NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Cover Art: Escape into Grace Vietnamese Youth Development Center (VYDC), San Francisco, California Front and back cover art, Escape into Grace, is a mural created by staff and youth of the Vietnamese Youth Development Center (VYDC) in San Francisco's Tenderloin District. The mural was created for the Arlington Hotel by public artist Johanna Poethig, VYDC staff member Glades Perreras and youth Gia Hy Chung, Sokly Ny and Puthara Chuop. Run by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Arlington is a residential hotel for people in recovery. The mural team used a series of images that represent the process of recovery, the idea of freeing oneself from addiction to substances and also from other negative influences and behaviors. Youth researched and used figures that symbolize spirits, health, change and movement in Native American, Buddhist and other traditions. A snake represents the process of recovery, starting out poisonous, shedding its skin and transforming into a spiral that represents the cyclical nature of life. The overall message is change requires movement. The mural is a tribute to all neighborhood residents struggling to build positive lives for themselves, one that speaks to young and old. The Tenderloin's 509 Cultural Center sponsored the mural, and the San Francisco Mayor's Neighborhood Beautification and Graffiti Clean-Up Project funded it. Art Works! Edited by D ian Magie and Christine E. Miller, Ph.D. Written by Paula Randall This publication was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in cooperation with the Tucson-Pima Arts Council and La Frontera Center, Inc. Acknowledgments The N ational Endowment for the Arts (NEA), an independent agency of the federal NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS SAMHSA Center for Substance Abuse Prevention PreventionWOR/CS.' TUCSON -PIMA ARTS ACOUNCILA [&? LA FRONTERN CENTER, INC. government, was created in 1965 to encourage artistic excellence and public par- ticipation in the arts. Through grantmaking, leadership initiatives, partnerships, research and advocacy, the NEA fulfills its mission to serve the people of the United States through the arts. For more information on the agency, visit its site (http://arts.endow.gov) on the World Wide Web. The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the nation's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention services. In addition to the many programs sponsored by the agency, SAMHSA/CSAP serves as facilitator of information dissemination, training and technical assistance. In doing so, SAMHSA/CSAP seeks to connect people and resources with effective and innovative ideas, strategies and programs aimed at reducing and eliminating alcohol, tobacco and drug problems in our society. The Tucson-Pima Arts Council (TPAC) is a nonprofit local arts agency that encourages and supports a thriving, diverse, multicultural, artistic environment in Tucson and Pima County, Arizona. Through grants and commissions, TPAC directly assists the arts community in developing and producing art. Programs in cultural heritage, media arts, rural arts, arts education and public art and community design contribute to the community's cultural breadth and brilliance. ArtWORKS, a summer and afterschool prevention program in the arts for youth, has reached over 500 youth since 1993. La Frontera Center, Inc., a nonprofit community-based behavioral health center, has been serving residents of Pima County, Arizona, since 1968. The agency cur- rently provides a continuum of mental health, substance abuse and psychosocial rehabilitation services, assisting approximately 6,000 people each year. A particu- larly important component of the service menu is La Frontera's prevention pro- gram, which reaches out to at-risk children in their homes, at school and in neighborhood centers. Prevention services also focus on community development models in both rural and urban settings. © 1997 by the National Endowment for the Arts. All rights reserved. This publication was produced under a cooperative agreement between the National Endowment for the Arts and the Tucson-Pima Arts Council, with support through an interagency agreement between the Arts Endowment and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Content Editors: Writer: Editor: Graphic Design: Concept/Guidance: NEA Staff: CSAP Staff: Dian Magie, Executive Director, Tucson-Pima Arts Council Christine E. Miller, Ph.D., Substance Abuse Services Director, La Frontera Center, Inc. Paula Randall, Paula Randall Associates Karen Chatfield, La Frontera Center, Inc. Lori Lieber Graphic Design/Teri Smith, Lori Lieber Marianne Klink, Federal Liaison, National Endowment for the Arts Karen Christensen, General Counsel; Keith Donohue, Director, Publications; Andi Mathis, State & Regional Specialist; Carol Warrell, Special Assistant, Administration; Judith Weitz, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities Joan White Quinlan, Senior Public Health Advisor; David Wilson, Public Affairs Specialist; the Staff of the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI) To obtain a copy of this publication, contact the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI), P.O. Box 2345, Rockville, MD 20847, (800) 729-6686, (301) 468-2600, Fax: (301) 468-6433. Do you see we are all equal and we are ail human? — Dewayne Washington Do you see that I want to play in a world without violence and racism? — Vanessa Samuels Do you see that there are more bullets than people? — Dewayne Washington Do you see that we got to help each other? — Heigy Perguero Do you see me walking and walking into the middle of nowhere? — Lourdes Delgado Do you see what happens on the street when young kids do pot go home? — Irving Hamilton Do you see that there is a whole lot -of violence in the whole city, not just the Bronx? — Jirlis Duran Do you see the world changing and people laughing, not crying? — Thurraya Amadu When I'm quiet I see there is plenty of hope for you and me. — Shantel Wilson When I'm quiet I can hear the music from an unseen source. — Jeff Taylor Excerpt from New Settlement Apartments Community-Poem Bronx Council on the Arts, WritersCorps riinniiiiMii The Three Brothers by William Diaz, 12 years old (Murphy, a police officer, has stopped the car of a man he has just seen buy drugs from a dealer. It turns out the driver is Ben, his best friend in high school. This interaction comes at the end of the play.) Murphy. Do you want to go to counseling for your problems? Ben. I don't know, I just told you. Murphy. What are you afraid of? Ben. I can't say that, I can't say that. Murphy. Just tell me what you're afraid of. Calm down. I won't tell anybody. Remember, we're friends. Ben. Remember when I won first place for long distance running and you won second place? Murphy. Yeah. I remember the time. We were practicing, you fell, you broke your leg in two places. You couldn't make it. Is that when you started doing drugs? Ben. Yes . . . that's when it started. I had nothing good in my life. Murphy. How did it happen? You could have played baseball. Ben. School year was over. Murphy. You were real good at chess. Ben. I forgot how to play chess. Murphy. You were real good at that. You had another chance to be real good and win. You let yourself down. Ben. Yeah, you're right. (A pause) Murphy. (Quietly) What are you afraid of? Ben. The day I broke my leg . . . after that I don't remember anything much. Murphy. Why don't you say it? Ben. If I ever try anything again I think I will never come back. Murphy. You should never be afraid of what you think you can't do. You weren't scared of doing drugs, so you should not be scared of doing something better than that. You will not die running. Drugs? . . . you'll never be able to do anything more. Ben. I might start running again. Murphy. Do you want counseling? Ben. I guess so. If I'm going to run, I better clean up. CHIL' ART Playwrights Program Contents Introduction What Is, and What Can Be.- Artists Helping Young People Tapping Resilience through the Arts Model Substance Abuse Prevention Programs in the Arts for Youth & Communities The Arts as a Tool for Prevention: The Evaluation Process Resources & Additional Programs Nelba R. Chavez, Ph.D., Administrator Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Jane Alexander, Chairman National Endowment for the Arts William Cleveland, Director Center for the Study of Arts and Communities Bonnie Benard, M.S.W. Resilience Associates Paula Randall Paula Randall Associates 6 7 8 14 Tucson, Arizona San Francisco, California Bronx, New York North Brunswick, New Jersey 38 Little Rock, Arkansas Project Choki & Old Pascua Youth Artists Making respect, traditional culture, art and business skills integral parts of the education of Yaqui children and adolescents Vietnamese Youth Development Center Peer Resource Program Using the arts to develop leadership skills and build community among Southeast Asian refugee youth Bronx Council on the Arts, WritersCorps Using writing to increase personal and social vision, literacy, communication and community- building skills CHIL' ART Playwrights Program Using playwriting, improvisation and positive adults to increase the autonomy, confidence and communication skills of inner-city youth Cornerstone Project NETworks Center Employing tutoring, the arts, life skills and community service to build the academic and social well-being of inner-city youth Music Theatre Workshop Under Pressure Series Chicago, Illinois Using music theater drawn from the lives of youth to teach decision-making skills that generate personal and community activism and hope West Dallas Community Centers, Inc., Rites of Passage Dallas, Texas Using African-centric humanities, history, life skills, and bonding with adults and peers to develop African American youth into purposeful, disciplined