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.

Read the Creative Youth Development National Blueprint.

For the third year in a row, Mass Cultural Council is proud to award 15 Amplify grants totaling $15,000 to projects designed and executed by young people in programs receiving YouthReach or SerHacer funding, furthering the Commonwealth’s investment in youth leadership and empowerment. This year’s process not only encouraged young people to design and lead their own projects for their communities’ benefit, but also included young people and program alums in the evaluation panel.

Today, 12 creative youth development programs from across the country were recognized by the nation’s arts and culture agencies with the highest honor such programs can receive, the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award.

First presented in 1998, the 2017 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards was presented through a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), in cooperation with the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA).

As part of the Creative Youth Development National Partnership’s Stakeholder Meeting (NSM), Mass Cultural Council took the opportunity to host a cohort of international guests to spark a conversation on how the field of practice looks around the world.

With a varied roster of national and local agencies, educators, artists, and academia from South Korea, Scotland, India, Australia, Norway, and New Zealand, these guests met to distill the findings of the NSM, and, led by veteran teaching artist Eric Booth, were engaged in an incredibly fertile conversation, in which different models and approaches were presented, all unified by the importance of empowering young people and nurturing creativity as an integral part of our communities.

The National Guild for Community Arts Education, on behalf of a coalition of national partners, has been awarded an NEA Collective Impact grant for $100,000. The grant will support the implementation of the National Blueprint for Creative Youth Development (CYD) through cross-sector working groups, communications, and professional development.

The Partnership was invited to provide input on two connected articles for the Ford Motor Company Fund website about creative youth development, one on CYD and the arts and afterschool in general and features on AileyCamp, 826 National, and Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit.

The CYD National Partnership was invited to present at the Federal Interagency Task Force on the Arts and Human Development. The purpose of the presentation was familiarize the Task Force on creative youth development as a solution for positive outcomes for youth and on the evolving work of the Partnership.

The Partnership was introduced to and their work and research on tools and resources (Primarily the Creative Youth Development Toolkit) to the federal Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (IWGYP). IWGYP is a group of 20 federal departments and agencies that support programs and services focusing on youth and is the entity that oversees Youth.gov.

The Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) and Klarman Family Foundation have launched a new program, the Music Educators and Teaching Artists (META) Fellowship Pilot Program, to help teaching artists improve the quality of their work with youth in schools and community settings across Massachusetts.