Thanks to the organizations who answered our call for youth videos! These incredible clips on our website showcase stories of youth experiences in leadership, racial equity and social justice, and collective action in their communities across the country.
Here’s the entry from SpyHop Productions:
artworxLA is a non-profit organization combating the high school dropout crisis by creatively engaging alternative education high school students. In this short film, filmmaker Rich Lee and his partner Louise Baker Lee spent an entire day with Zion, learning about his creative process, his life, his neighborhood, and the impact artworxLA has had on his life.
“Your story is enough, and it matters. So tell it, and tell it well.”
Since 2008, the Deep Center has given youth in Savannah, Georgia the tools and encouragement to write with skill, confidence, and courage. Recognizing that students with poor literacy skills are more likely to drop out, Deep brings free and fun after-school writing instruction to youth in some of the city’s low-performing middle schools. Through instruction, discussion, one-on-one mentoring, and writing exercises, dedicated volunteer Writing Fellows work with students to develop fundamental writing skills and creative self-expression once a week for 11 weeks. Continue reading “Deep Center’s After-School Workshops Foster Young Authors in Savannah, Georgia”
With a firm belief that “arts and arts education are essential components of a well-rounded human experience and a civil community,” the Armory Center for the Arts launched in 2006 an ambitious program called Art High. Its goal: Make out-of-school arts instruction more accessible to the young people of Pasadena, California by providing free year-round classes and mentorship opportunities at parks, schools, and community centers. Continue reading “Armory’s Art High Provides High-End Instruction and Life Skills”
We are Indian and we are proud. We still sing. We still laugh. We still dream. We still stand. – Jayden Lim
At the 2016 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award’s White House ceremony, which honors programs that are national models in the field of creative youth development, Jayden Lim was the youth speaker on behalf of the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center. Continue reading “Native Youth Thrive in Tribal Youth Ambassadors Program”
Alchemy is a nonprofit organization in Akron, OH that provides a safe environment and sense of community to assist in the development of urban adolescents through the telling, discussion, and interpretation of mythological stories and fairy tales told to the beat of an African drum.
Since 2003, Alchemy has worked with over 2,000 male youth in its creative youth development programs. In 2012, they received the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities. Continue reading “Drumming & Myth: Healing Urban Youth Through Alchemy”
Through their Youth Arts Action Initiative, MASSCreative partners with 18 youth arts groups to provide advocacy training and opportunities for participants to effect change in their communities. Their youth partners represent a broad spectrum of disciplines – from music, theatre, dance, and visual art – and come from diverse backgrounds representing communities around Greater Boston and beyond.