adults South Dakota Improvisational Theatre Pierre, South Dakot Using improvisational theater, processing and team building to increase awareness, belonging and decision-making skills of South Dakotans United Action for Youth Synthesis Arts Workshop Iowa City, Iowa Using youth culture music to help Iowa City teenagers develop artistic skills, self-esteem and positive relationships with adults and peers Teen Resource Project/New Visions/ Nueva Visiones Theater Empowering Latino youth through theater, life-skills training and community involvement Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Victory in Peace Fostering self-esteem, pride in ethnic heritage and cooperation skills through book arts, visual arts and homework assistance J. David Betts, Ph.D., and Juan J. Paz, Ph.D. Dian Ma#ie, Executive Director TucHon-Pirna Arts Council 20 26 32 Holyoke, Massachusetts Racine, Wisconsin 42 48 54 60 66 72 78 84 89 Introduction The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the nation's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention services. In addition to the many programs sponsored by the agency, SAMHSA/CSAP serves as facilitator of information dissemination, training and technical assistance. In doing so, SAMHSA/CSAP seeks to connect people and resources with effective and innovative ideas, strategies and programs aimed at reducing and eliminating alcohol, tobacco and drug problems in our society. CSAP is proud to be a partner with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in the creation of this noteworthy publication. It has been the goal of both organiza- tions to continue to expand the involvement of arts organizations in substance abuse prevention programs. We know that the arts give young people better things to do than drugs, and we must all help them learn skills that will last a lifetime. Prevention programs have long used the arts in their activities to reach at-risk youth and promote prevention messages, but these prevention and arts programs also offer opportunities for children and youth to learn new talents and develop a sense of self, well-being and belonging. More importantly, these programs provide stepping stones for a child's healthy development. Whether it be a poster contest organized by a local community center, a Red Ribbon Week dance concert, or a touring professional theater group, the arts have played an important prevention role not only by communicating positive messages but also by involving young people in positive activities that build life-enhancing skills. These activities, or alternative programs, are some of the most widely employed prevention strategies in the nation. CSAP's programs, in collaboration with the arts, will continue to strive, and support others, in making a difference in developing resilient, well-rounded and socially adapted teenagers. Nelba R. Chavez, Ph.D., is the administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Introduction Art can save lives. It can turn around a troubled teenager, help a child kick drugs, get young men and women off the streets and into creative and constructive pursuits. Art can change attitudes, build self-esteem and redirect the path of the wayward. Art can prevent despair. Extravagant claims? I have witnessed the power of the arts to effect these changes in children at programs such as the ones described in this publication. By giving young people alternatives to destructive behavior, the arts channel energy into positive quests for better education, stronger family life and rich commu- nity. This book lays out the successful stories and strategies of arts programs across the country that are changing lives. Every child needs to believe in himself. Picasso said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." His notion, I think, is based on observations of children as natural creators and discoverers. Curious from birth, we freely explore the world and seek to express what we see, hear, feel and think. Too often that curiosity is squelched, and despair sets in. The child becomes unmoored, and turns to drugs or violence or promiscuity as ways to escape or feel curious again. We at the National Endowment for the Arts are praud to team up with CSAP to produce this collection of inspirational and informative model programs. Our partnership at the national level mirrors partnerships at the local level by community organizations that often have not had traditional relationships due to seemingly disparate roles. When faced with the serious threats that drugs, violence, and alienation pose for our children, communities creatively respond by combining resources and talents. Their lessons are highlighted in this book, and these programs should encourage all of us to envision new collaborations for the sake of our youth that extend beyond traditional boundaries. Photo by G. Jill Evans Jane Alexander (right) visits children at Celebrations, a multicultural preschool in Oklahoma City. As I have said before, give a child a paintbrush or a pen, and he's less likely to pick up a needle or a gun. Give a child hope through the arts, and you just may save his life. Jane Alexander is the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. ADM S T R A T PERSPECT What Is, and What Can Be: Artists Helping Young People by lVi((i*vAvs Cv«v-e (*.*\w{A 3s. If Photo by Glades Perreras Jimmy Hoang, age 16, with video trainer, Paul Mayeda-Burgess Contact: Louella Lee Executive Director, Vietnamese Youth Development Center Chairperson, Asian Youth Substance Abuse Project 330 Ellis Street, Suite 507 San Francisco, CA 94109 Phone:415-771-2600 The Peer Resource Program (PRP) of San Francisco's Vietnamese KK; w Youth Development Center (VYDC) targets youth { iri from Southeast Asian refugee families grow- ing up in an 1 ' environment that lacks tra- ditional adult leadership structures. The program addresses that lack of struc- ture by devel- oping youth themselves " ^.^^^ as leaders. ■1 Founded in 1989, PRP involves life . ll L skills and II V leadership wMSk % m training, lUl ) community education and advocacy, and intensive work i< iv -i in the arts. The VYDC is located in the Tenderloin, an inner- city neighborhood near the downtown commercial district. Since the late 1970s, it has been dra- matically transformed by an influx of Southeast Asian families and children, most of them refugees. The 49-square- block area, now 70% Asian, is one of the poorest in Peter H. is a 1 7-year-old Cambodian youth who is a school dropout. He is illiterate and hangs out with other high-risk youth, many of whom are involved with drugs, alcohol and other illicit activities. He comes to the Vietnamese Youth Development Center for the employment program. Peter becomes involved in the summer leadership project primarily for the stipend and because he thinks it will be easy. He begins with apathy and distrust and is initially very withdrawn. In fact, he is the outcast of the group. Peter exhibits a natural talent with a video camera and becomes intensively involved in the project. People praise him. He volunteers hours of his time digitizing tape footage on a computer, although it is difficult for him to read and write. By the end of the program he expresses interest in volunteering on future projects and maybe in working with younger kids. He sees new possibilities for his future and expresses gratitude to the program for providing him an alternative to life on the streets. the city and has the high- est crime and drug arrest rates of any San Francisco neighborhood. The VYDC, founded in 1978, serves 600 youth per year with a wide range of services. Afterschool and summer programs exist for employment training and placement, academic assistance, educational counseling, recreation, therapeutic counseling and case man- agement. The employment programs alone serve as many as 200 youth per week, five days a week. Young people served by the Peer Resource Program are 14 to 18 years of age. Most are from Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos. Some came to the United States between the ages of 3 and 10. Others are recent arrivals. Most escaped oppressive political situations and have chaotic memories of displacement: being pulled out of their homes at night, fleeing through the jungle and living in refugee camps in Thailand or the Philippines, some- times for years. One boy remembers escaping Cambodia after his father was taken away by the Khmer Rouge. Usually families were separated by the move. The remain- ing parent, aunt or uncle often works two jobs to make ends meet, leaving little time for family, let alone community involve- ment. Intergenerational conflicts between Old World values and current realities are often diffi- cult. When a bilingual teenager earns more money than his monolin- gual father, for example, who is the boss? Risk factors affecting these youth also include school failure or dropout, delinquency, physical and sexual abuse. Most youth in the program are not themselves using alcohol or other drugs but have family members who are. Involvement in the program usually reveals risk factors that are hid- den for cultural reasons. A large number of youth are latchkey children. They are in various stages of learning to speak English. The Peer Resource Program grew out of the Asian Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Program (AYSAP). This consortium was founded in 1987 to give visibility to the pro- blems of high-risk Asian youth and "to increase the resiliency/protective factors within the youth, peer groups, families and community to reduce the AYSAP, made up of an Asian outpatient drug counseling unit and five agencies serving the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino and Southeast Asian popula- tions of the peninsula, became part of the first cohort of high-risk youth prevention programs funded by the Center Photo by Sonny Le Rina Phon (front), age 9, and Linda Lam, age 11, dance to a folk song, "Scent of the Flower. " for Substance Abuse Pre- vention (CSAP, formerly OSAP). 