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UNITY - A Youth Reach Program in North Adams, MA creates a comfortable environment for teenagers in need of self expression.
“There are kids with pink hair, green hair, and those things called gages…” and they come from lower income families, explains Kate Merrigan, UNITY Program Coordinator. Last year’s NBCC UNITY Teen Writing Workshop had twenty participants, some of which attended every week, often times too early. These students are in between 9th and 12th grade and are just beginning to feel comfortable with themselves. Kate describes these students as kids who are not “mainstream” at their high school, but create their own “creative fringe” during the workshop. About 30% of participants are usually on the queer spectrum since they have the ability to express their gender and feelings in a welcoming space according to Kate.
Students in Unity are from foster families and have instable lives revolving around moving, drugs, unemployment and a lack of transportation. These motivated students who wish to eventually move on to higher education have trouble with funds that are required just for a college application. A lot of students also have issues with food security. Kate explains that many students are eating, but don’t get enough food or the right nutrition. When the students get to a workshop, “it’s like a plague of locusts come into the kitchen” explains Kate, “…all that is left is a few crumbs.” Transportation is also a huge problem for the majority of the UNITY workshop participants. The program tries to offer as much mobility as possible.
What do students get out of Unity? A home. They look forward to that day of the week because they know it is a day in which they will feel safe, valued and be able to express themselves without judgment. Many come early and stay late including one boy who arrives almost two hours early each time. The staff talks to him and makes him feel comfortable even if they are preoccupied. One day, when asked why he was so early for each workshop, he said that he liked to go because he felt like they actually liked his company.
Students in Unity are able to develop strong friendships that they may not have otherwise. For instance, a student who had recently graduated high school gave birth to a child that was most likely unplanned. The friends that attended her daughter’s baptism were all friends that she had met in UNITY.
We ask now, why is the medium of writing so powerful? Many students within the Unity workshop don’t actually consider themselves writers, however Kate says that anyone can write.
If they are texting someone before entering the room, they are still writing. Kate mentions “writing works because you can dip your toe in it. It’s something that everyone already does.”
The success of the UNITY workshop is measured in various ways revolving around qualitative and quantitative factors. Attendance is a really big part of it as well as students showing confidence in their work and developing social skills. UNITY gives them something that they need, and that is a family, a place to express oneself, a social outing and a community experience.
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A Little Bit About Unity. NBCC - North Adams, MA
“One thing that wakes me up in the morning is getting together groups of teenagers to talk about what they care about in a space where they feel like they are center stage and they have the right to speak…”explains Kate Merrigan, UNITY Program Coordinator from the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition (NBCC,) Kate has worked at NBCC since 2005 and explains that although her various professional and volunteer experience lead her to the coalition, she always knew that she wanted to be in this field. Kate mentions, “I have been in that job now for eight years and I love it.”
Kate grew up in the Berkshires during a time when there was a call for youth development. After getting engaged in statewide networks, Kate discovered it was her calling. At work, Kate has many leadership roles including her responsibility for coordinating youth development programs. Largely taking place during the school year, these programs require collaboration with community partners, grant writing and internal reporting. One of her programs is based around youth leadership and uses service learning as a mechanism for leadership skills.
Kate supervises staff and volunteers within the UNITY teen writing workshop. UNITY began with a group of teenagers that came to the NBCC staff in 1994 and expressed their need for help. There was a sufficient need in the Northern Berkshire community for a comfortable environment for students.
Today the students in the UNITY program come mostly from instable homes and look at the workshop as an escape. Kate notices that the students who go through the workshop end up becoming visibly more confident and gain skills to talk to adults. “They gain a sense of self advocacy and worth.” explains Kate. The students have fun and are able to make lasting friendships, “…all the while really learning about themselves and finding an identity and developing skills.”
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Sitar Arts Center is like a second home to me. It has provided me with countless opportunities and experiences and has allowed me to connect and share my talent with other teens in my community. It has also been a positive alternative for me in my neighborhood. Without this place, I can’t imagine what my life would be like.
Deonte, Age 17
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Berklee City Music invites teens into an educational environment renowned for its focus on contemporary music, blending instruction and performance opportunities with adult and peer relationships that help them grow as individuals.
http://www.nationalguild.org/getmedia/87975376-ddd4-4adb-9b84-dd4e94e90066/EngagingAdolescentsGuide.pdf.aspx?ext=.pdf
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I realized that the training that I received was not just about the arts, but about developing as a person.
