‘Art in Action’: Art shared between homeless youth through a harm reduction lens

A team of peer advisors, a knowledge keeper, academic researchers, and community researchers all came together to create the ‘Art in Action’ project. 

The project aimed to gather youth experiences of homelessness through a harm reduction lens. On November 8th, there was a community event in Winnipeg to share the outcome of this project. 

Over two years, the team held 6 workshops that were spread out over May and June of 2024. During the workshops, participants created art together in a safe environment and were able to share their stories of being homeless. 

“They’re smart youth, and they just came into these workshops to strangers. It gets me emotional because they did share some really heartbreaking stories, and I just wanted to thank them.”, said Cheyenne Traverse, who is a peer advisor. 

The project is set to continue until March of 2025 when the team will travel to various conferences across the country to showcase and publish articles about their work.