28 The Jungle-Vietnam This oil-on-canvas painting depicts a scene from the youths' homeland. It was created as part of a cultural pride identity project consisting of eight canvas panels. Kav Phou, age 13 Hoa Luong, age 14 The core group of PRP at any one time is made up of at least 8 youth participants, half boys and half girls. The program sometimes runs two groups in the summer, bringing the total to 16. Forty youth have been members of this core. Young peo- ple, recruited from the neighborhood, are selected based on willingness to participate and interest in expanding leadership in their community. Stipends enable some to participate who might otherwise have to work at paid jobs. Participants meet three to five times a week for two-hour sessions during the school year and five days a week in four-hour sessions during the summer. The program uses a leadership/life- skills curriculum pulled from a variety of sources, including CSAP materials. Glades Perreras, coordina- tor of the PRP for five years, conducts this training in l-to-2-hour workshops that give youth a chance to use construc- tive communication, decision-making and problem-solving skills in their own lives and in solving community problems. Perreras is Filipino and has a B.A. in communication studies with an em- phasis on cross-cultur- al communications. PRP involves training and work in theater, dance, visual arts, creative writing and video. To teach and manage the vari- ous arts components, the program chooses multicultural, multiethnic artist-mentors who are well known for creating quality public and com- munity art and who have worked previously with Asian American youth. For example, Spencer Nakasako, a Japanese American film and video maker who worked on Chan Is Missing and The Joy Luck Club, has worked with PRP teaching video since 1991. According to VYDC Executive Director Louella Lee, "VYDC has developed a long-term relationship with these artists and there is a strong commitment on their part to keep coming back." Work in a particular art form begins with several weeks of short-term pro- jects and skill building with a lot of interaction. A sense of the collective experience quickly devel- ops. Major projects coa- lesce out of participants' evolving interests and skills, although the artist- mentor sometimes has a project in mind. Keith Grier's work with the PRP demonstrates this process. An African American actor-director, Grier has run his own theater com- pany, A Black Box Theater, since 1972 and has worked with youth in the Tenderloin for 11 years. When he started teaching improvisation at VYDC in 1991, the core group first came up with issues like drive-by shootings, drugs on the street, prostitution and conflicts with parents. Sometimes improvisations were outgrowths of the life-skills workshop or events and concepts youth had been taught about their history and folklore. After a year the group wanted to do a full-blown play for the community. Following considerable research, they brought Grier A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, proposing a Vietnamese- in-San Francisco twist. They mounted this production at the Exit Theatre in May 1992. It was well received by the neighborhood and the critics. During the school year, classes and workshops are held for only one art dis- cipline at a time. Theater workshops are an excep- tion. They meet once a week year-round. The program uses theater to explore personal, program and community issues as well as the communica- tion, conflict resolution and problem-solving tech- niques taught in the lead- ership/life-skills work- shops. The theater class maintains an open-door policy. It always includes included stories of teens dropping out of school, teen relationships, family businesses, images of the Tenderloin and how different individuals feel about it. Whatever the topic, youth explore signi- ficant themes, often not those they expected to explore. For example, according to Nakasako, "a video on break dancing ended up being about friendship, about friends the core group but neigh- borhood youth can drop in whenever they like. The intensive eight-week summer program includes work on video projects and other media as well. Usually all youth partici- pate in all art forms. How the arts and a good artist-mentor help youth grow in discipline and in mental clarity emerges from Grier's account of working with PRP. He says, "I tell them, 'At 16, you're closer to being adults than kids, you have to learn how to make that transition. If something is expected of you, you have to see it through.'" When youth, whom he says are often "babykids," walk out on a rehearsal, storming and crying, he tells them, "You got to be bigger than that." And when they Stay, they WOrk Photo by Johanna Poethig out a lot of Shrine to the Guardians, multimedia art project created issues through neighborhood beautification effort performing: authority issues, family and tradition issues, what happened in Southeast Asia and how it translates here. Nakasako supports youth in taking control of the creative process from concept through final product. Videos have taking advantage of each other, about going after what you want." The VYDC doesn't have a video lab. It rents equipment and gets in-kind contributions for each summer's projects. The videos are shot in the community and force students to express them- selves in a variety of contexts. For exam- ple, they must ask permission to shoot scenes, which involves explaining to residents what they are doing. The VYDC has had good success in getting films out to the public. The agency has featured them in community forums. Accord- ing to Lee, "We make it a point for youth in the neighborhood to see the works of their peers." Some videos have been broad- cast on the local public television station, and shown at the Asian American Film Festival and the Pacific Film Archive. One, partially funded by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, was shown there. Nakasako also does unofficial showings. Last summer he had partici- pants set up a television monitor on the sidewalk in front of an apartment building and play a video. Neighborhood kids made fun of it. PRP "youth had to defend their premise and later examined whether for Escape Into Grace Detail of mural on the Arlington Hotel directed by artist Johanna Poethig and painted by youth in the program. 29 "The program is there to inspire youth so that they can change destiny as it happens and feel hope that the com- munity will be improved with their contributions. " Thuong Le Prevention specialist they had presented it as effectively as possible." Nakasako says, "It made them learn, you made a video, you're responsible for that video." According to Perreras, "We encourage the notion of community and group development rather than individuals developing. Individuals develop on their own." The program includes yearly activities in community building. Youth produce and lead one or two teen forums each year. These forums Photo by Louella Lee This Alley Dance was part of "Performance in the Gutter — Part II, " bringing art to alleys of the Tenderloin. have included such issues as substance abuse, gang involvement and sexual abuse and use either drama or PRP videos as the leadoff for discussion. Turnout for these forums has numbered 100 teen- agers from the immediate neighborhood. Participants advertise their own events and get their peers and friends to come. PRP has also conducted advocacy projects in which youth identify a neighbor- hood need and attempt to meet it in the political arena. When a recreation facility was being built in the Tenderloin in 1992, older adolescents were afraid it wouldn't serve their age group. The PRP core group contacted the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department and set up a meeting between 100 neighborhood young people and public officials to ask how the City intended to address their needs. As a result the City's program admin- istrator put together a plan of ser- vices for older youth. Finally, the major arts projects themselves have been exercises in community building. The mural Escape into Grace, which is featured on the cover of this book, is an example of that work. Public artist Johanna Poethig had done murals and ceramics pro- jects with PRP since 1989. When the 509 Cultural Center contracted with her to paint a mural on the Arlington Hotel, she recruited PRP mem- bers Gia Hy Chung, Sokly Ny and Puthara Chuop to help conceptualize, design and paint it. The Arlington is a resi- dential hotel for people in recovery and an inde- pendent living site. Poethig and Perreras discussed the nature of the site with the youth, and how best to bring it out. The teens, with adult input, came up with a series of images that represent the process of recovery, the idea of freeing oneself from addiction to sub- stances and also from other negative influences and behaviors. Youth researched and used fig- ures that symbolize spirits, health, change and movement in Native American, Buddhist and other traditions. In the mural, a snake winds the entire length of the build- ing. It starts as a poiso- nous snake, a person trapped in a bottle of negative influences and behaviors. People shot heroin on the street while PRP youth worked on the mural. The snake becomes a wave, shedding its skin and transforming. At the end it is a human figure. The snake, superimposed, has become a spiral, representing the cyclical nature of life and eternity. The overall message is change requires movement. The mural is a wonderful tribute to all neighbor- hood residents struggling to build positive lives for themselves, one that speaks to young and old. Poethig says, "I've seen the kids go through a lot of self-education