With support from the California Arts Council, THE AJA PROJECT will implement PhotoCity; teaching youth in Juvenile Court & Community Schools to “turn the lens outward” and critically examine issues that affect their lives and communities through the arts. Students learn photography techniques to explore critical social issues impacting their lives and communities culminating in a student art exhibit to present images, exercise their voices, and take ownership of the issues identified.
The AjA Project has a strong reputation of delivering high-quality, high-impact programs to young people from diverse cultural, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds. This includes in-school and after-school programs as well as participatory workshops in collaboration with cross-sector partner organizations. AjA’s programs support young people to process experiences, understand their social and political landscapes and use the arts as a tool for creative self expression and social change. This year we have provided programming to newly arrived refugees, teen mothers, youth in detention, young people in military families, and youth across San Diego. The work at AjA remains grounded in the power of photography and visual arts as a tool for all youth, regardless of background, to see themselves as agents of change. AjA remains committed to igniting individual and social change from a grassroots, creative approach.

