Youth Leaders Develop Graphics to Emphasize CYD Values

Young artists and activists from RYSE Youth Center (Richmond, CA) and youth leaders from Re:Frame Youth Arts Center (Phoenix, AZ) held a series of conversations to discuss Creative Youth Development (CYD) from 2019-2020. They met over video calls to discuss how they define CYD values, what CYD looks like in practice, and their expectations of adult partners in CYD spaces. A series of graphics emerged from these conversations to help guide adult practitioners and spark larger conversations with youth and adults in the field of CYD.

More about What is CYD?

The text within this graphic are repeated in the What is CYD? page's body text.

 

Complete the Lewis Prize for Music’s CYD Community Response Survey by March 19

graphic for The Lewis Prize for Music's CYD Community Response Survey

The Lewis Prize for Music is conducting a CYD community response  survey  to collect information about the larger field’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing injustices of systemic racism that the pandemic has only laid more bare. The Lewis Prize for Music wants to elevate nationally the critical work that CYD organizations are doing to create a more just society. All information shared in the survey will be reported back to the field in a summative fashion and activated toward the goal of increasing resources for the CYD field at large. Please only complete the survey once per organization.

Questions? Contact info@thelewisprize.org.

Complete the Survey by March 19

 

Brief Examines Local Peer Learning Networks

In 2019, the CYD National Partnership’s Field Building Action Team conducted interviews across the nation to understand the growth of peer learning networks—focused fully or in part on CYD—that are emerging across the country. The results were compiled in a brief written for the CYD National Partnership by Ellen Hirzy in January 2020:

Peer learning networks promote the sharing of knowledge, experiences, ideas, and promising practices among professionals. Whether formal or informal, they give people a chance to know others who are engaged in similar work with similar challenges. Close interaction with peers can be difficult to find in the nonprofit world, especially for those working in smaller organizations with limited resources. The mutual encouragement and professional growth that happens over time through a peer network can make a profound difference in individuals and their organizations, and ultimately in the youth they serve.

Looking at the broader picture, as peer networks proliferate, collectively they will help to advance the creative youth development field as a whole, including the growth of cross-sector collaboration. This paper describes the benefits of CYD peer learning networks, their structure and function, challenges they face, and attributes that contribute to success. Designed as a reference tool for practitioners, funders, and key stakeholders, it is based on interviews the CYD National Partnership conducted with 11 emergent and sustaining networks around the country. Short profiles of several networks illustrate the diversity and potential of peer learning as a catalyst to creative youth development.

Read the Brief

Meet the Partners

CYD National Partners

As you know, the CYD National Partnership includes the voices of practitioners, researchers, funders, and cross-sector partners who are committed to increasing equitable access to Creative Youth Development. We’ve recently added email addresses for the partners who are willing to be points of contact about their respective work within the CYD field. Meet the partners.

CYD Leaders Envision Systems Change in Their Organizations

 

Cover of The Lewis Prize for Music’s essay series Thoughts on Responsive and Collaborative Leadership from the 2020 Accelerator Awardees

The Lewis Prize for Music has released an essay series, ‘Thoughts on Responsive and Collaborative Leadership from the 2020 Accelerator Awardees,’ featuring organizational leaders talking about systems change and what it means to them and their communities:
Continue reading “CYD Leaders Envision Systems Change in Their Organizations”

Afterschool Alliance Researching How COVID-19 is Affecting Programs This Fall

Afterschool Alliance has released Wave 2 of their Afterschool in the Time of COVID-19 survey findings, and are now collecting data for Wave 3.

By taking their short survey, you are lifting up challenges programs face as the pandemic continues, and, more importantly, your answers will raise awareness of the short- and long-term effects of COVID-19 on the afterschool field. Findings from these surveys are shared with federal policy makers and featured in publications such as Education Week and Youth Today.

Questions? Contact Nikki Yamashiro.

Complete their Wave 3 survey by 11:59 pm (PDT) on October 26.

The Heinz Endowments Launch Creative Learning Funding

Three young men standing together outside on a city sidewalk singing and playing a guitar

The Heinz Endowments’ Creative Learning initiative is a cross-sector strategy to cultivate an equitable creative arts and cultural learning network, improve access to transformative learning experiences for young people, and support meaningful professional opportunities for teaching artists in Pittsburgh’s out-of-school-time (OST) ecosystem. For the purpose of this initiative, creative learning will be defined as high-quality arts education in OST settings, with equitable access for the social, emotional and creative development of children and youth. Continue reading “The Heinz Endowments Launch Creative Learning Funding”

Music Orgs: Apply for a $500,000 Accelerator Award by Aug 21

The Lewis Prize for Music — a creative arts philanthropy that invests in music organizations and their leaders to facilitate positive change through access to music education — is accepting application for its annual Accelerator Awards through August 21, 2020. Three multi-year awards of $500,000 each will be awarded in January 2021. Continue reading “Music Orgs: Apply for a $500,000 Accelerator Award by Aug 21”

ArtPlace America and Creative Generation Announce New Research Initiative

Cheyenne River Youth Project’s RedCan Jam 2019. Photo: Justin Chotikul

The following post originally appeared on the ArtPlace blog on July 16, 2020.

By Jamie Hand, Director of Research Strategies, ArtPlace

Together, ArtPlace America and Creative Generation are pleased to announce a new research initiative focused on arts, culture, and youth development.

This partnership will explore the intersections of creative youth development, creative placemaking, and community development through community based, youth- and practitioner-led research. By the end of the year, a series of new web-based tools and resources will be created by and for practitioners operating in this space. Continue reading “ArtPlace America and Creative Generation Announce New Research Initiative”

Apply to the Lewis Prize for Music COVID-19 Community Response Fund by May 8

COVID-19 Community Response Fund

The Lewis Prize for Music has launched a $1 million COVID-19 Community Response Fund for Creative Youth Development leaders and youth music programs to support their responsive and adaptive efforts during COVID-19. This fund will distribute over 20 grants of $25,000 to $50,000 to youth-serving music programs. The application opens on Monday, April 20 and closes on Friday, May 8 with grants distributed on June 16. Visit The Lewis Prize for Music for more information.