and transformation. Art opens their minds and hearts up to what's going on around them, to different ways of living, and to how they can own and affect their own environment. They see culture is something that we make together." Getting the involvement of young women in some components of the program has been difficult. Many projects are done in the late afternoons and eve- nings when girls aren't allowed to do things out- side of their roles in the family. When girls have gone through the program, they have tended to work together, which staff encourage. They want to tell their own story. Toubi, a girl from Laos, came into the program at 15. After a series of dif- ficult foster homes, she was living with her moth- er again but having trou- ble with the relationship. She was a natural in telling stories and was very successful in various PRP theater productions. Staff encouraged her to keep going. She subse- quently participated in high school plays and in one VYDC youth forum, speaking out on the image of refugee youth in the neighborhood. PRP re- cruited her to be a video assistant and mentor during the summer of 1996. Toubi is currently studying psychology at San Francisco City College and now has a good rela- tionship with her mother. The program offers occasional parent work- shops. According to Lee, immigrant parents tend to have little idea of the pressures their children face, both in school and on the streets. Workshops help them understand what their children are experiencing and encour- age them to become more involved. According to '■P Lee, "The need for this informa- tion cuts across the board for families, whether they are from a rural area, village or city in South- east Asia. In addition, work- shops often become a safe place for parents to discuss their fears and con- cerns without losing face, for example, their fear that chil- dren are becom- ing too Americanized. Such discussions help ease tensions and improve communication within the families of participants. CSAP provided all funding for VYDC during 1996. Of this, $85,781 went to PRP. The program has also been supported by the San Francisco Police Department, AmeriCorps (Writers- Corps), the National Asian American Telecom- munications Association, San Francisco Museum of Art and a variety of arts organizations including private galleries, theaters and cultural centers. The Justice Council and San Francisco Parks and Recreation also fund the project and the artists often bring in their own funding. AYSAP is cur- rently looking for local, foundation and other funding sources to main- tain PRP. AYSAP evaluation of PRP in 1993 showed significant increases in M :: ^H "X social skills, assertive- ness and goal-directed behaviors among partici- pants. The program successfully engaged youth who were not origi- nally invested in their academic and social lives and provided an incentive and goals for greater participation. Bart Aoki, AYSAP's evaluator, noted that once youth felt they were part of the group, their participation was sustained. Substance abuse did not decrease as a result of the program, at least not in the short run, since most partici- pants were nonusers in the first place. Overall, Aoki attributed the pro- gram's success to its use of experiential and inter- active activities as well as to its community ser- vice piece. He found that youth enjoyed the sense of doing something for the broader community and realized their efforts ultimately would empower the community to develop linkages and resources from within. An Easy Day in the Village This acrylic on canvas depicts a time to relax and reflect in a Vietnamese village. Howard Ly age 10 Christ Trinh, age 13 31 BRONX, NEW YORK 32 Bronx Council on the Arts, WritersCorp s rzo^S*. t>zr$Oi\c<[ \iui(
  • \^ $ki(($ jM Detail from a mural created to display lines from the 1 996 New Settlement Apartments community-poem. Contact: Bill Aguado Executive Director Bronx Council on the Arts 1738 Hone Avenue Bronx, NY 10461 Phone:718-931-9500 Write rsCorps is a three- year volunteer project of AmeriCorps, which Presi- dent Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993. An initiative of National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) chairman Jane Alexander, WritersCorps establishes community- based literary arts pro- grams for underserved communities. The project is being piloted in three target cities: The Bronx, Washington, DC, and San Francisco. The Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA), directed by Bill Aguado, was selected as the sponsor for the Bronx component. The Bronx WritersCorps has put 25 writers to work with schools, art centers and nonprofit community organizations helping to promote literacy and literary skills. The Bronx has a popula- tion of 1.2 million: 44% Latino (85% Puerto Rican), 31% African American, 23% white and 2% other. In 1990 more than 20% of Bronx families were living below the federal poverty level, compared to the citywide rate of 15.5%. In 1993 youth shelters in the Borough served 10,000 homeless and runaway youth, and law enforcement agencies received 50,000 reported cases of runaway, "throw- Do you see people dying? — Shantel Wilson Do you see the blood stained ground at the latest crime scene? — Jeff Taylor Do you see me hoping for no more violence? — Zumar Ortiz Excerpt from New Settlement Apartments Community-Poem 4 away" and homeless youth. Violence and sub- stance abuse are high. In 1989, 951 young men ages 15 to 24 died by acts of violence, a 14% increase since 1980. In a 1992 study by the Bronx Borough President's office, 43% of Bronx youth ages 7 to 19 said that they had wit- nessed a homicide. Almost half of the schools that the New York Education Depart- ment defines as "Under Registration Review" for their declining perfor- mance are located in the Bronx. While the public schools struggle to meet their needs, underfunding is reflected in students' lack of basic writing skills. BCA develops programs and services that increase community awareness and participation in the arts and that nurture the pro- fessional development of performing, visual and literary artists and arts or- ganizations. WritersCorps fits under the Council's education and community program initiatives. BCA's director, Bill Aguado, has been a community orga- nizer and administrator of alternative schools in New York City since the early 1970s, and has worked at BCA since 1978. His personal mission is to empower communities, to help people find their voices for community and cultural development. Aguado says, "Once you feel you are free to speak, that is one of the most liberating experi- ences. Then, you don't have to ask permission to express your opinions on your neighborhood." He notes that WritersCorps gives power to "the voices of individuals who are not frequently heard." From 1994 to 1996 the BCA WritersCorps collabo- rated with 60 schools, older adult groups, home- less shelters and commu- nity groups to develop lit- eracy and literary initia- tives. Collaborating orga- nizations and sites have included Tilden Towers II, Citizens Advice Bureau, Bronx Lebanon Hospital, C.E.S. 235 Rafael Hernandez, I.S. 183 Paul Robeson and Bronx Satellite Academy. WritersCorps's writer- teachers use their skills to improve a community's future and the sponsoring organization's ability to serve their clients. Aguado found that not all writers could function on the community level and not all organizations were ready to work with a liter- ary program even when the BCA had assigned a writer suited to their needs. To be successful, writer- teachers have to find a staff person within the sponsoring organization who appreciates the value of the program. They also have to discover what they can provide that will moti- vate the participants. Aguado notes, "WritersCorps is not a writer-in-residence program." During 1996, 1600 indi- viduals participated in Bronx WritersCorps activi- ties each week; of these an estimated 900 were children or adolescents. During the project's final pilot year, 1996-97, BCA is working with 20 sites, building community and educational infrastruc- tures that support the lit- eracy needs of the com- munity. At some sites this will involve learning the needs of small business owners in the area as well as educating them to the value of the writing pro- ject. The goal is to make each group in a neighbor- hood aware of the needs of every other group and to help them find the common ground that benefits children. During 1995-96 poet Michele Kotler developed the Community-Poem Pro- ject with youth living in the New Settlement Apartments (NSA). NSA consists of 893 apart- rent, criminal propensity or extremely poor house- keeping standards. Most families are headed by a single parent or guardian, with the adult either working or actively seeking employment. Only a few blocks from high-crime areas where unemployment and drugs are common, 33 ments in 14 buildings, clustered in a four-block area in the southwest Bronx. Formerly unoccu- pied and used as crack houses and heroin shooting galleries, the buildings were purchased from the City by Settlement Housing Fund, gutted and renovated in 1990-91 as part of Governor Mario Cuomo and Mayor Ed Koch's 10-year housing plan. Residents are low and moderate income, and 30% were previously homeless. Buildings are now 100% occupied with tenants who have been screened to exclude those with a record of nonpayment of New Settlement Fund has created and is sustaining a healthy, safe environ- ment for residents. There is a security force. NSA runs a domestic violence prevention campaign. Afterschool and evening programs for children and adolescents are provided free for tenants. Parents need only to sign up their kids. Once people become part of this community, they stay and their morale is high. The afterschool and teen programs give youth a con- structive, fun