The CYD National Partnership is excited to announce a new leadership change for the CYD National Coordinator position. For the past two years, Ashley Hare has served the CYD National Coordinator. She worked in support of the CYD National Partners, local practitioners, and youth leaders to implement the vision outlined in the CYD National Action Blueprint. Ashley now joins the National Guild for Community Arts Education as Director of Leadership Development to fully integrate these values into the Guild’s programming and operations. Continue reading “CYD National Coordination Transition”
Join the Creative Youth Development National Partnership for a set of dynamic online conversations with youth, experts, funders, and practitioners. All young people deserve to have equitable opportunities to reach their creative potential, live richer and fuller lives, and develop the critical life skills they need to become active contributors in their communities.
CREATIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT is the intentional integration of arts learning and youth development principles and has implications across many areas such as social-emotional learning, social justice, leadership development, college/career readiness, and K-12 transformation.
This learning series will build on and amplify key takeaways and case examples from a recently completed set of written briefs, authored by field experts, which explore new paths forward for supporting youth through creative youth development practice. These papers are part of a multi-year project, led by Americans for the Arts, designed to produce a CYD Toolkit for the field.
Working with Youth (Focus on Youth Agency) July 30, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET, Free
So often we adults make decisions on programming and policy without youth voice, even though they are directly impacted by our choices. But young people are speaking up to become their own agents of change. They are concerned about their future when we are long gone, and they are ready to lead today. To truly give them the space they are demanding, we must rethink what it means to co-lead with young people. Learn practices to consider when implementing youth-driven leadership models in classrooms, afterschool programs, and community spaces. A rich conversation with funders, youth, practitioners, and experts will provide insight from multiple perspectives.
Learn how you can use the recently released Creative Youth Development (CYD) National Action Blueprint as a resource in your work to advance the role of creativity in youth development. Led by the CYD National Partnership and a cross-sector coalition, this one-hour, interactive forum is designed for CYD practitioners and alumni, funders, researchers, and allied youth sector leaders.
During the forum, we discuss:
The CYD National Movement and Blueprint goals
How CYD aligns with the priorities of allied youth sectors, including education, juvenile justice, and afterschool
Recommendations for advancing CYD in three strategic priority areas
VISIBILITY & IMPACT: Documenting and Communicating Outcomes and Impact
FUNDING: Expanding Pathways to Funding
FIELD BUILDING: Professional Development, Networking, and Technical Assistance
Hear from multiple stakeholders on how they have applied the Blueprint and its recommendations to their own work and communities:
Ashley Hare, Phoenix, AZ (Practitioner), shares how the Blueprint prompted a community meeting for arts practitioners hosted by the state arts commission and a local funder.
Matt D’Arrigo, Clare Rose Foundation, San Diego, CA (Funder), shares how a family foundation is supporting the implementation of the Blueprint through the cultivation of a local CYD Network in San Diego.
Kaile Shilling, Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network, Los Angeles, CA (Collaborative), shares how the Blueprint informed AIYN’s policy brief and helped to frame a local effort within a broader, national context.
Lauren Stevenson, Project 1324, Adobe, San Francisco, CA(Private Sector), shares how the Blueprint has informed the creation and development of a digital platform to support and connect a global community of young creators.
The CYD National Partnership is delighted to welcome Ashley Hare as CYD National Coordinator, a role she has been serving in since June. Ashley is coordinating the work of the Partnership’s three, cross-sector Action Teams which are collaborating to achieve strategic goals articulated in the CYD National Action Blueprint in areas of Funding, Visibility and Impact, and Field Building.
Ashley brings deep experience to this position, as both an arts administrator, community organizer, and CYD practitioner. Code-switching as a young, multiracial, queer, female in institutional artistic and political spaces has given Ashley years of insight to collaboratively create effective, long-term strategies towards ending injustice. Ashley has facilitated programming within shelters for homeless youth, group homes, rehabilitation facilities, juvenile detention centers, public and private schools. She is the co-founder of InSite Consultants AZ, an organization that focuses on institutional change to impact equitable outcomes, and recently served as the arts learning director for the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture. She holds an MFA in Theatre for Youth from Arizona State University and a BA in Theatre and Business from Wesleyan College, Georgia. She serves as a board member for the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America.
Ashley has been serving as a member of the CYD National Action Team focused on Expanding Pathways to Funding since October 2017 and served as a facilitator during the 2017 CYD National Stakeholder Meeting in Boston. She is currently collaborating on the development of Americans for the Arts forthcoming CYD Toolkit as a literature review author.
The Education Commission of the States’ recently released policy brief, Creative Youth Development: Transforming the Learning Environment, which received input from the Creative Youth Development National Partnership, provides an overview of CYD and its connections to student success, examples of successful programs, and considerations for state policymakers.
