RESOURCES

Education/Youth

Arena Stage
http://www.arenastage.org
1101 Sixth Street, SW
Washington, DC 20024

Theater aims to build robust communities through theater and to build a future for the American theater by nurturing talent, attracting new audiences, and enriching theater education in the schools.

Artists for Literacy
http://www.artistsforliteracy.org/home.html
2601 Mariposa Street, 2nd floor
San Francisco, CA 94110
Ph: 415.553.3330

Artist for Literacy's mission is to influence community, public and private sector support for literacy, and to enrich the lives of reading challenged youth and adults by responding to the need for dynamic and innovative learning tools that foster literary and artistic appreciation, critical thinking, increased confidence, curiosity, and life-long learning.

Art Esteem
http://www.ahc-oakland.org/services/artesteem/artesteemSplash.html
3278 West Street (@ 33rd & West Street)
Oakland, CA 94608
Ph: 510.652.5530
Fx: 510.652.8233

ArtEsteem™ invites students to create and explore imaginary and real replicas of themselves and their environment through literacy, art, photography, fashion design, science and field trips. The union of these programs stimulates many levels of academic and cultural awareness, emotional literacy, creativity and technical skills.

Artstorm
http://www.artstormla.com/
Los Angeles, CA 90065
Ph: 323-221-6887

ArtStorm works to provide an outlet for L.A.'s youth to pursue aerosol art, commonly known as graffiti tagging, in a legal and non-destructive manner. The project hopes to divert young people away from tagging, gangs, crime and violence by giving them financial, educational and creative incentive through aerosol art programming, mentorship and sale of art.

Arts Corps
http://www.artscorps.org/who/index.html
5609 B Rainer Ave. S.
Seattle, WA 98118
Ph: 206.722.5440
Fx: 206.722.5459

Arts Corps is a non-profit arts education program in Seattle and King County. The program recruits and places experienced Teaching Artists in a variety of after-school programs, working with young people in grades K-12.

Art Sanctuary
http://www.artsanctuary.org
Church of the Advocate
1801 West Diamond Street
Philadelphia, PA 19121
Ph: 215.232.4485
Fx: 215.232.4088

Art Sanctuary, located in North Philadelphia (a poor and working class African-American community), uses the power of black art to transform individuals, unite groups of people, and enrich, and draw inspiration from the inner city. We invite established and aspiring artists to help create excellent lectures, performances, and educational programs.

Asian Arts Initiative
http://www.asianartsinitiative.org
1315 Cherry Street
2nd Floor East
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Ph: 215.557.0455

Created in response to community concerns about racial tension, the Asian Arts Initiative began programming in May 1993 with Philadelphia's first-ever Asian American Arts Festival. The Asian Arts Initiative has since expanded to become a community arts center that offers performances, exhibitions, workshops, and training for artists and everyday people who share our mission of community-based arts.

Center for Digital Storytelling
http://www.storycenter.org/index1.html
1803 MLK Way
Berkeley, CA 94709
Ph: 510.548.2065
Fx: 510.548.1345

The Center for Digital Storytelling is a California-based non-profit 501(c)3 arts organization rooted in the art of personal storytelling. We assist young people and adults in using the tools of digital media to craft, record, share, and value the stories of individuals and communities, in ways that improve all our lives.

Chicago Public Art Group
http://www.cpag.net/home
1259 South Wabash
Chicago, IL 60605
Ph: 312.427.2724
Fx: 312.427.3413

The Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG) mission is to unite artists and communities in partnership to produce quality public art and to extend and transform the tradition of collaborative, community involved, public artwork. Our skilled, professional artists specialize in collaborating with community participants to make delightful, meaningful, permanent, and safe public artworks. CPAG partners with community development organizations, neighborhood groups, social service agencies, advocacy groups, and schools' designing projects to realize their social, cultural, educational, and aesthetic goals. CPAG artist consultants participate in planning processes for public spaces with architects, landscape designers, and municipal planners.

Circesteem
http://www.circesteem.org
1400 W. Devon #331
Chicago, Il 60660
Ph: 312.593.HAHA

CircEsteem's mission is to unite youth from diverse racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds and help them build self-esteem and mutual respect through the practice of circus arts. Our approach to promoting confidence and cooperation is action based: focused development of circus skills while having fun together. We accomplish this by providing a positive environment that emphasizes goals, teamwork, and performance. Our mission of uniting youth and empowering them through circus arts is fulfilled in every class and is highlighted in every circus we perform.