alternative to the streets. Supervised by Maria Santana, activi- Michael Reyes works on New Settlement Apartments mural. The forces that work against fear and separatism are the creative forces. Writing as a creative act is making something from nothing, and if a child can learn to write a story, she can learn to create her life. Mary Heber WritersCorps instructor Writing has always given me the chance to express who I am and who I want to be. I believe that when a young person is inspired to use his or her voice, he or she is less likely to be influenced by the negative voices. WritersCorps ensures that youth are exposed to the arts and have the opportunity to have their ideas heard and their vision celebrated. Michele Kotler Bronx Council on the Arts WritersCorps instructor ties include one-on-one tutoring, computers, dance, theater, ceramics and bas- ketball. Volunteers from high schools and colleges help run all of the pro- grams. A support group for teenage girls deals with health, pregnancy, drugs and other issues. Bronx Helpers organizes community service projects, such as cleaning up the neighborhood and distrib- uting fliers for the domes- tic violence campaign. A program called Books and Baskets requires young men to participate in an academic aspect of the teen program for at least one hour a week in order to use indoor hoop courts. In the summer, NSA arranges for a street to be blocked off for a camp program, offering Kiani Henderson works with Bronx graffiti artist "Sein " on a section of the mural used to share the community-poem with the neighborhood. games, arts and crafts. The afterschool and teen programs' major substance abuse prevention strategy is that they provide safe, stimulating, supervised activities. In addition, youth must be drug free to participate in the activities. Parents trust the programs and check to make sure their off- spring are attending. While youth at New Settlement are at risk, those in the afterschool program demonstrate im- portant signs of resiliency. All have at least one influential adult who has encouraged them to excel in school and to avoid negative influences. Most believe that they have positive opportunities ahead of them and feel en- couraged to stay in school. NSA's Community-Poem Project involved creative writing and mural con- struction and served 76 youth, 80% of them 7 to 12 years old; the other 20% were 13 to 17 years old. Of these participants, 51% were African Amer- ican, 49% Latino, 59% male and 41% female. The project involved workshops (one hour per week with children, two hours per week with ado- lescents) in which partici- pants, in groups of 7 to 15 each, discussed and wrote about their daily lives — their hopes, fears and visions for them- selves and the community. Using writing, drama, drawing and imagination exercises, Kotler encour- aged the youth, in indi- vidual and group writings, to develop X-ray vision with their poetry, to create and hone images that allow the reader to see clearly into the writer's mind. Lourdes Delgado and LaToya Studwood wrote line beginnings for the community-poem: / imagine — , If I could change — , Do you see — , and When I am quiet — . The realities of the partic- ipants' lives jump out of their poetry. These lines were written by 16-year- old Jeff Taylor: / imagine desperately fighting for my life. I imagine saying farewell to those I can't forget. I imagine myself being outlined in chalk upon the cold ground and being dragged away by strangers. I imagine drowning in situations beyond my control. One student, Marsha Goshine, then spent eight hours organizing the re- sulting 183 lines into a 12-page poem, with the author's name after each line. When Kotler passed out the poem, youth counted how many times their names appeared before they read it. Par- ticipants had decided early on that they wanted to get their messages out to the community in a visual way. They chose four lines to illustrate on four 4-by-8-foot murals. New Settlement Apartments Community-Poem Mural Lines When I'm quiet I hear the wind wishing and the thunder is like drums. — Thurraya Amadu, age 11 Do you see that violence is no way to solve a problem? — Vanessa Samuels, age 9 If I could change into a bullet nobody would lose their life. — Irving Hamilton, age 15 / imagine drowning in situations beyond my control. — Jeff Taylor, age 16 :-' ..--.' Three of the four murals created to display lines from the community- poem, now displayed in a four- block area of New Settlement Apartments. XFXC*UU»( xuiwA tmurr TttKXft LSVf J mmmm mmjm m * ' New York City mural and graffiti artist Darwin "Sien" Bharath worked for two months with NSA youth to paint the lines of poetry into life. Kiani Henderson, Michael Reyes, and sisters Malorie and Nina Echevarria put the most time into this effort. Each board features a separate line and has a border of pictures drawn by the younger partici- pants expressing their hopes and fears. The youth all wanted a mural on their block. Instead they will hang in four different sites in a four-block radius of NSA. An indi- vidual must walk or drive through the community to see all of the lines, a community-building action in itself. The murals let the community hear what their young people are thinking and feeling. It also shows the young people that their thinking, decisions and voices are powerful tools for social change. Kotler is a poet from a working class background. She grew up in Flushing, Queens, New York, and went through the public school system when the first series of budget cuts had eradicated arts from the schools. When a sixth-grade teacher gave her an anthology that in- cluded Langston Hughes's poetry, it changed her life. She recalls that she thought, "Wow, this man is writing in his own voice." She started writing, got a scholarship and worked her way through Sarah Lawrence College, earning a B.A. in liberal arts with a focus on cre- ative writing. While work- ing on an M.F.A. from the University of Michigan, she worked on a Nomadic Pictures' documentary on at-risk Chicago youth called "No Time to Be a Child." She first used the community-poem method to create text for this documentary. Kotler also consults on community- poem projects outside of WritersCorps. She is cur- rently working with stu- dents in East Harlem, New York, and Killington, Ver- mont, bridging the per- ceptions of youth in urban and rural communities. Kotler used the NSA requirement for academic activity to recruit young males into the writing/ poetry program. She walked on "the hoop courts" and got the boys: "It was hard. They didn't know me. They are constantly encouraged by society to use their bodies and not their minds. Why should I 35 Excerpt from Dream: Children's Rites by Mary Heber . . . children write on an open book . . . children write on the edge of their seats in the cafeteria platform with a train careening off the edges children write do you see me do you see we are not passengers, we are the train? From not black and white: inside words from the Bronx WritersCorps MVlUNCUNt / like getting my ideas out. I liked knowing other people would listen. It was fun working on something for the community. It was fun because it had to do with creating, drawing and work- ing hard. It gives poetry a good look. I believe it will influence my community in a good way. Kiani Henderson, age 12 About working on the NSA community-poem and mural 36 I work with her? was the initial reaction." All through the pro- ject she chal- lenged the boys with the phrase, "People say, 'Basketball play- ers write poet- ry?!"' In fact, she observes, "Kids with extremely poor reading levels, whether they played ball or not, wrote some of the most beauti- ful lines in the world." Youth involved with the project are now more knowledgeable of the process of change, that it involves making a commit- ment and honoring that commitment. The com- munity-poem and mural alone took six months. Last year Kotler had to round up her troops. This year they are at the build- ing, waiting for her. The project has made them conscious of their com- munity as a place that they can change. They have learned how to encourage their peers to speak out. They have also realized that art represents a lot of thinking and doing, and finally, that it is practical and useful. Writing has been ex- changed by NSA youth and participants at the Wash- ington, DC, and San Francisco WritersCorps sites. Participants at the San Francisco South of Market site were intrigued by the familiarity of many images and ideas in the Bronx writing — bullets, killing, drugs, but also kids wanting change. A, From left- Michael Reyes, Kiani Henderson, Bronx graffiti artist "Sein " who guided the mural process, Malorie Echevarria and Michele Kotler, Bronx WritersCorp writer-teacher Meanwhile, Bronx partic- ipants were amazed to learn that their words made sense to youth 3,000 miles away and were happy to know they were not alone in their aspirations for a better life. As a result of the Writers- Corps project, NSA now sees poetry in a new light. Before the community- poem, staff didn't see how writing could make a dif- ference. "Now," Kotler says, "they see that creative writing strengthens basic writing skills. And they see how incredible our kids' visions are, how badly they want to institute positive social change." Staff are printing the community- poem in its entirety in the NSA newsletter, 10 lines at a time. The newsletter is hand delivered to all 893 apartments. The 1996-97 budget for the Bronx Council on the Arts was $1,278,923; its budget for the WritersCorps program was $125,500. Government funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City (NYC) Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Department of Youth Services, New York State (NYS) Depart- ment of Education, and NYS Council on the Arts. Foundation funding was received from Greentree Foundation, American