CYD programs may be particularly beneficial for underserved youth, providing them with opportunities to amplify inherent strengths and talents, build positive relationships, and express themselves in safe and healthy spaces. Increased flexibilities under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offer states the opportunity to explore the use of innovative strategies to provide students with a well-rounded education that includes the arts. CYD strategies may serve to narrow the achievement gap and increase equity in education systems. Additionally, states may use CYD programs in conjunction with other educational initiatives, including those related to school improvement, alternative education, deeper learning, social-emotional learning and 21st century skills.
Free and open to public; pre-registration required REGISTER
Learn how you can use the recently released Creative Youth Development (CYD) National Action Blueprint as a resource in your work to advance the role of creativity in youth development. Led by the CYD National Partnership and a cross-sector coalition, this one-hour, interactive forum is designed for CYD practitioners and alumni, funders, researchers, and allied youth sector leaders.
During the forum, we will discuss:
The CYD National Movement and Blueprint goals
How CYD aligns with the priorities of allied youth sectors, including education, juvenile justice, and afterschool
Recommendations for advancing CYD in three strategic priority areas VISIBILITY & IMPACT: Documenting and Communicating Outcomes and Impact FUNDING: Expanding Pathways to Funding FIELD BUILDING: Professional Development, Networking, and Technical Assistance
Creative youth development is a long-standing, intentional practice that integrates creative skill-building, inquiry, and expression with positive youth development principles. In these programs, young people create original work—including animated films, 3-D printed sculptures, dance and theater productions, musical compositions, curated book collections, and more—and apply their creative skills to solve problems, shape their lives, and imagine and build the world in which they want to live.
Creative Youth Development (CYD) National Blueprint outlines strategies for positive change
Mosaic Singers of Detroit, MI in concert. Photo copyright Jim West.
The Creative Youth Development National Partnership, in concert with more than 650 cross-sector stakeholders nationally, is calling for all young people to have equitable access to opportunities to: realize their creative potential; live richer, fuller lives; and develop the critical learning and life skills they need to become active contributors to their communities.
Creative youth development is a long-standing practice that integrates creative skill-building, inquiry, and expression with positive youth development principles. In these programs, young people create original work—including animated films, 3-D printed sculptures, dance and theater productions, musical compositions, curated book collections, and more—and apply their creative skills to solve problems, shape their lives, and imagine and build the world in which they want to live.
With support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the CYD National Partnership—which includes the National Guild for Community Arts Education, Americans for the Arts, the Mass Cultural Council, and formerly the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities—gathered input on strategies to expand the reach and impact of CYD through numerous community conversations throughout the country over an 18-month period.
VISIBILITY & IMPACT: Documenting and Communicating Outcomes and Impact
FUNDING: Expanding Pathways to Funding
FIELD BUILDING: Professional Development, Networking, and Technical Assistance
Woven throughout the Blueprint are core values of the CYD coalition: racial equity and social justice, youth voice, and collective action. Read the Executive Summary.
“Creative youth development has the unique potential to deepen and sustain youth engagement by providing opportunities for youth to develop their creative potential, amplify their voices, and build leadership skills,” said Jonathan Herman, Executive Director of the National Guild for Community Arts Education. “For many youth, CYD programs also can be a pathway to other services such as college and career readiness, mental health services, academic support, and more.”
Participants in this national movement include youth, practitioners, researchers, funders, policy makers, and other stakeholders in creative youth development and allied sectors. The Partnership also commissioned research by the Forum for Youth Investment that mapped opportunities for alignment, e.g. developing social emotional competence; promoting healthy decision making/behaviors; and reengaging young people in positive learning and work environments, among CYD and allied youth sectors, including afterschool, juvenile justice, mental health, education, and workforce development. Three cross-sector Action Teams were then formed to analyze and distill the research and stakeholder inputs and make final recommendations for the Blueprint.
“Providing today’s youth with the skills they need to lead fulfilling lives across all economic, social, and family circumstances is a large-scale undertaking,” said Erik Peterson, Vice President of Policy, Afterschool Alliance. “To do this urgent work effectively, we must work together to share lessons learned, networks, and resources.”
The Blueprint will evolve as implementation unfolds and will be updated online to reflect progress toward goals.
The Creative Youth Development National Partnership aims to ensure that creative youth development is a broadly-implemented, well-researched, and equitably-funded practice and available to all youth so that they may realize their full potential and thrive.
