The Street Project Foundation (SPF) uses creative arts as a vehicle for youth empowerment. Its Chairperson, Julia Oku Jacks, is a first class honours graduate of English and Literary Studies from the University of Calabar, Cross River State. Her diverse and rich professional career spans academia, marketing communications and philanthropy. In this interview with Joseph Eshanokpe, Jacks speaks, among others, on the activities of Street Project Foundation in helping youths and women.
You have navigated both corporate and creative spaces. What is the role of storytelling and creativity in shaping not only brands but also societal change?
Succinctly put, if you do not tell your story over and again and learn to tell your story in a compelling manner, someone else will be the custodian of your story. Till date,people in the northern hemisphere of the world generally struggle to rid themselves of the concept of Africa as one country where lions and monkeys freely roam and where corruption is rife.
Most happily, The Street Project Foundation is proactive in telling critical stories of change and more importantly, equipping young creatives to learn the craft of storytelling in order to effect sustainable social change.
What is the vision of the Street Project Foundation(SPF)?
Our vision is youth empowerment.
Why are you using art for mobilising youths and catalysing social change, especially in Nigeria?
In some shape, form or fashion and to different degrees, all of us are affected by the creative arts and the messages they disseminate. From our traditional songs, our masquerades, our poetry, our dressing, the cadences of our poetic speech patterns, our music which is now a global phenomenon, our performing and visual arts … .all of us are impressed, influenced and affected by the creative arts. Given the impressive and pervasive nature of what comes to us naturally, art is a natural medium for disseminating well crafted messages that can catalyse social change in Nigeria. If you doubt this, consider the upsurge of impressive content creators across digital platforms in the last five years. If they weren’t impactful, their numbers would have diminished.
Youth unemployment and disillusionment are significant issues in Nigeria. What’s your take on the potential of your foundation as a tool in changing this narrative and improving the lives of youths.
I strongly believe that every organisation should play to its strengths no matter how attractive it may be to play in other areas. Disillusionment can be measured and tracked just as unemployment figures can be obtained from credible official sources. What The Street Project Foundation seeks to do is to partner with governments and government agencies as much as possible in order to multiply its reach and impact. Having recorded a measure of success through pilot projects in different states in 2023 and 2024, the Foundation is able to draw from the experiences and learnings and find ways to ramp up its ability to work with state and federal governments-to first be in the spaces where decisions are being made to address youth unemployment. When we get to this stage, we must be ready with viable, practical ways to engage the government and help it address these issues in a sustainable and replicable manner.
This is the challenge we must handle head on.
The creative sector can be both transformational and challenging for young people. What do you believe your foundation can do to ensure that young people not only find their voice but also build sustainable careers in the arts?
More of what it’s doing. More institutional support for the organisation so it remains strong and able to branch out into more states in Nigeria. More opportunities to collaborate with governmental and non-governmental agencies in order to broaden its footprint.
More engagement with cultural custodians at the grassroots. More celebration of our successes so more people know and trust our name and work.
How can the foundation expand its efforts to ensure that more young women are empowered through the arts to become leaders in their communities?
The Street Project Foundation is female-led and this in itself sends out a very strong message to our communities and audiences. The Youth Advisory Board also has significant representation by females…this should be part of the stories told to inspire and encourage other women. In addition, many young women are in settings and spaces where they cannot readily be reached by social and other media. Eventually, these underserved communities have to be reached and piggybacking on our traditional creative expressions would be a positive way to reach and mentor these women.
Many young women in Nigeria face barriers that can affect their dreams. What actions do we need to take to remove those barriers?
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. It’s important to recognise that change takes patience, strategic thinking, re-working the strategy, engaging with relevant parties and repeating the process. The Street Project Foundation has already taken several steps in this direction and it will continue the journey creatively and relentlessly.
At a time young women are redefining what leadership looks like, what advice would you offer to young women who are struggling to find their place in industries where they feel underrepresented, particularly the arts and business?
Just do it. Believe that you earned the right to be in that place so just stand up and stand out in those spaces where women are not readily found. This speaks to excelling in what we as women bring to the table and silencing those voices that call us impostors. Celebrate other women when they win. Even if you don’t know them, celebrate them because leadership can be lonely. Learn to build networks within and outside your comfort zone and learn to ask for help. This speaks to collaboration, mentoring and coaching. Finally, I want to encourage young women to invest in themselves; attend training programmes both free and paid for and take those opportunities seriously.
What is the role of your foundation in society?
Street Project Foundation’s work cuts across cultural, gender, and socio-economic lines.
How important do you believe cross-cultural dialogue is in the context of youth empowerment, and how can we foster deeper connections among Nigeria’s diverse youth communities?
Given the enormous cultural diversity of Nigeria, it would be erroneous to assume that we are all having the same life experience even though we live in the same country. Our cultural realities still affect the lens through which we look at life and the way we respond to our realities.
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Can the foundation affect youths for good without knowing and understanding their cultural realities?
Not at all. This is why gender and cross cultural engagement remains central to the foundation’s outreaches. Once we remain sensitive to this, then we can break barriers and get to the underlying common ground of life issues which affect us all.
As the new Board Chair, what are your priorities for the Street Project Foundation and how do you balance the organisation’s goals with your vision?
I will continue to work with the Board of Trustees and with executives of the foundation and attend as many programmes as possible so I can seek first to understand the lie of the land before I put forward my recommendations. If they differ significantly from the goals, then we have to find a middle level. One thing dear to my heart is to broaden the scope and mix of people who know and engage with the foundation.
What do you hope will be your lasting contribution to the foundation and to the broader mission of youth and women’s empowerment in Nigeria?
More donors from within the country; a solid financial base to survive the dry periods that every organisation inevitably faces; outreaches in at least half of the states in Nigeria PLUS our name should ring a bell in places that count.
If you were to envision a transformed Nigeria about 15 years from now, a Nigeria where the creative arts and youth empowerment have been fully realised, what does that future look like to you? How do you hope the Foundation will have played a role in that vision?
Ten years from now, I would have long completed my tenure as the chairperson. However, I envision a country where the creative arts and its practitioners are regarded and treated as valuable members of the productive sector of the economy. The arts form the bedrock of industries like tourism and travel, the digital arts, technology, food and innumerable artistic expressions.
We have to be in the business and policy making conversations too and not just be reactive consumers of policies made without our input. I hope that through its engagement with ever growing numbers of youths on the streets of Nigeria and Africa(eventually), the foundation will be in the vanguard of this charge. Then we will know that our strategy was correct and our mission was true. This is my fervent hope.