Community Program in the Arts (COMPAS)
http://www.compas.org
304 Landmark Center
75 West 5th Street
St. Paul, Minnesota 55102, USA
Ph: 651.292.3249
Fx: 651.292.3258

Formed in 1974, COMPAS is Minnesota's most widely used resource for artist residencies and community-building through the arts, engaging approximately 400,000 people in the arts in approximately 100 Minnesota towns each year. COMPAS began as Poets in the Schools in 1968, was incorporated as COMPAS in 1974, and merged with United Arts in 1998. With a mix of direct-service participatory programs and re-granting programs, COMPAS is similar to many of the local arts councils around the country.

Cooperative Artists Institute
http://www.tribal-rhythms.org/index.html
311 Forest Hills Street
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130-3605
Ph: 617.524.6378
Fx: 617.522.7122

Cooperative Artists Institute's mission is to empower people to solve their individual and collective problems by applying the Arts as a catalyst for personal and institutional change. Founded in 1970, CAI is the first Think Tank to specialize in using the performing and visual arts to build community. All of CAI's programs in schools, after-schools, community centers, businesses, colleges and government organizations are designed to overcome family, community and organizational fragmentation.

COSACOSA Art at Large
http://www.cosacosa.org/home.html
4427 Main Street
Philadelphia PA 19127
Ph: 215.385.2554
Fx: 215.487.2354

Founded in 1990, COSACOSA art at large, Inc. creates new art specific to Philadelphia neighborhoods and public spaces. Through collaborative art workshops, artist residencies, and media projects, we enable dialogue among our city's disparate cultures and communities. Our projects assure a sense of equality among people of diverse backgrounds and differing abilities, while building their participation in local communities, as well as in society at large.

Free Street
http://freestreet.org
1419 W. Blackhawk
Chicago, IL 60622
Ph: 773.772.7248

Free Street was born in 1969 out of an impulse to bring revolutionary theater into communities. Free Street Theater began performing free shows in Chicago's communities. Free Street was one of the first arts organizations in Chicago dedicated to community arts. Over the years, Free Street has linked quality programs in the performing arts with effective social service, creating diverse programs to fit the changing needs of the community. In doing so, it has created shows and programs with the physically challenged, seniors, prisoners, hospitalized children, parenting and pregnant teens, and inner city youth and teens.

Full Circle Theater
http://www.temple.edu/cil/Fullcirclehome.htm
Temple University
1600 N. Broad Street #206
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Ph: 215.204.6970

Full Circle Theatre (FCT) is a project of The Center for Intergenerational Learning (CIL). We began in 1984 as a small group of teens and elders who learned a variety of improvisational theatre techniques that were used to help audiences explore age-related issues and dispel myths about growing older. Since then, we have developed into a unique community resource, which uses interactive theater to influence attitudes or change behaviors towards positive social change. Full Circle performs on topics such as: men's and women's health, aids education and prevention, violence prevention, and anti tobacco,. We offer over 200 workshops and performances per year in senior centers, hospitals, community based organizations, schools, and citywide, regional and national organizations and associations.

Hugo House
http://www.hugohouse.org
1634 Eleventh Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122
Ph: 206.322.7030
Fx: 206.320.8767

The mission of Richard Hugo House is to build a vital learning community that develops and sustains practicing writers doing essential work. It is a place that nurtures writers, readers and audiences of books, plays, films, and brings innovative and effective writing education to people of all ages and backgrounds. At Richard Hugo House, we believe that community has the power to strengthen individual efforts toward constructive action. When people build relationships over shared interests, they understand more deeply their connections to each other and to the world.

In Dulci Jubilo
http://www.indulcijubilo.org
1255 Allston Way
Berkeley, CA 94702
Ph: 510.845.3499
Fx: 510.845.3487

In Dulci Jubilo, Inc. is a non-profit foundation established in 1978 to enhance the quality of life in Berkeley, California, by encouraging, inspiring, instructing and helping young people enrolled in Berkeley's pre-school, primary and secondary schools to develop values beneficial to the community. Its intent is to encourage discussion, development and adoption of values in the areas of ecology, ethics, aesthetics, hygiene & general education with the aim of enhancing each child's feeling of self worth as well as furthering an appreciation & recognition of worth in others, and in the environment in which we live. IDJ considers itself both a recipient and a disburser of funds.

Inside Out Community Arts
http://www.insideoutca.org/index.htm
2210 Lincoln Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
Ph: 310.397.8820
Fx: 310.398.0863

Through the arts, Inside Out Community Arts promotes healthy interaction among diverse at-risk and underserved Los Angeles middle-school youth. Led by specially trained teams of professional artists and high school age mentors, Inside Out bridges cultural, geographic, socioeconomic and differently-abled boundaries to support youth in creating and presenting topical theater and art, empowering them to make positive choices as individuals and members of the greater community.

