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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.” 

Starting out with a few youth in a small studio space with only a limited art program they have been steadily expanding. This month they celebrated the grand opening of a new, spacious studio. They are enrolling 125 youth each year and offering training in five different areas; non profit management, social services, communication and social media, sales and entrepreneurship, and art. 

Over the years YSA has also engaged in community art projects. They have produced some impressive murals in the Loren neighborhood. During their summer session they decorated the bollards along Ashby with mosaic tiles. (Bollards are those barrel shaped chunks of concrete blocking cross traffic from merging into Ashby.) 

Some of the young people are referred to the program from various social agencies, others have heard about the program from friends or casual acquaintances. The Ala Costa Center for children and young adults with developmental disabilities has been referring young people which is proving to be a mutually beneficial connection. Hindman notes that “we found that our core population of homeless and low income youth are struggling with their own issues but we found our youth were extremely compassionate and kind to the youth with developmental challenges because they feel like, I'm having a really hard time, I'm couch surfing at my grandma's house but I don't have this intellectual challenge that this person has and I can talk better – so they ended up being really kind and nurturing toward these youth .... (They're finding) they can use their strength even in the midst of crisis to help other people.” 

Hindman explains that “the young people can participate as drop-ins and then if they want to when they're ready they can sign up as part of our paid stipend-ed training program and start to climb our progression ladder. And when they do that they participate in our quarterly art job training sessions and they get paid stipends for their participation and they also get paid 50% of the proceeds of everything they sell. Wonderful way for them to make money while they work on setting and meeting personal goals. If they're in a training program they generally come 3 days a week, Mon,Wed Fri or Tues, Thurs, Fri. On Fridays we have training and a meal together. All the youth from our program come on Friday, as a community.” 

A visitor to the studio on any afternoon can find young people ready to talk about their interests and ambitions. Jordan Roberts is majoring in graphic design at Laney College. He just finished creating an intriguing design on a tote bag. He heard of YSA from a lady sitting next to him on a bus one day watching him draw. “I came here and got hooked”, he tells me. “I feel like I can get what I want to say out in my art here.” 

High school student Katrina Krommenhock was referred here by another program. “I enjoy art and I wanted somewhere where I could use my artistic abilities”. She is particularly interested in animation, She says it's “such a beautiful endeavor, so much goes into it, so much beauty and you can make a stunning work of art by using animation.” 

Brandon Harris is 24 has the status of junior artist. He takes classes at the Ed Roberts Campus and has been coming to YSA for some years. He points with pride to a painting that he did that has just been purchased. It is a large intricate work done in exuberant colors. 

Omar Bagent, 18, is sales leader. He is also an artist and has done some painting but now his focus is on selling his fellow artists work and promoting YSA. He talks about the Art Cart and explains that his job is “to figure out who's going to sell, where they're going to sell and how long. They're mostly out for 3 hours or longer.” He tells of learning how to sell. “You have to learn how to talk, you can't be shy. Be energetic the whole time, people feel your vibe. … Learn communication skills, how to interact with people.” 

Eighteen year old Toryanna Finley is passionately committed to YSA . She is completing her high school work by independent study and is applying for college. Most of her time is spent at the studio, she says, and expects to be employed as YSA youth vocation coordinator. This means she will “basically help all the youth in the program achieve their goals – like graduating high school, obtaining health care, housing and things like that. Basically bettering themselves.” She came to YSA 2 years ago. “I started out like everybody else, not knowing how to draw. All I knew how to do is stick people. Met Victor and started learning how to create art.” She worked her way up the position of junior artist. “I worked under Victor and helped teach the youth to do different techniques and styles – how to get colors they wanted, which materials, research different artists and art styles. … I learned a lot of different things here. I can actually teach others how to do art now.” 

Art Director Victor Mavedzenge is 39 years old, originally from Africa and recently moved to California. “When I moved here as an artist I wanted to be involved with an organization that had art at the schools. I had experience, I enjoy teaching art as well as creating art. When I met Sally (Hindman) and she told me about this I just thought it was the right thing for me. - creating and teaching art.” He talks about his teaching philosophy; “The approaches need to be varied to meet different student's needs. Some come in who have no confidence whatsoever which is ridiculous because we're all creative but the school system teaches us that we're not. That's one of my teaching strengths … (we) get youth at different levels and I try to engage with them at the level they are. Introducing arts, developing skills or just simple appreciation of art – understanding, criticizing.” His enthusiasm is contagious. “I bring out the strength in your visual expression and also the poetry. The youth get to realize that they've got a particular way of doing things which can be beautiful in its own way and can be developed to become what they call art. A box opens up and sparkles of brilliance in everyone, a little bit of polishing you get the most beautiful sparkles - I get so much from interacting with them.” 

Those sparkles of brilliance are in him too! Just listening to him is inspiring. And it shows in the amazing work his young students create, young people who might otherwise be outcast from society. And with all the negativity surrounding us Berkeley can allow itself some bragging rights for the talent and dedication flourishing here.