California Story Fund
On the Streets: Homeless Youth in Santa Barbara
Youth Media Project; Shape of Voice
Santa Barbara
Project Director: Kristi Curtis
Documenting the experiences of homeless youths in Santa Barbara
This project will engage both homeless youths and young people not living on the streets in documenting through photographs and words the experiences of homelessness for young people.
The youths will participate in writing, photography and journalism workshops and work with writer Peter Marin, who has written extensively abut the subject of homelessness. Research and filed work will be part of the project, with participants taking field trips to various homeless enclaves and working for an extended period on one long-term project.
The participants’ work will be published in Shape of Voice, a quarterly newspaper for youth in Santa Barbara. It will also be exhibited at UC Santa Barbara’s Multicultural Center and be the subject of a special town hall meeting with policymakers, homeless youth, youth-focused organizations and the general public.
“We hope to make more people aware of how many homeless young people there are in our community and start a dialogue about ways to address this problem,” Project Director Kristi Curtis said.