Express Foundation and JM Coplan Fund. The NEA evaluation process requires each writer-teacher to keep a journal, to submit writ- ings by the recipients and to compile quarterly and annual reports identifying successes and problems at individual project sites. Bronx WritersCorps's successes are many. In 1996 BCA produced the book not black and white: inside words from the Bronx WritersCorps (Austin, Texas: Plain View Press). The book is a compilation of writings by WritersCorps teacher-writers and com- munity member-students of all ages. Editor Mary Hebert notes that the book "is a work of the heart ... it is the heart of the Bronx that we tried to connect with and evoke." The beliefs and methods of the teacher-writers shine through pieces the students felt inspired and supported to write. Because of PS. 122's re- spect for Jennifer jazz [sic], its WritersCorps-assigned writer, the school has invited BCA to be a part of its redesign team for the literacy and visual arts plan of its new Board- ordered education com- plex. As a spin-off of WritersCorps, BCA opened The Bronx Writers Center in May 1996. Housed at the Westchester Square Branch of the New York Public Library, it provides private work space for writing professionals. Its resource library includes volumes on how to teach writing to young people. Many of the youth who participated in the Community-Poem Project have an improved attitude toward academics, and a wider vision of who they are and can be. Lourdes Delgado, the young woman who helped design the line beginnings for the 1995-96 community- poem, wrote then, "Do you see me walking and walking into the middle of nowhere?" This year she isn't around the teen program as much. She has realized that she has a mind and that people respect her when she uses her mind. She's at home studying. Kotler says, "It takes so little, it takes so little to motivate them." As the community- poem asks, "Do you understand — ?" .......... .. . :: ._ Chain of Thoughts by Joshua R. from the Bronx Satellite Academy Being a person of color means a lot to me. . . I still have a lot to learn about my family. . . and background to help me identify myself. . . It's hard for my sisters and brothers to achieve certain. . . goals, getting an education, taking care of a family, or even playing a role in society. . . people are feeling that they are oppressed but not using their knowledge to escape from their enclosure. Be strong to overcome this cruel but overzealous world. Only your choices and actions will determine your future. The Way a Candle Light Burns by Pedro C, middle school student in the South Bronx The way the wick of a candle burns is the way the inside of my heart burns As I see the way the death of a loving mother can go out so quick just like the way the candle flame goes out so quick The pain is burning inside me seeing a loved one die is like seeing a candle burn out It is hopeless and empty I wish my mother could live forever just like I wish a candle would never burn out What I try to teach my stu- dents is not necessarily to be a writer, but to be a person who thinks. If you think about what's going on with you constantly, and deal with it, then you can start looking for options and figure out how to deal with the next level. Steven Sapp WritersCorps instructor Having lived on this planet for a while, what I've learned as a human being is that life is a contradiction, that there are going to be challenges and obstacles. So I write to confront life, to keep myself from going crazy. . . . I would hope that these kids have learned how to listen to what's inside them, and to what's going on around them, and not take things for granted. Ana Ramos Pedro C.'s WritersCorps instructor 37 NOR T.H B R U N S W NEW JERSEY CHIL ABT Playwright s skills O-f i>\>s«K-cibu Have AChoice The Arkansas Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America helped Cornerstone par- ticipants develop the "Chill!" HIV/AIDS prevention campaign for inner-city youth. oil and acrylic painting and music theory, and to develop a Cornerstone choir. One major arts produc- tion is done each year in the afterschool program, usually a theater piece. Fred Scarborough was director of Creative Expressions from 1992 to 1994. Scarborough, a director, professional stage manager and mem- ber of Actors Equity Association, set out to expose youth to a whole range of arts activities before asking them to create something on their own. He arranged story- telling workshops. He took them to 22 produc- tions of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre (ART) in three years, including talkbacks with actors. He had a touring company perform Shakespeare for them. He read to them from classical literature. He introduced them to the Furies in Aeschylus's Orestela. When he got a freelance job constructing wrote the scene in which Bokeesha tells her boy- friend, who is with his buddies, that she is preg- nant. He tells her, "Take care of it yourself," and the gang members laugh and make fun of her. When Bokeesha goes to cheerleading practice, she is kicked off the squad. When she gets an AIDS test, she is told she'll have to wait six months and come back. The show ends with Bokeesha telling the Furies she does not want to go through this experience and calling her friend with different advice. Scarborough says partic- ipants were tremendously excited backstage the night of the production. the properties for Lips Together, Teeth Apart, they helped. According to Scarborough, "Once I was able to accli- mate them to the theater, they saw possibilities. By the time they did their own show, they had a whole repertoire of refer- ences and ideas. My task was just to hold their ideas and give them feed- back and support." In 1994 youth used what they had learned to write, choreograph and produce a one-hour show called Don't Get Caught Slippin' in which the Furies repre- sent critical issues in the lives of the characters. Don't Get Caught Slippin' opens with a teenager named Bokeesha talking on the phone with her girl- friend about whether the girlfriend should have sex. Bokeesha advises her, "Oh, go ahead. Do it. Have fun." That night the Furies awaken Bokeesha and show her what her own life would be like if she made that choice. The scene, which shows her fear of telling her mother she is pregnant, was based on monologues that girls in the program wrote. Boys in Actors from Arkansas Repertory Theatre's The Young Com^in the program perform Pieces of Eight for Cornerstone youth. Cornerstone's cast of Don't Get Caught Slippin' One young woman who had never been in a pro- gram before said, "My mom's never seen me in anything. I can't believe we're really doing this." Parents were also thrilled with the production. Scarborough believes youth carried this experi- ence of success into their overall lives. A young woman who played one of the Furies is now a junior in psychology at the Uni- versity of Tulsa, with an interest in international affairs and plans to visit Africa during the summer of 1997. She is a vibrant young woman whose growth began to manifest in this project. During 1996-97, with funding from the Arkansas Department of Health, Curtis Tate, a professional actor and artistic director of Umojo Studios, an African American theater group, is working with the center's teenagers to cre- ate a play on the effects and prevention of HIV/AIDS. Youth are again creating the script, choreography, set design and lighting, and will advertise the play, The Patchwork Quilt, when they stage it in early 1997. Among their arts-related field trips in 1996 were seeing the ART'S Peter Pan and Jacob Lawrence's series of paintings on migration. The summer program, which runs from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon Monday through Thursday, features a daily educational hour devoted to reading and arithmetic. Once a week volunteer primary teach- ers lead an arts and crafts day that involves beginning artwork, such as making collages and neck- laces and drawing simple pictures. Professionals run optional structured support groups for participants each Thursday during the school year. Volunteer teachers and social workers, many from the neighborhood as well as graduate students "Cornerstone has helped me to achieve most of my goals. " Michael Hammonds 16-year-old student 4-year participant 45 Mask of one of the Furies on the set of Don't Get Caught Slippin' 46 Michael Hammond, a four-year student in the program, created this pencil drawing in art class. "I and three children had a very rewarding and positive experience with Cornerstone. Because of Cornerstone, my children have participated in many recreational and educa- tional activities that they otherwise could not have enjoyed due to my limited finances. " Cassandra Anthony Parent of three participants in child psychology, teach problem-solving skills and related life-coping skills. Curricula include Other Choices/Other Chances (by The Alternative School, Little Rock, ®sw*- funded by the Arkansas Department of Corrections), Growing up Black and Proud (by Peter Bell through the Johnston Institute) and Personal Achievement Skills Training (Arkansas Department of Vocational Education). These groups, which 80% of participants attend, give youth a chance to talk about peer pressure, problems at school and other concerns. Corner- Stone's comprehensive program also includes one meal a day. Youth experience owner- ship and develop leadership and community-building skills by participating in the Center's Ad Hoc Com- mittee for Center Enrich- ment, which meets once a week to plan special 1 i 1 I j i IJ * i - events like dances, and to discuss student behavior and other issues. The pro- ject appoints youth with leadership potential to the Committee each fall, and it is open to anyone else who wants to join. The Junior League of Little Rock funds and runs the program's community