Giving Teenagers a Break Through Hip Hop and Street Arts

By Ruth Skilbeck

Teenage boredom over a long hot summer, with not much to do, is a significant factor in the spike in youth crime figures over the summer school holidays in socially disadvantaged areas in Australia, according to recent reports.  But now change is in the air in Sydney with new initiatives creating positive alternative pathways for teenagers to learn creative street arts over the holidays in a new Street University.

This summer in Western Sydney an innovative creative street arts music and hip hop school holidays program has started up in Mount Druitt Street University, on the far western fringe of Sydney, an area that has the potential to significantly reduce rates of youth crime, by providing constructive alternatives and a creative community for local teenagers over the long hot school vacation.

The Mount Druitt Street University, which is supported by the Ted Noff's Foundation,  is based in an area where, until now, there has not been much organised for young people over the summer break. "Usually over the holiday period a lot of services wind down,"  said Julie Dubuc, manager of the Mount Druitt Street University, quoted in an article on the initiative in today's Sydney Morning Herald. The Street University started up in January and this summer, for the first time, is providing young people with a range of a Street Arts programs and courses over the duration of the summer break. 

Whereas young people from more wealthy areas may look forward to holidays abroad, or in Australia, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and whose families are suffering the impacts of the economic recession following the Global Financial Crisis, are often left alone with little to do in the long break. Previously they have had to while away the long school break, with very little structured activity. Now they have the opportunity to take "Subjects you really love" according to  participant teenager rapper Justin Maunzer quoted in the same article. 

This week thousands of young people will be out of school for the summer, and for young people in  disadvantaged areas where there is a lack of public social and cultural facilities that can lead to extreme boredom which in turn can result in criminal activity. Figures from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics, record a pattern of raised crime rate levels for young people over the summer months, and indigenous people have been disproportionately represented in these figures- as shown in recent research based at the University of New South Wales.

Recent and ongoing research, linking university researchers with government bodies and community organisations  in NSW outlined in the report Making a Difference: Building on Young People's Experiences of Economic Adversity,  shows that young people  are carrying the burden of wider economic disadvantage.

The Street University is an innovation in and for the local community, with workshops run by and for young people,  and is designed to meet and  express the needs of local young people themselves for constructive, interesting and challenging activities, and things to do, in their community over the summer- and nurture local talent.

A range of creative street arts programs are on offer, at no charge, for local teenagers in Western Sydney, at the Street University. They include classes in hip hop,  urban music, break dancing, filmmaking and photography.  The programs  are run by experienced volunteers skilled in the workshop subjects, and include a music program on rhythm and reform, which counsels young people on positive alternatives with music-based activities and as part of a creative community.

Following close on the heels of recently announced measures to increase services for young people, aimed to improve mental health and wellbeing, and reduce youth crime and detention levels, this is a highly positive initiative, arising from young people's own actions and calls for constructive activities,  listening to young people and what they want, and that represents a new step: providing positive alternatives for young people over the summer.


Skattebol, J, Saunders, P, Redmond G, Bedford, M, Cass, B (2012), Making A Difference: Building on Young Peoples Experiences of Economic Adversity. Social Policy Research Centre, The University of New South wales.