Y-TAP (Youth Talent Advancement Program) is an Art, Development and Entrepreneurship Initiative dedicated in mobilising young people and assisting them to identify their talents. Through training, exposure and capacity building programs, Y-TAP helps advance these talents into skills. Skills that offer an opportunity for young people to earn a decent livelihood at the same time empowering them to actively participate in socio-cultural and econo-politico development of their communities.Y-Tap works in a creative, innovative, inclusive and participatory method targeting marginalised and disfranchised young people. Among these target groups include urban youth living in informal settlements/slums/ghettos and young women. For Y-TAP the Young people are the entry point to the wider community and by helping them un-lock their entrepreneurial potentials, impacting new skills, knowledge and information, supporting them to come together, learn from one another, exchange ideas thus stimulating and inspiring new ideas that act as ‘ hope’ for their communities dispirited, weakened and disempowered by crippling poverty, dysfunctional social and political systems, limited access to financial and material resources, collapsed health and infrastructural services and adversely degraded environment among other developmental challenges.
While in many countries Art industry is among top revenue earners, In Kenya art can not be relied on to provide sustainable income. Y-TAP has teamed up with players from other economic and social sectors to explore various ways that ART can be engaged as viable economic activity. ART-PRENEURSHIP Program otherwise called Entrepreneurship in the arts has identified various projects where young people can use their skills, talents and creativity to earn an income, create employment for others and contribute in national revenue. The strategy is to promote art as a product or use it to maximise output from other industries such as tourism and service industry. This has seen Y-TAP team up with media houses, Tourism Board, developmental organisations, financial institutions, hospitality sector and the department of labour to achieve this objective.
Through this program Y-TAP will organise symposiums, art fairs, workshops and clinics with an aim of showcasing art products from young people such as musical shows, visual arts, video films and recorded music. Art-preneurship also aims at sensitising businesses and other sectors on gains they can achieve by incorporating the arts into their strategies such as Training staff in art based skills or creating business models through art.
Some of the current projects in Art-Preneurship include;
ART-TOURISM
In Kenya and the East African region tourism is the highest growing industry and highest foreign exchange earner. Y-TAP has developed various tour packages based on art / culture and taping on creativity and talent/skills of young artists. The product are aimed to variety to existing market at the same time explore new areas which has remained untapped.
CULTURE TOUR
It hosts art and culture enthusiasts for a designed highly flexible experience. The tourists on arrival take time to learn local songs, dances and other cultural performative and creative skills. The second part of the tour finds the tourists visiting villages, living among the people in their rural surroundings. The last part part of the trip see the tourists visit the usual attractions including relaxing and winding up at the beach.
The young artists who get training in tour guiding and hospitality combine these new skills with their cultural and creative skills to train, host and tour the visitors.
DEV CIRCUIT
The product mainly targets professionals such as teachers, doctors and engineers curious to see and experience how their professional fields are conducted in Kenya and East Africa.
The first part of the tour involves visits to areas of interest work in East Africa either, they just observe, talk to the local staff and community or volunteer their time, advice and resources. For example teachers would visit schools while medical practitioners would visit hospital.
The last part of the trip see the tourists visit the usual attractions including relaxing and winding up at the beach.
SLUM ENGAGE
Owing to Soweto in South Africa as a popular tourist destination, Y-TAP in collaboration with youth initiatives from various slums of Nairobi have developed an interesting and engaging package that includes visiting slums areas, attending shows and seeing how people live in these harsh conditions. The Slum engage package also includes the local youth showcasing their initiatives to the curious visitors.
The local youth who receive training in tour guiding and hospitality from Regional Centre for Tourism guides the visitors and also offer security among other services.
The Art-tourism project is not only an entrepreneurship venture but also a social-developmental initiatives which assists communities gain from advice and skills and resources of tourists to better their lives but at the same time offering the tourist an opportunity to assist, learn and share with the local communities directly, making his/her holiday developmental.
2007, Y-TAP in collaboration with CROSSROAD, LionPAW and Monolojo tours of the Netherlands piloted the project with 15 Dutch tourists, who experienced a combination of the above three packages.
The Annual Stage Show Project (ASSP)
Loads of spectacular skill and talent lie idle. Y-TAP will tap this by producing a professional large scale interdisciplinary stage Show that combines dance, music, drama, acrobatics with well designed stage décor, costumes, light and sound aimed for the high end local and international market. Working with producers and promoters from all over the world Y-TAP will aim to create a regular income base at the same time showcasing an average of big hit show every year.
2008, PATA POTEA “life is like a game of cards, you can win or loose, it all depends on how best you play your cards” spectacular, amazing and inspiring two hour show that tells the story of twenty young artists who upon realising all they’ve got are their bodies….create a show that wins them the world. Will form our premiere show with an investment of 5 million Kenya shilling production budget and an additional 3 million for promotion. Y-TAP projects it could earn on average 30 million Kenya shilling in 2009 – 2010 season.
Handcraft Project
There are a lot of talented visual artists within the groups that Y-TAP works with. Y-TAP will invest in materials, marketing and training and target the mass market both local and international. Among the market targeted include Selling the art works in festivals, fairs and during our own events.
