AFCY’s Community Sharing Program (CSP) is an umbrella of programs that build capacity in the community. Through CSP, young people will donate their art to a social service agency such as a Seniors’ Home, Daycare Centre or Children’s Aid Centre. Alternatively, they may choose to give their work to a neighbouring school or public library. Sometimes youth will donate their time through performances, which often take place in a local, non-traditional venue, such as a shopping mall. In this way, the young participants can engage the widest demographic within their neighbourhood.

The CSP Programs are placed in priority schools and in community locations such as youth shelters, Toronto Community Housing (TCH) sites, public libraries, church basements and community centres. Children and youth who participate in meaningful, supervised programs are less likely to be dependent on other social services, including justice and health, later in life. Knowing that their children are engaged in supervised and meaningful out-of-school programs is appealing to the parents of participants.

Examples include:
• Meals on Wheels Art Project: children donate art as gifts to Meals on Wheels recipients, who are isolated seniors in need of social support
• The Cultural Chain Project: students create sculptural installations and donate one piece to a social service of their choice, where it is permanently installed.
• Intergenerational Art Projects: artistic collaborations take place between young people and elders in their community.
• Large Scale Mural projects: transforming schools, playgrounds, community spaces, hospitals
• Youth X Press Project in partnership with TTC and CBS Outdoor Media. Youth create a ‘mobile art gallery’ featuring original murals that are affixed to the sides and backs of TTC buses, which travel in and out of their neighbourhoods and right across the GTA.