service piece. League mem- bers take youth on bimonthly outings — to clean an adopted park, for example, . or to decorate classrooms of special needs students for the holidays. The Center conducts parent workshops once a month using activities from Marilyn Steele's Strengthening African American Families. Work- shops teach skills in em- powerment, self-esteem building, discipline and effective communication and give parents an oppor- tunity to discuss their experiences and concerns. Because so many parents work second jobs, turnout tends to be small. Parents are significantly involved as Center volunteers, however: serving dinner, assisting in art classes and acting as chaperons on outings. In 1995 Angella Savage, the current program coor- dinator, initiated and coordinated Cornerstone's major arts project. This was a mass media piece funded by the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention with technical assistance and additional fund-raising by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Arkansas Chapter. PRSA executives worked with youth to develop the public rela- tions and design skills required to produce Chill! You Have a Choice, an HIV/AIDS prevention campaign for inner-city youth. The campaign produced a 30-second television public service announcement that has aired hundreds of times on four stations, a bill- board displayed at 45 sites and a T-shirt displayed on the chests of 500 teens. The mes- sage was "Chill! You have a choice. AIDS is not worth the risk." Corner- stone youth served as actors and models for the campaign. When partici- pants invited the City's teens to a block party to launch this campaign, 400 turned out. In 1992 the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) selected Cornerstone's afterschool program for a four-year demonstration project to reduce sub- stance abuse, juvenile crime, school failure/ dropout and teenage pregnancy among high- risk 13-to-18-year-olds. The Psychiatry Department of the University of Arkansas Campus of Medical Sciences devel- oped the evaluation com- ponent. A final report is due in early 1997. The Junior League of Little Rock has supported Cornerstone from Day 1 and helped establish the organization's local fund- ing base. That broad base of support has included the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Sturgis Foundation, Arkansas Community Foundation and the Winthrop Rocke- feller Foundation. The corporate community has made substantial contri- butions. First Commercial Bank and Entergy (for- merly Arkansas Power and Light) have made contributions that sup- port tutoring and creative expressions at Corner- stone. The Levi Strauss Corporation provided funding to build Corner- Stone's capacity to re- cruit, manage and retain volunteers in 1995 and donated six computers in 1996. Laidlaw Transpor- tation transports youth to the Center after school, and the Little Rock School District funded the stipends of certified teachers to tutor the youth for several years. The Arkansas Arts Center, the City of Little Rock's Arts and Humanities Council, and the Arkansas Repertory Theatre have been the major contribu- tors to the arts component providing art instructors, free art classes and tick- ets to local plays. Baptist Health provides the meal during the school year. Besides CSAP, government support has come from the state of Arkansas through the Arkansas Department of Health and the Arkansas Department of Human Services. The City of Little Rock has LulU* AIDS, It's not Wou Have worth 'the risk) AChojce. Cornerstone Project, Inc. Cornerstone students staged a block party to launch their "Chill!' media campaign and 400 teens turned out for the festivities. 47 supported Cornerstone through two $50,000 grants made possible through a half-cent sales tax, called Ensure the Children, that funds pre- vention, intervention and treatment programs within the City of Little Rock. The City of Little Rock's Education Commission awarded Cornerstone a $10,000 grant in November of 1996 to fund tutors, provide incentives to the youth and to purchase educational software. Over the years, Corner- stone has attracted students from very diffi- cult circumstances who, with the assistance of loving family members and the structure and support of Cornerstone, have gone on to realize their full potential. Some are in college, some are selecting a college, others are beginning to understand the impor- tance of education and improving their grades. CHICAGO L L I N Music Theatre Workshop Tinder Pressure Series l/$i>\a /vsUSK il\4.e<{*\r \ -fro** ik*. (iv«5 o{ youik io kzc^(iK.e<(o>soiK« «>s low*. OW {««K CvfKsKc United Action for Youth, Inc. (UAY), serves Iowa City, Johnson County and 66 Alyssa Bowman standing by part of the mural she helped paint in the Youth Center basement. five surrounding counties in eastern Iowa. Johnson County's population was 96,119 in 1990, a 17.6% increase over the 1980 Census, which makes it the fastest growing county in the state. The names are mainly European Contact: Stu Mullins Youth Center Coordinator United Action for Youth, Inc. 410 Iowa Avenue Iowa City, IA 52240 Phone:319-338-9279 American here: Gustaveson, Krough, Sinclair, Goss, Mizelle, Rogers, Pelkey, Urbanowski. Iowa City schools are about 9.9% minority youth. Poverty and eco- nomic disadvan- tage in the county are significant for Iowa, with 17.1% of residents living below the poverty level. There was a 43.8% increase in child poverty in Johnson County during the past decade. United Action for Youth provides a broad range of counseling and pre- vention sevices to 12-to-18-year-olds and their families. These include short-term coun- seling, runaway services, support and advocacy ser- vices for those who have been sexually or physi- cally abused. Support extends through the court process when necessary. UAY's Drop-in Center, which includes the Synthesis Arts Work- shop (SAW), has provided safety, appreciation, posi- tive adult/youth relation- ships, counseling, music and fun to young people in the area since 1979. SAW provides lessons on the guitar, bass, key- boards, voice, drums, recording and sound mix- ing equipment as well as studio recording time to individuals and bands involved in youth culture music. The program's overall purpose is to provide for the primary prevention of delinquency, drug abuse, child abuse and teen pregnancy by organizing activities and projects that contribute to the health and devel- opment of young people and their families. Stu Mullins, Youth Center coordinator, has run the program and the music studio for the past eight years. He has a degree in communication and has specialized in counseling with victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse. He also has his own alternative pop and rock band, and writes, records and produces music. As Mullins notes, "I don't perform all of the styles of music but I know how they're done, how to get the audience of kids who are into a particular style." The Center is open year- round, Monday through Friday 3:00-5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday 7:00-9:00 p.m. and Saturday noon-5:00 p.m. Youth can drop in, use the music studio, partici- pate in an art activity, play games, talk to a counselor, volunteer for one of two peer counsel- ing phone lines or just socialize. During 1996 "United Action for Youth has opened many very important doors for me. I started to hang out here when I was 13 and the positive environment was a greatly welcomed change from the stress of junior high and its problems. I saw teenagers in bands and it really inspired me and opened my eyes to all of the creative opportunities and outlets that are available. I've met other young musicians here and now i have a band of my own. With the help and advice of UAY's helpful, caring staff I've developed my own expressive music. The staff of UAY is the greatest. Kids are treated with the utmost respect and are encouraged and helped in truly positive ways. I can come here to talk to someone when I have a day where everything has gone wrong because there will always be a caring heart to listen patiently to me. " — Grace Sinclair, age 15 an estimated 900 young people used the Center's facilities overall. Typically 20-25 youth, mostly males, come in on a regular rota- tional basis to jam or record. Tuesday night is jam night. There are four or five recording sessions a week. Another 50 musi- cians come in periodically to record. Occasionally a band from one of the out- lying counties comes in to use the studio. Concerts, dances and plays spon- sored by the Center reached an audience of 400 during 1996. Historically the number of young women involved in music at SAW has been low but it is increasing each year. Currently 10 girls are taking music lessons. One young woman, Grace Sinclair, class of 1998, founded two bands, Mr. Blanding's Dreamhouse and an all-women band, the Ripped Half Slips. She writes music, does guitar and vocals and according to Mullins, "looks awesome being up there, being in charge." Before she went to play a gig in a high school in a small town he told her, "You're going to be a great role model for those young women." Mullins t groups horn of their mu: years, hun have been have been sold or giv stations an labels. The Cent itself towa and those services fa the whole c urn of risk resiliency factors. Risk factors include peer relationship difficu ties, school conflict, academic failure, child abuse or other family dysfunction, their own or a family mem- ber's sub- stance abuse, economic dis- advantage, lack of employment opportunities, racial conflict, discrimination and homelessness Some of the youth who play music are very high achieving, Erin Egli of "The Nesses' "%i»«t have a positive family life and use the Center simply as a resource and support system. With these, staff may only say, "Hey! You Stu Mullins, Youth Center