The Effects of Performing Life on Street Working Youth in Cochabamba, Bolivia

This paper offers a case study of Performing Life (PL), a youth-led and -managed nonprofit organisation that works with youth who are labouring and/or living on the streets of Cochabamba, Bolivia. PL's performing arts classes, music and film work, and bracelet creation initiative are designed to improve the social and economic skills of economically impoverished youth. This case study is a launching point for a broader evaluation of processes and different approaches to working with street youth.

The paper opens with an overview of the demographics and background for Bolivia and Cochabamba - both the Bolivian Department and its capital city. It then gives a synopsis from the literature of issues related to youth who live and/or work on the streets, primarily from Latin American sources. For instance, in the section titled "Work as Socialization and Participation", author Suzanne Jamison (who is on the PL Board of Directors) cites Antonella Invernizzi (2003)'s study of street-working youth in Lima, Peru - noting the conclusion that involvement of working children is essential for consideration of actions intended to defend their specific interests. In Jamison's words: "The stages Invernizzi identifies are reflected in the Performing Life program, where youth have been able to experience work as identity, to experience work as a game with their peers, and to see that there are ways out of street work through education and saving for the future."

A discussion follows regarding perspectives on and from street-working youth and abandoned youth, along with recommendations for addressing the problems particular to this segment of society. Jamison describes various paradigm shifts in ways of thinking about these youth, noting the movement from punishment and sequestration to recognising that street children can move between home space and street space; they go through a variety of stages, activities, and images according to their experiences and age - and, if the process is positive, they eventually leave the street. "Performing Life has demonstrated that this process can be self-directed rather than the result of adult intervention." Jamison also cites specific challenges, opportunities, and changes in approaches to street youth. She discusses initiatives such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)'s "Don't Call Me Street Kid!" Campaign, which uses media to present at-risk youth in Latin America and the Caribbean as individuals with potential and desires to become contributing members of their communities.

The latter portion of the paper features a detailed case study of Performing Life, which the author's son (John Connell) founded in 2005 when he was 18. Jamison reviews the project's ideas and background, its strategies and evolution, its activities and achievements. For instance, she describes the shift in focus from the improvement of daily income to more long-range strategies of helping youth create a better livelihood for themselves and their families through savings and investments in their future.

Jamison then evaluates PL based on:

• Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA)'s Sustainable Livelihood Approach to Poverty Reduction. As Jamison explains, the sustainable livelihoods (SL) concept focuses on involving the economically poor in both the identification and implementation of activities, where appropriate. Effective SL activities are defined as strengthening both the individual and family to be more resilient and improve their "adaptive strategies." SL moves beyond simply measuring increased income to evaluating the sustainability of improvements to increase "people's capacity to provide for themselves and lift themselves out of poverty." (SIDA, 2001)
• The Logic Model, which evaluates youth entrepreneurship on:
  • 3 foundational skills: basic skills, thinking skills, and personal qualities; and
  • 4 competencies: resources, interpersonal skills (e.g., "Every day, the youth demonstrate their abilities to work with others and take leadership roles in many helpful ways. As indigenous children, they are proud of speaking their Quechua language and enthusiastic about sharing their culture."), systems, and technology.

An evaluation of PL follows, based on these criteria. In short, Jamison concludes that PL programmes "address the immediate and urgent needs of street working youth by encouraging life skills, personal health, education, responsibility, self-determination, and saving for the future. Participants developed artistic abilities through juggling, theater, and other creative activities. With these skills and a new outlook on life, they began to improve their economic situations and to avoid drugs and delinquency....Incorporating creative skills makes work more of a game that is played with peers in the practice sessions and in front of the public audience for earning money. It fulfills the need for work as identity. By increasing their skills and entertaining the public, the children gain positive recognition for their contributions to the quotidian life of the community..."

Based on this assessment, the author asserts that: "Programs for street working and street living youth should be youth-directed. Effective solutions are not always apparent; approaches that are dogmatic, hierarchic, and punitive are the least likely to be effective. Youth need to discover their own self-determined ways out of poverty. Opportunities for directing their imagination and creativity into viable microenterprise offer sustainable solutions. Concurrently, for those youth with family, the parents and siblings must be part of this process..."

An appendix includes an outline of the bracelet microenterprise business started by the youth, the PL contract that is signed with youth and families, and profiles of youth who participate in the programme.