CYD National Partners include:
The National Guild for Community Arts Education, which ensures all people have opportunities to maximize their creative potential by developing leaders, strengthening organizations, and advocating for community arts education. www.nationalguild.org
Americans for the Arts, which serves, advances, and leads the network of organizations and individuals who cultivate, promote, sustain, and support the arts in America. www.americansforthearts.org
Mass Cultural Council, a state agency supporting the arts, humanities, and sciences in order to improve the quality of life in Massachusetts and its communities. Over the past 20 years, Mass Cultural Council has invested more than $10 million in creative youth development, resulting in a vibrant community of programs. www.massculturalcouncil.org
FREE for Guild members
$35 each for non-members or $120 for all four.
The growing strength of the creative youth development movement necessitates that programs, staff, partners, and funders re-think fundamental ways of doing business—program design, staffing, and evaluation to create more active and ongoing roles for young people as critical thinkers, designers, and decision makers. In response to this imperative, the National Guild for Community Arts Education will be presenting a four-part webinar series. The webinar series is chaired by Dennie Palmer Wolf and informed by many voices from the CYD field including: Julia Gittleman, Steven Holochwost, Gladys Hidalgo, Ruth Mercado-Zizzo, James Miles, Käthe Swaback, and others.
You can register for webinars individually below or sign-up for the whole series and save! Across the series participants will build four sets of vital strategies by examining examples from the work of other CYD organizations and reflecting on their own practices.
Webinar 1: Sept. 26 – The Foundations of Creative Youth Development Evaluation
We will begin by exploring the basic principles of creative youth development and their implications for evaluation. From there, we will examine how an organization builds the foundation for doing effective evaluation: developing an organizational story, building a logic model or theory of change, developing powerful infographics, and creating a culture of inquiry that includes young people as full partners. Register for webinar 1 (FREE for members; $35 for non-members) or the full series.
Webinar 2: Oct. 3 – Stepping Up to Survey and Use Observational Data
In this session, we will explore how to design and use surveys and observational protocols, both field-tested tools and new ones tailored to individual programs. As part of this work, we will look at a range of strategies for involving current youth and alumni as critical respondents to and designers of tools. We will discuss the important work of formative assessment: the fine art of using findings to improve programs over time. Register (FREE for members; $35 for non-members)
Webinar 3: Oct. 17 – Thinking through Comparisons
Many evaluations depend on comparing participants to non-participants and looking for the changes that are correlated with being in a program. This kind of correlational work is a major step in thinking about the impacts a program may have – but doing this work well, and understanding its limits can be demanding. Together, we will think through what can – and can’t – be learned through this approach. Register (FREE for members; $35 for non-members)
Webinar 4: Oct. 24 – Partnering for Large-Scale, Quantitative Evaluation
In light of the growing demand for more rigorous evidence – from government and private funders – this final webinar will look at what it takes to conduct quasi-experimental and experimental research into the impact of CYD programs. We will look at the demands such studies place on programs and their staff and consider when programs are ready to take on those demands. We will also explore the kinds of research partnerships that CYD organizations might undertake with external partners in order to learn about and conduct these demanding, but powerful, forms of evaluation. Register (FREE for members; $35 for non-members)
The webinars will be interactive and include: 1) pre-assignments that will alert you to the big ideas, prepare you to examine your own current practices, and allow you to send in questions ahead of time; 2) an exchange of distinctive perspectives from the presenters; and 3) ample time for audience questions.
We encourage programs to support teams of participants in order to sustain the inquiry and conversation between and beyond the individual sessions. All materials will be sent to participants in advance of each session.
This year’s National Guild for Community Arts Education Conference, will feature a dynamic CYD track as part of our comprehensive conference program. This exciting line-up of workshops, site visits, and other opportunities is designed to inspire and inform experienced practitioners and interested newcomers! Creative Youth Development (CYD) integrates the arts, humanities, and sciences with youth development principles, using creativity to build critical skills that help young people realize their full potential. Join us at the Conference for Community Arts Education in the Bay Area this November 15-18 to be on the cutting edge of this crucial work.
The Partnership will be presenting a series of webinars this fall on evaluating the impact of CYD. The webinars, led by Dennie Palmer Wolf and in collaboration with the Boston Youth Arts Impact Network, will be held on Sept. 26 and Oct. 3, and Oct. 17 and 24. As we design these webinars in the coming weeks, we would love your input, suggestions for potential case examples, etc.. Let us know:
What are your questions and needs around evaluating CYD practice?
How do we engage and hear from young people as designers, participants, and thoughtful critics?
The Education Commission of the States’ recently released policy brief, Creative Youth Development: Transforming the Learning Environment, which received input from the Creative Youth Development National Partnership, provides an overview of CYD and its connections to student success, examples of successful programs, and considerations for state policymakers.