coordinator, and Kylie Budin, Youth Center counselor, run the music studio at UAY 68 "Music is just a tool for working with kids, a place to develop skills, a positive outlet but also one that always leads to more diverse relationships with adults. " Stu Mullins sound good." Others are struggling and not doing well. Similarly, those youth who use nonmusic services run the gamut. At the high-risk end might be a girl who self- mutilates and has deep troubles at home. Mullins says adult staff make it a point to check in with every teen who comes in every day, but with high- risk individuals the check-in is sometimes: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how suicidal are you today?" During the 19 hours a week the Center is open, four or five staff members are on duty. Staff double on kids who are especially needy. Kids get dispersed around several adults, so they aren't isolated in one adult- counselor relationship. The main form of recruitment and referral into the pro- gram is word of mouth among youth in the community. Varied personal styles are an important part of the atmosphere of the Center. It attracts youth into gothic (black dress, white face paint), heavy metal, punk with spiked hair — who Mullins says "scare adults downtown but are great kids" — folk as well as preppy. Mullins notes that Iowa City, at 50,000, is a "big city in a small frame." The Center provides a place where young musicians trying to make sense of them- selves and their world can explore their music and their message without censure. According to Mullins, "Music is something they can get a hold of their whole life with." Staff address attitudes ex- pressed in the music that are destructive. Mullins says, "Music is a wonderful door to get into the issues like negative attitudes toward women but in a low-key fashion, like 'Well, what about your mother? Isn't she a woman?'" Staff give each new- comer an orientation to the Center. The practice of Uncondi- tional Positive Regard, as it is spelled here, is the first rule. It helps the differing styles, who are sometimes an- tagonistic toward one another in other settings, get along. Other rules are no drugs, confidentiality on the part of staff, and policies for scheduling and use of studios. The program holds on to recording equipment by telling youth the program is theirs, and when equip- ment disappears it doesn't get replaced and the stu- dio suffers. Staff also keep close track of equipment. Mullins believes one key to the program's success is "the sense of ownership that youth feel for the pro- grams and equipment." The orientation also covers all UAY services, both to educate youth to communi- ty resources and to educate them to the idea that every- one needs help at times. All SAW staff have both art and counseling skills as well as the ability to establish rapport with Dave Rogers, youth employee and major contributor/organizer of the Fountain of Youth tape, plays with Mr. Blanding's Dreamhouse. youth on a quick basis. The arts program, other than the music compo- nent, has varied over the years based on the arts skills of current youth workers. It has included drama, mural painting, silkscreening and bead- ing. The Center has a video studio with Super 8 animation, video camera and editing facilities and a 33mm black-and-white photography lab. The music is integral, though. When kids come in they always check what's going on in the music studio. Like the rest of the Center's programs, coun- seling is often informal, at the end of a recording session or while painting a mural. But regular ses- sions are set up as well. Formal substance abuse prevention or life-skills workshops are not a regu- lar part of the program but are provided inform- ally as the need arises. The program teaches and models positive life skills based on individual needs. For some kids that is the encouragement to persist two or three months with the unromantic hard work of getting a song ready to record. With the serious ones it might be the in- struction, "Today we are going to have fun and enjoy life." Youth are fre- quently referred to pro- grams in the rest of UAY and at other agencies. The Drop-in Center runs noncrisis phone lines for elementary and high school youth staffed by trained peer helpers and backed up by staff who handle crisis calls. To work on Youth created this hanging mural at the Youth Center. these a teen must go through a 20-hour train- ing in peer counseling, listening skills and community resources. There are also academic tutoring and parent sup- port services for both teenage and adult par- ents. Recreation activi- ties include various sports, outings in nature and a ropes challenge course. The Dating Cellos, a performing drama troupe consisting of high school students, write and per- form for area schools, community and profes- sional groups on prob- lems faced by children and teenagers such as teen relationships, dating issues, parent/ teen communication and substance abuse. The group started in 1984 to explore dating violence and was originally called the Dating Violins. A concrete result of the Synthesis Arts Workshop is the compilation tape Fountain of Youth that 40 Iowa City High musicians produced in 1996. Dave Rogers, a Center youth staff member and member of several local bands, got the idea as a Class Council fund-raising event. He organized the 18 bands represented. All had their start at UAY. SAW provided support and technical assistance for the tape. The bands used SAW facilities to do all of the recording. The tape has hip-hop, punk, blues, funk, grunge, rap, rock and alternative rock. "Be the One," written and played by Dave Rogers and Dustin R. Busch, conveys a piece of SAW's wisdom: "I know there isn't anything anywhere if I don't try." UAY's budget for 1996 totaled $730,663, with $35,000 going to SAW. Funding for SAW came in approximately equal "As a parent, my respect for UAY is personal and deep. At a critical and difficult juncture in her early adolescence, my daughter found a place which she describes as 'full of love . . . [a place where she feels] totally comfortable and accepted. ' As a teen line volunteer, she found direction, self- confidence and connection. She was given skills and opportunities to use and develop them. As an individ- ual, she found nurturance, support and respect. UAY is able to serve young people as well as they do because they know kids, like them, and value them. " Janet Peterson Parent and coordinator, Johnson County Decategorization Project 69 70 "/ am a Youth Center staff member here at United Action for Youth. I have been working here for about eleven months, and before that, hanging out for about a year. When I was offered the job, I saw it as a good way to meet people and learn about them. I have made new friends here, teens and adults, and I feel that this has made a major impact on my life. Every once in awhile I wonder where I would be without UAY. Would I be going to parties every night and getting drunk and smoking pot, or would I be sitting in front of the T.V. all the time? I am happy to say that I am doing neither, and that I spend sixty per- cent of my free time here at UAY. The rest I spend practicing guitar (which I learned to play here) and enjoying life. " Phil Ochs, age 14 The Dating Cellos drama troupe rehearses at the Youth Center. amounts from State Crime Prevention, State Compre- hensive Substance Abuse Prevention, the City of Iowa City and Johnson County. The agency often collaborates with other agencies and organiza- tions. For example, this year's State Crime Preven- tion moneys came through a community collaboration to engage youth that in- volved many youth agen- cies and the schools. Adults in the community who used the program as adolescents periodically put on musical benefits to earn money for addi- tional studio equipment. instruments that measure self-esteem and resiliency skills. No results are available as yet. However, youth and parents often comment on the value of the program. Mullins says, "They'll come back after several years, walk around the Center and say, 'This was the place where I felt the safest, where there were some adults who cared.'" Or they'll say, "I wasn't doing that well when we were doing that tape. That was the only thing positive in my life at that time, that we were friends." Jesse Pelkey of Mr. Standing's Dreamhouse UAY recently began eval- uating SAW and Drop-in Center programs using From a recent performance of the Dating Cellos drama troupe: Four high school friends are revisiting their childhood games of truth or dare. The discussion soon turns to a more adult tone of answering truth questions about their personal feelings. Youth 1. Seriously, what's your biggest and worst fear? Youth 3. My biggest and worst fear, I am not telling you that. That's way too personal. Youth 2. How about we all do it then. Youth 3. Fine, I'll go first then. Okay, my biggest fear would be that when I go into public and people are going to laugh at me, like I'll do something wrong and say something wrong and they're just gonna laugh at me and make fun of me and hurt my feelings. Youth 4. Oh, it's my turn. My biggest fear is that people won't accept me unless I'm just like them and that I'm going to have to change myself so that I can do what I want to do. Youth 2. Okay, my biggest fear is that I won't allow myself to feel because I'll be afraid of getting hurt. Youth 1. I guess my worst fear would have to be not being able to fulfill all my hopes and dreams and aspirations because they mean so much to me that I feel I'm nothing without them. wmimifm ■ :■ ■; . ■...■■..'. .■. ■, . United Action for Youth's family service house Rebecca Goss drew the cover art for the Fountain of Youth U AY music compilation. 71 ■, ■■■■: ■■'■■ H L Y K E ASSACHUSETTS Teen Resource Project/New Visions, Vneva Vi siones Theater f^bow-eriKa L«vKk<> youy J. P^vU Mis, }>k.P., **K.