Partners in Arts Participation

Barriers to participate were taken down by our outreach efforts to the refugee population. The Karen community have trusted us with their children for multiple years in the program. It took multiple hours of creating relationships with families in the community. We spent hours letting parents know that our program is there to help their kids transition to school smoothly. They were also reassured that we are there to help their children learn English and get them ready for school. End of the summer Parent Surveys showed extreme satisfaction and gratitude of our program. 2: More Minnesotans are able to participate because our program was open to any and all students in grades K-12. The Eastside Children's Summer Program worked hard to make sure that we welcomed all families to the program. One example of this was inviting a large range of students from kindergarten to twelfth grade. This allowed for entire families of children who came to the program together. This helped families with the barrier to participate because families didn't need to cover daycare. Typically older students cannot attend programming because they need to take care of their younger siblings. Our program allowed for a large age range of students to attend. Furthermore, we did not have income or residential area restrictions. We welcomed all families free of charge and provided free lunch for students.