Zine: Reflections on Chez Pops

As part of their research, the Youth Action Research Revolution (YARR) made a zine! You can scroll through the zine in a set of images below, or you can download a PDF here.

YARR was the RSCL’s first participatory research team. From 2018 to 2020, the team interviewed youth who had experienced homelessness in Montreal to learn how Quebec’s public institutions could serve young people better.

This research project was done in collaboration with Dans La Rue, a non-profit serving street-involved youth in Montreal. Much of the research was conducted at Chez Pops, Dans La Rue’s day centre. The fondness youth had for Chez Pops came up in interviews again and again.

As physical distancing measures were put in place during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic — “ces circonstances de merde,” YARR called it — it became harder to gather at Chez Pops like before. YARR made this zine to share young people’s feelings about Chez Pops, “a place where you feel safe, where you feel like there’s hope,” as one youth described it.

YARR was made up of: Mickey, Laurence, Maxime, Shayana, Jayne and Naomi. Learn more about them here.