Young artist, mosaic youth theater of Detroit
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http://www.nationalguild.org/getmedia/87975376-ddd4-4adb-9b84-dd4e94e90066/EngagingAdolescentsGuide.pdf.aspx?ext=.pdf
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The Mosaic Youth Ensemble is the core program of Mosaic, providing nine months of free intensive education and training in acting and vocal music. Each year, approximately 80-100 young people, ages 12-18, are chosen for the Mosaic Youth Ensemble by audition and interview. Ensemble members work with professional actors, writers, musicians and designers. Rehearsing after school and on weekends, these young artists are involved in the creation and performance of professional quality art. Throughout the year, Mosaic Youth Ensemble tours original performances to schools by way of Mosaic's Metro Tour. Additionally, the Mosaic Youth Ensemble presents public performances at the Detroit Film Theatre inside the Detroit Institute of Arts.
http://www.mosaicdetroit.org/main-stage.htm
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Why engage adolescents? Most programs for adolescents are designed by adults based on our ideas about what works best for them. We choose the subject matter, teaching method, schedule, and location, and we design the learning environment. But it is a challenge to reach teens, attract them to an organization, and sustain their interest over time. Arts education providers may therefore be apprehensive about creating meaningful experiences for hard to-please teens.
http://www.nationalguild.org/getmedia/87975376-ddd4-4adb-9b84-dd4e94e9006http://www.nationalguild.org/getmedia/87975376-ddd4-4adb-9b84-dd4e94e90066/EngagingAdolescentsGuide.pdf.aspx?ext=.pdf6/EngagingAdolescentsGuide.pdf.aspx?ext=.pdf
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As a society, we offer less than we should to help adolescents negotiate the tumultuous teen years.
Philip Yenawine, Fuel: Giving Youth the Power to Succeed
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One girl's adventure on the Appalachian Trail.
This is a blog that I was following about a girl that was walking the Appalachian trail this summer. It was successful because she really kept up with it and made frequent posts for people to follow. She wrote well and I found that I could relate with her travels and need for purpose.
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Jacob's pillow has an incredible online source that consists of clips of dances throughout the decades. A great way of storytelling for a beautiful organization.
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"Dance disappears. It's the most fleeting of the arts, the most difficult to pin down and preserve, even in the age of video and CD-ROMS. Which is why the recent opening of the Jacob's Pillow Archives at the famed dance festival in the Berkshires is so significant." - Christine Temin, The Boston Globe
http://www.jacobspillow.org/exhibits-archives/
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This is a trailer for a film that I saw in 2008 that tells a remarkable story about a chorus of senior citizens that sing contemporary, classic rock and pop songs. They are directed by a young man who put his heart and soul into making the group feel purposeful and enlightened them with songs of the "new age." I found the film so inspiring that I went to see the group perform at the Newport Folk Festival a year after. This documentary is a great use of digital storytelling. It gives you an in depth, beautiful picture about how this group changed these senior citizens' life and in general spread a message of how music helps people cope and creates long-lasting relationships.
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Places I go for professional inspiration: *Travel - I have studied abroad a few times and a non-electronic way of professional inspiration for me is seeing the way other cultures work and other mindsets. I have explored many countries and have taken away valuable information from each place I have been to. *Films - I watch A LOT of films and have been really lucky to have access to Netflix for the past few years. My dad is really interested in film and we research our interests pretty regularly to sync up with films that are mind-changing and stimulating. I have learned a lot about the world from independent, foreign and various award winning films and documentaries. I also attend film festivals when I am available. *Pinterest - I don’t really use a lot of social networking sites very often - though I am a part of many of them and I know that millions of other people are. I tend to try and have my time away from technology…but I do use my iphone very frequently to gain information. There are really neat apps that help you to navigate through art experiences which can be a neat way of digital storytelling. *Festivals - I am interested in doing festival work and therefore, attend many in which I am able to make note of jobs, artists, musicians and foods that I may not have known about before. *Research (in general) When I find something that I like, I usually read up about it online afterwards if I want more information. In some instances, I think I am more likely to read about an organization if it sparks my interest than if I am told to. I don’t like to receive millions of eblasts about artists because it makes me feel overwhelmed. *Now that I have a tumblr, I think I will enjoy looking up more on here!
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Community arts programs often provide rigorous arts experiences to low-income students who may not otherwise have access to such opportunities. - See more at: http://www.artsedsearch.org/summaries/living-the-arts-through-language-learning-a-report-on-community-based-youth-organizations#sthash.1S2z1ckp.dpuf
http://www.artsedsearch.org/summaries/living-the-arts-through-language-learning-a-report-on-community-based-youth-organizations
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Welcome to ArtsEdSearch, an online clearinghouse that collects and summarizes high quality research studies on the impacts of arts education and analyzes their implications for educational policy and practice. - See more at: http://www.artsedsearch.org/about/about-artsearch#sthash.mxgsVP95.dpuf
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