The Participatory Development with Youth (PARTY) project aimed to promote human development and reduce youth unemployment by increasing the involvement and inclusion of young people in service development in South Africa and Namibia. This was achieved through the use of participatory and exploratory service design tools.  From 2015 to 2019, I worked on social interventions among the indigenous San youth. The project’s goal was to develop art-based methods that would enable young people to express their opinions, challenges, and dreams. One of the key activities involved creating posters to address local social issues. Both the San youth from Upington and Kimberley participated in workshops where they designed posters highlighting these concerns. The completed posters were then distributed within the community. Additionally, the workshops included storytelling sessions where the youth used community theater to develop and perform solutions to their challenges. These performances were shared via Vimeo (see link below) and presented in their local school. The project resulted in various artistic and scientific outcomes.

Related research: Seppälä, T., Sarantou, M., & Miettinen, S. (eds.) (2021). Arts-Based Methods for Decolonising Participatory Research. London: Routledge.