Performing Life helps street and working youth by teaching them performing and visual arts as healthy alternatives that can help them find the strength to break out of the situation they are in to create a better and more vibrant future. We are a youth-led and –managed organization.

Youth participants in Performing Life are supporting themselves or contributing to the support of their families. They are primarily from indigenous communities and outlying areas of the city. Performing Life programs help participants improve living and economic conditions for themselves and their families. Program activities include:

Help participants without a home to find a safe place to live.

Help provide basic necessities such as food, medical attention, education, shelter, and clothing.

Help youth get registered for school or skills classes and provide tutoring.

Give free classes on performing arts, including juggling, diabolo, and poi, that the youth can use to increase their income and thereby have more time for school and studying.

Teach youth how to make bracelets and send them to the United States to be sold, providing an extra source of income while learning business skills.

Help youth save their money and develop personal goals for self-improvement.

Design projects with the participants to invest their saved money in some type of small business that they can take over and manage.

Help participants construct a future of hope for themselves as well as their families.

We realize that, under the best circumstances, all youth would have safe and secure homes with parental supervision, support, and economic well being. However, for thousands of youth in Cochabamba, this is not the case. Performing Life begins working with the youth where they are at, responding to their immediate needs to give them space and time for developing the personal skills and economic means they need to realize a better future for themselves.

Performing Life programs are designed to:

Support youth in their economic endeavors in a creative form that is the least draining and the most advantageous and recreational for them.

Work with youth on their self esteem, trying to help them recover their childhood, taking away some of the responsibilities which are unsuitable for their age.

Help youth get into a safe environment where they can grow, stay away from drugs, sickness, and other degenerate aspects of street life.

Form a group of youth who can relate with one another, form work/support groups, and create an environment of inclusion, friendship, and learning.

Create opportunities for youth to demonstrate their abilities in public and help them find positive voices for self-expression and self-awareness as part of society.


PROGRESS

Since March 2006, Performing Life has worked with more than 100 children and adolescents on the streets of Cochabamba, Bolivia. These youth are of all ages, come mainly from low income households and work on the streets to help sustain the family. For this reason, we have placed emphasis on the performing arts, but the goal of the project is to offer these youth a larger variety of creative skills which they can use to generate income.

Classes are held in local parks accessible to working and street youth. We offer two classes every day, which last from 2-3 hours, where we teach performing skills and provide a meal after each class, which permits them the time to come to class instead of working on the street to earn the money for a meal.

We also provide youth with the appropriate equipment needed for these activities. So far, we have held classes where we teach juggling techniques with Clubs, Rings, Poi, Diabolo, Devil Sticks, as well as Unicycle and various other things. We have helped many youth improve their performing skills and generate increased income through these classes, where there is always an experienced instructor present to help out. We have seen the rapid improvement in the participating youth and have seen a notable change, not only concerning their income, but also their outlook on life and most of all the way they now see their futures. These classes are structured so as not to get in the way of school, family time, and the job of being a kid.

Adding the second class each day has been made possible through the help of older participants who have proven able to recruit new youth, teach them and manage the classes. They have demonstrated exceptional leadership and are always eager to help other youth get out of situations that they once experienced.

Performing Life also collaborates with local artists and volunteers to offer a variety of workshops. One of these workshops resulted in the Bracelet Program, a youth-managed enterprise that offers the program participants the opportunity to make bracelets out of thread which are then sent to the U.S. for sale by other youth. All proceeds are returned to the participants and saved in their own bank account, set up for them by Performing Life. From their proceeds, youth purchase the materials and pay for the shipping costs, learning business skills. Performing Life works with each participant to develop microenterprise and investment plans that will benefit themselves and/or their families to improve their livelihoods and futures. So far, several of the youth have made their investments a reality, which has given them hope and motivation to work for a better future. (Link to bracelet page)

All of our activities and progress are documented every month and can be found in our Performing Life Monthly Reports. (Link to monthly report page which could be in the menu or on a bulletin board on the front page?)

Project Milestones: (link to pages of the youth practicing, performing together, studying)