Project Grant

275 children and youth experiencing poverty will learn art skills that will strengthen their emotional skills, enhance academic performance, and improve their quality of life. ; Outcomes: 275 children and youth experiencing poverty: #1 -- will learn art skills that improve emotional regulation by providing healthy leisure activities that can be used with their community or independently #2 -- will strengthen their social-emotional skills in self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, social awareness, and relationship skills through creating art within their community. #3 -- will be exposed to a variety of artistic media that will lead to developing good thinking skills and creative processing. The program will include continuous evaluation methods that will help artists make adjustments throughout the project as well as a deeper look into the overall impact and outcomes of the project. ; Continuous evaluation: Project leader Molly Huus, teaching artists, and art assistants will hold planning meetings prior to the launch of the program to implement the recommendations from the previous year and, like last year, will hold weekly meetings to check in about what's working, what isn't working, how to make adjustments, and to develop immediate solutions to problems. Post-project assessments will delve into what we learned, what we can do better next year, and what we need to do better to create an environment in which the children will thrive. Evaluating outcomes: When working with children, teaching artists and artist assistants will use verbal participant assessment questions and personal observations to measure outcomes. Sample questions to engage students in creative thinking, critiquing their work, and problem solving: 1. How did you come up with the idea for your project? 2. What was your favorite part of making this art? 3. What problems did you experience and how did you solve them? 4. How were you feeling when you created it? These assessment questions will be adapted to fit teens as well as adapted to fit other art forms, including dance and theatre. In addition, teaching artists and art assistants will design supportive environments that help teach social emotional skills as well as being intentional about using "ah-ha" teaching moments. The evaluation information will be used to assess both the process and the outcomes: 1) Process data: was there adequate space, were there late-comers that disrupted the process, were there enough materials, what were the advantages/disadvantages of mixing ages, were there enough art assistants, etc. 2) Outcome data: what made this experience meaningful, what did participants find challenging, what kinds of projects were more or less successful, etc. Evaluation methods include: 1) Sign-in sheets to track participation rates and demographics 2) Surveys to gain a deeper understanding of whether their experience was meaningful and what made it meaningful. 3) Assessment of completed artwork by art instructors and art assistants 4) Observations of the level of energy, cooperation, and enjoyment being expressed by participants during and after the art experiences.