The Arts Can Change People’s Lives, Jackson Tells
 Small School Summit Delegates

(Pictured above: Canadian actor and musician Tom Jackson says music
can help alter people's lives for the better. He cited the case of an Alberta-based
program that provides music lessons at high schools with high dropout rates.
Ninety-five per cent of the students who stay with the program graduate
with a high school diploma.)

(Kingston) – The arts are important in education and in life as instruments for change, noted actor and activist Tom Jackson told 380 delegates Thursday at the 2011 Small School Summit in Kingston.

Jackson shared stories from a life that has taken him from living on the streets in his teens to success as an actor and leader of charitable ventures that have raised more than $200 million for the homeless and the hungry. The entertainer spoke of how the arts have helped him change the lives of many down-and-out adults, and to assist many youth to stay in school and go on to lead productive lives.

The 63-year-old actor and musician was a keynote speaker Thursday during the annual conference, sponsored by the Upper Canada District School Board. The 2011 Summit, entitled Engaging the Creative Mind, is designed to show teachers how they can use the arts to inspire creativity in their students. The event is being held at the Ambassador Conference Resort yesterday and today.

The room fell silent as Jackson spoke of darker days in 1987 when he was living in a crawlspace at the home of a Toronto drug dealer who was feeding Jackson’s drug habit. He talked of walking down a street in that city, an addict in his late thirties, and seeing an old man in his seventies sprawled out on the sidewalk in distress. No one came to the man’s aid. Instead, person after person chose to walk around him.

Jackson walked toward the senior, asked him if he was OK and then ensured emergency services were called to provide him with the aid he so desperately needed.

That night, Jackson couldn’t sleep, troubled by the lack of caring he had seen on the streets. It forced him to re-examine his life.

“I kept thinking to myself, ‘What if that was me and I was lying there dying and the whole world was walking by me,’” he said.

Instead of a life mired in drugs, he resolved he would be an instrument for change in others’ lives. The next day he went down to a local community centre called Council Fire and volunteered. He discovered the centre didn’t have enough money to produce the number of food hampers required that Christmas. Jackson decided to get a group of friends together for a fundraising concert so more could be created.

While the concert didn’t raise much money, it did raise a lot of awareness.

“The next day near the centre there were trucks and cars lined up almost from the Parliament buildings to the exit from the highway – all filled with food,” he said.

It was then he saw just how powerful music and the arts could be as instruments for change.

Since then, he has organized a variety of concerts from his Huron Carol Christmas Tours to raise money for food banks and the homeless, to his Swinging for Supper golf fundraisers, and concerts to raise money for western farmers affected by drought.

And in a nod to the power of the arts in education, he spoke of a group he supports called the Legacy Children’s Foundation that operates in Alberta. The foundation provides musical instruments and lessons to students at high-needs schools that have high dropout rates.

Providing an opportunity to learn music at school provides at-risk youth with a reason to attend school, making it enjoyable for them so they can learn.

“Kids who stay in the program even get to keep their instruments,” said Jackson with a smile. “Since they started the program they have (achieved) a 95 per cent success rate. Ninety-five per cent of the students who stay with the program finish school.”

Jackson also entertained the audience by answering questions about his career, and performing songs including I’m Not Saying and Blue Water.

He urged his audience to move forward and help others.

“If you provide the instruments of change, the world will change,” he said.

The conference finished Friday.

-30-

For more information, please call:

Mark Calder
Communications Officer
Upper Canada District School Board
613-213-0602

Published October 29, 2011