Inside Out Theatre
http://www.insideouttheatre.org
Inside Out Theatre Company, Inc.
Robin Braun, Executive Director
P.O. Box 267355
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33326
Ph: 954.385.3060
Fx: 954.389.0806

The Inside Out Theatre was created with the mission of building character in children and young adults through a very powerful tool: the performing arts. Our theatre company offers performing arts classes, artist-in-residency programs and performances of original musicals based on socially relevant issues that promote respect for self and others, celebrate diversity and emphasize the importance of responsibility and teamwork. Since our inception we have written, directed, and produced ten original musicals resulting in 125 shows performed by student actors, for over 25,000 elementary and middle, and high school children.

Judith Marcuse Projects (formerly DanceArts Vancouver)
http://www.jmprojects.ca/
Scotiabank Dance Centre
677 Davie Street, 7th Floor
Vancouver, BC V6B 2G6
Ph: 604.606.6425
Fx: 604.606.6432

Judith Marcuse Projects creates small and large-scale art projects and productions which include live performances and touring; video, film and television; workshops and animation events. Our languages are dance, theatre, music, video and film and the visual arts. We work in Vancouver, across Canada and, periodically, outside the country. We believe that the creation of art practice must include values of community; of social responsibility and activism; of informed and unfettered imagination; of listening, risk-taking and celebration. Focusing on the voices and sensibilities of young people in our stage productions, we also partner with community organizations.

Life Pieces to Masterpieces, Inc.
http://www.lifepieces.org/
603 50th St NE, 3rd Floor
Washington, DC 20019
Tel: 202-399-7703
Fax: 202-399-7731

Life Pieces To Masterpieces' mission/purpose is to provide African American males, living in Washington, D.C.' low-income and public housing, with opportunities to discover their ability to change challenges into possibilities. LPTM's ultimate goal is to elevate the consciousness of our apprentices through the embodiment of Life Pieces' purpose, premise, process and values, represented by our decision-making tool. The anticipated outcome will be to give rise to a generation of youth and future adults who will discover their innate, creative ability to transform challenges into possibilities.

Mandala Center
http://www.mandalaforchange.com
1221 49th Street
Port Townsend, WA 98368
Ph: 360-344-3435

Founded in 1999, the Mandala Center is a multi-disciplinary education organization dedicated to community dialogue, social justice and personal transformation. Through experiential workshops, performances, and other creative events, the Mandala Center invites people to be more awake and alive as well as empowered to take action toward a more just and joyous life for all people. The Mandala Center is also an international hub for the training and grassroots practice of Augusto Boal's, Theatre of the Oppressed.

Mission Cultural Center
http://www.missionculturalcenter.org
2868 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Ph: 415.643.2778

The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) was established in 1977 by artists and community activists with a shared vision to promote, preserve and develop the Latino cultural arts that reflect the living tradition and experiences of Chicano, Central and South American, and Caribbean people. The MCCLA makes the arts accessible as an essential element to community development and well being. As a community non-profit arts organization, MCCLA prides itself in enriching, in a most unique way, the cultural and artistic life of the Mission, San Francisco, and Bay Area residents as well.

Music for Change
http://www.musicforchange.org
19b Roper Close
Canterbury Kent
CT2 7EP
01227) 459243

We are an arts organization that aims to promote understanding and respect for cultural diversity through music. We believe not only in the intrinsic value of music and the arts but how these can play a vital role in breaking down barriers between people and cultures. Our core work involves organizing workshops (one-offs and residencies), primarily in schools, with a strong emphasis on creativity and confidence building in the classroom.

Music Theatre Workshop
http://www.mtwchicago.org/index.html
7359 N Greenview Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60626-1963
Ph: 773.973.7266
Fx: 773.973.7077

Music Theatre Workshop (MTW), located in Chicago, was founded in 1984 as a non-profit performing arts organization serving children, teens and young adults in the Chicago region. MTW creates plays and musicals, which link ideas to action through real life storytelling on the stage, relating art to everyday living. MTW collaborates with social service, health, educational and arts organizations, both on programming and related research projects. The company has served over 175,000 young people with over fifty productions. Workshops and the resulting shows explore historical and cultural understanding, diversity, and human relations, along with the problems of substance abuse, dysfunctional families, teen parenting, guns and gangs, and the causes, experiences and effects of violence.

New Urban Arts (NUA)
http://www.newurbanarts.org
743 Westminster Street
Providence, RI 02903
Ph: 401.273.8499

New Urban Arts is a nationally recognized interdisciplinary arts studio for high school students and emerging artists in Providence, Rhode Island. Our mission is to build a vital community that empowers young people to develop a creative practice they can sustain throughout their lives. We provide studio, exhibition space, and mentoring for young artists who explore the visual, performing, and literary arts through yearlong free out-of-school programs. Founded in 1997, New Urban Arts serves 125 high school students in the Providence Public High Schools and 15 artists each year.

Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (MAP)
http://www.muralarts.org
1729 Mt Vernon Street
Philadelphia, PA 19130
Ph: 215.685.0750
Fx: 215.685.0757

The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (MAP) is a public art program that works in partnership with community residents, grassroots organizations, government agencies, educational institutions, corporations and philanthropies to design and create murals of enduring value while actively engaging youth in the process.

Photovoice
http://www.photovoice.com

Photovoice blends a grassroots approach to photography and social action. It provides cameras not to health specialists, policy makers, or professionals, but to people with least access to those who make decisions affecting their lives. From the villages of rural China to the homeless shelter of Ann Arbor, Michigan, people have used Photovoice to amplify their visions and experience.

Photovoice (UK)
http://www.photovoice.org
2nd Floor
94, Leonard Street
London EC2A 4RH UK
Ph: +44 (0) 207 033 3878
Fx: +44 (0) 207 739 894

PhotoVoice is an international non-profit organization, based in London, UK. Our mission is empowerment — to support people in need around the world to use photography as a medium to speak out about their concerns, hopes and fears. Working alongside both international organizations and local partners, we provide in-field photojournalism workshops for those living on the fringes of society. Internationally we provide the platform for these groups to exhibit and market their work.

Project Yes
http://www.project-yes.org
104 West Baseline Road
Lafayette, Colorado 80026
Ph: 303-926-0306

Project YES (Youth Envisioning Social change) provides leadership opportunities for young people through the arts and service learning. Through our Youth Center, Art in the Community, and Lafayette Service-Learning Partnership programs, Project YES empowers young people to not only envision social change, but also live it, positively impacting their lives and their communities.

Provisions Library
http://www.provisionslibrary.org
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington DC 20009
Ph: 202-299-0460

Provisions is a social change learning resource that amplifies compelling voices that challenge and redefine the mainstream. Its library and online services are a trusted source for alternative perspectives on a wide range of social change topics and its innovative exhibitions strongly engage the arts as a powerful means of exploring social issues. Provisions features on-site programs such as exhibitions, screenings, workshops as well as fully accessible online study guides, virtual exhibitions and up-to-date information.

Street Level Youth Media
http://www.street-level.org
Street-Level Youth Media
1856 W Chicago Ave
Chicago IL 60622
Ph: 773.862.5331
Fx: 773.862.0754

Street-Level Youth Media educates Chicago's inner city youth in media arts and emerging technologies for use in self-expression, communication, and social change. Using video production, computer art and the Internet, Street-Level's young people address community issues, access advanced communication technology and gain inclusion in our information-based society. Using these tools, young artists address personal and community issues such as violence, family matters, racism, gentrification, and history. They learn that art is a potent medium for expression, capable of initiating positive personal and community change.

Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools (TILT)
http://www.tiltmedia.org
145 Ninth Street, Suite 101
San Francisco, CA 94103
Ph: 415.552.8760 ext. 305
Fx: 415.552.0882

Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools (TILT) is a production-based media literacy-training program. Programs are designed to teach underprivileged youth how to critically understand and create media messages. Through a combination of technical training and hands-on experience we give students the means to gain a meaningful voice in media, and to tell their own stories. TILT programs are different because we encourage students to follow their inclinations to write and produce videos with fictional content and narrative structure; we train the students to be their own technicians and we insist on high production values because we educate about the language of media itself.

Theater Action Project (TAP)
http://www.theatreactionproject.org
3710 Cedar St. #4
Austin, TX 78705
Ph: 512.442.8773
Fx: 512.451.8747

Theatre Action Project creates and promotes socially relevant, interactive theatre and educational programming that ignites community dialogue, self-discovery and social change. Our vision is to provide accessible, interactive theatre arts to Central Texas individuals, predominantly Austin youth ages 5-18, that develops critical thinking practices, peaceful conflict resolution skills, strong self-esteem and active allies for personal and community excellence. Collaboration is at the center of all of our processes from rehearsals to organizational structure to community relationships.

Youth Speaks
http://www.youthspeaks.org/index.html
2169 Folsom Street, S-100
San Francisco, CA 94110
Ph: 415.255.9035

Youth Speaks is the premier youth poetry, spoken word, and creative writing program in the country. Founded in San Francisco in 1996, Youth Speaks has helped spark the next generation of poets and writers lighting up stages and pages in all corners of the land. Youth Speaks is building the next generation of leaders through the written and spoken word. Our innovative programs nurture and develop the youth voice and promote positive social dialogue across boundaries of age, race, class, gender, culture and sexual orientation. By coupling public performance and publication opportunities with educational workshops, mentoring programs, and cooperative learning, Youth Speaks encourages active literacy, honest writing, and critical thought.