Young At Art Children's Museum

Grant Funded Program - ArtREACH
(Reconnecting and Educating homeless Adolescents through Creativity and Hope)

Article below from Young At Art's Spring/Summer 2004 newsletter, The Drawing Board

Museum’s ArtREACH Homeless Program Breaks Ground

The following is excerpted from an article in the April 2004 national After-School Advocate publication which featured Young At Art’s homeless outreach program funded by the federal Institute of Museum & Library Services. The program has received a great deal of attention, as well as generous local matching support from the A.D. Henderson Foundation, School Board of Broward County, Jim Moran Foundation, Peacock Foundation, Community Foundation of Broward, Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs, Winn Dixie Foundation, and the Ted and JoAnn Pass Fund of the Community Foundation of Broward. Denny’s, Nabisco and MacArthur Dairy have provided generous, ongoing in-kind support.

"This program is a blessing. They come home so excited." That’s what Jenny Malcolm, mother of three daughters, recently told a Sun-Sentinel reporter. What makes the afterschool program she was describing uncommon is that the home to which her girls come at the end of the day is a transitional shelter for homeless families

Like the other residents of the Salvation Army’s Plymouth Colony shelter in Hollywood, Florida, Malcolm holds down a job; in fact, it’s a requirement for residents. But her paycheck doesn’t stretch far enough to pay for an apartment, so the shelter program is helping get her family back on their feet. Her daughters, in the meantime, attend the "ArtREACH" afterschool program run at the shelter by Young At Art Children’s Museum.

ArtREACH (Reconnecting and Educating homeless Adolescents through Creativity and Hope) is the product of a collaboration among the museum, the Salvation Army, and the School Board of Broward County, and is funded by a two-year, $185,000 federal grant from the Institute of Museum & Library Services. Young At Art has secured an additional $80,000 in matching grants. The program is seen as a pilot effort, and the museum’s experience running it will be the basis of a handbook for broad dissemination, beginning next year.

"One of the most striking things for me was being reminded of just how many young kids are in homeless shelters," says project director Samuel Joseph. "We’ve tried to design the program to use the arts not just to create beautiful artwork, but to help gain access to some subject areas with the kids that they might not otherwise get to." So, the program’s first art assignment required children to design their own "artistic license.

We gave them some background on ‘what is art,’ and we wanted them to experience that creative freedom, to not get locked into having to color within the lines."

The art projects all relate to the school district’s character education curriculum, so children work in a variety of media to create art that depicts individual character traits such as integrity, respect and self-control.

The program runs every day from 2 to 6 p.m. in spaces provided at the shelter complex. It now serves 27 children daily, with capacity to expand to 60. Children are bused from nearby schools – eight in all, are fed a snack, and then rotate between three activities: homework assistance led by certified teachers from the school district; the arts-based curriculum; and outdoor recreation. The program also offers counseling for students once a week. Once a month, students visit the Museum itself for more hands-on arts activities.

Joseph says that the program has also had an important impact on the Museum. "It’s really given us a chance to live up to our commitment to serving the community, including those in greatest need," he says, "and has provided us the opportunity to make an even more profound impact and change lives for the better."

Young At Art Children's Museum Wins Prestigious IMLS Grant
National Leadership Grant Awarded for Innovative Homeless Outreach Program

For Immediate Release, 9/1/03
Museum Contact: Natalie Brown, (954) 424-0085 x17
IMLS Contact: Mamie Bittner, (202) 606-8339

(Davie, Florida) – Young At Art Children’s Museum was named one of six museums nationwide to receive a National Leadership Grant from the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). This funding will provide the Museum’s innovative art programming to homeless children through the establishment of an ArtREACH center.

In partnership with the School Board of Broward County, Salvation Army and Miami Rescue Mission, the Museum will establish ArtREACH (Reconnecting & Educating Adolescents through Creativity & Hope), an after-school arts and homework assistance program inside the Salvation Army’s Plymouth Colony shelter. The two-year pilot project will provide programming for up to 60 homeless children from the Plymouth Colony shelter and Miami Rescue Mission’s Broward Outreach Center.

"Homeless children are by most accounts among the fastest growing segments of the homeless population," Young At Art Executive Director Mindy Shrago said. "Among the many obstacles facing these children are education and their ability to access after-school programs. This program will help build their educational skills, self-esteem and self-confidence, and will help children and families reconnect with each other while including them in the life and the lifelong learning of museums."

Children at the two centers will receive enriching arts programs, tutoring, homework assistance and counseling every day after school. The establishment of the arts center right at the shelter will provide mothers a safe place for their children and alleviate the logistical challenges of finding day care services and transportation that fits with their work days.

The highly competitive IMLS grant program received 42 applications from museums across the country from which the six museums were selected. Young At Art will receive $185,000 from the federal agency for the two-year program, which must be matched with local support. The five other awards went to Boston Children’s Museum, Chicago Botanic Garden, New Mexico Museum of Natural History, the Florida Aquarium in Tampa and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City.

"In a recent IMLS study, the Institute found that America’s museums commit more than 18 million instructional hours every year on programs for K-12 schoolchildren," said the Institute’s Director, Dr. Robert S. Martin. "These grants illuminate these findings vividly and demonstrate IMLS’s commitment to encourage a love of discovery and learning in all children and their families through partnerships with our nation’s museums and schools, charitable organizations, community centers, and the like."

IMLS is a federal grantmaking agency located in Washington, D.C., that fosters leadership, innovation and a lifetime of learning by supporting museums and libraries.

Young At Art Children’s Museum is a non-profit organization offering hands-on interactive art activities for children and families. The museum is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 12 noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $5.00 per person; children under two and members are free. For more information, please call (954) 424-0085 or visit www.youngatartmuseum.org.