Organizations at Youngstown Work to Better our Community
This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Arts Education & Social Justice Institute presented by the Youngstown tenant organization, Arts Corps. The workshop led a group of arts educators from all disciplines through a series of exercises and discussions intended to broaden perspectives and provide the tools necessary to address racial justice and anti-oppression in the classroom. Attendees flocked to the event from all over the city and state, with a few attendees even coming from as far away as Los Angeles.
As an arts administrator and educator, I found the experience to be incredibly valuable, but it also reminded me of the many services which the organizations housed at Youngstown have to offer. Youngstown Cultural Arts Center is home to Arts Corps, The Service Board, Nature Consortium, West Seattle Tool Library, and Southwest Interagency Academy, among others. Each of these organizations works towards bringing valuable services to the community, whether through specialized workshops like the one I attended, or through regular programming and outreach.
For example, did you know that Southwest Interagency Academy offers youth access to student-centered, individualized instruction? SWIAA is an alternative high school which strives to foster academic success through arts education, core curriculum in reading, writing, and math, and support counseling provided by Southwest Youth and Family Services. The program fills the Youngstown hallways with students who are actively working to change negative patterns that have hindered academic achievement in a traditional school setting. Their presence is a daily reminder of the positive impact that SWIAA and Youngstown have on youth in the West Seattle community.
Like the programming of SWIAA and Arts Corps, The Service Board seeks to empower youth through mentorship and service-learning projects. Named for its unique pairing of leadership training and snowboarding, The Service Board offers teens a chance to complete community service projects while engaging in fun, team-building activities. Meanwhile, kids at Nature Consortium get to participate in arts learning programs that foster environmental and cultural awareness. Nature Consortium works with both youth and adults, so anyone can get involved as a program participant or volunteer.
Though I have only been at Youngstown for a couple months, it is clear that the organizations housed here are engaged in tremendous efforts to build a thriving, supportive, and healthy community for both youth and adults. If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to visit Youngstown or check out these organizations’ websites to get a better look at the good work being done by these non-profits. They all deserve our support, and I for one am proud to be working for a facility that can help these organizations thrive.