record Fellowship program is an intensive and comprehensive 1.5 year long program that is designed to bridge the gap between high school and either post-secondary school or a career. Each month, YOR Fellows participate in personal, professional, and artistic development programming, designed to help them set and achieve goals for their next stage of life. The YOR Fellowship cohort meets twice each month and throughout the first 9-months, Fellows write and make progress on a Personal Empowerment Plan (PEP), which is designed to help them set and achieve goals. During month 10, Fellows present their PEPs to the YOR community and receive feedback and support on their goals. One monthly Fellowship session focuses on areas of artistic development and helping the Fellows hone their artistic/musical craft. The second session each month focuses on a topic of personal or professional development, including financial education, goal setting, business planning, marketing strategies, building a webpage, among other topics.
This year, the present cohort of returning alumni will complete the 18-month program which dives more deeply into establishing their careers as artists and as community members working within the arts to bring about positive social change and transformation. They will be given more influence over YOR organizational practices in the future by offering input and feedback in the development of YOR Agency along with our evaluation partnership with Coactive Change. They will complete both creative projects as well as participatory action research projects before graduating from the Fellowship.