Lead Partner: Musical Theater Center

Partners: Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County and Project Change

Project Description: “My Story, Our Story” served youth by bringing together arts, new media technology and literacy in a program of self-discovery and community engagement for immigrant at-risk youth. Students worked with writers, new media technology professionals and artists of all disciplines to explore personal and community stories through creative writing, film, dance, song, theater, and digital/web media technologies in this unique after-school program.

Lead Partner: Project Change

Partners: Debra Kramer/consultant, Individual Teaching Artists

Project Description: Team of Stars offered a high-need middle school youth by promoting positive youth development skills through the performance and production of an original artistic work written by the participants and culminating win a full stage production. The process acted as a vehicle to open dialogue with youth about significant social/emotional issues such as those related to drugs, alcohol, bullying, peer pressure, prejudice, and discrimination and to teach tolerance.

The 5 week summer camp and fall after school project served between 50-60  rising 5th graders through rising 9th grade students (including 4 teen mentors and 4 student volunteers, the majority of whom are youth who aged out of the program), who live at seven different Housing Opportunities Commissions (HOC) properties and represented an estimated 200 family members.

NOTE: Team of Stars continues to present under “So What Else?”

Lead Partner: YMCA Youth and Family  Services

Partners: Arts on the Block, Gandhi Brigade

Project Description: Common Ground was a year-round arts-infused community service-learning experience for 26 middle school students from low-income, high-crime areas in Silver Spring (Quebec Terrace/Nob Hill area). There were 7 high school mentors.  Driven by a potent synergy of artistic disciplines and youth development strategies, the students guided by the teen mentors and teaching artists, collaborated over a period of months to develop and produce a final “pop-up” event in the community.  “Common Ground” focused on producing measurable gains in the students’ artistic development, ability to collaborate, skills in project management and self-efficacy.

Lead Partner: Imagination Stage

Partners: Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture, Ivymount School, Puppet Company

Project Description: ArtAbility provided students with autism spectrum, a wide range of artistic genres including drama, music, movement and the visual arts.  ArtAbility featured two phases for its participants, 20 middle school students with Autism Spectrum disorder.  The Spring Sampler series provided a series of community based, sensory friendly, family experiences that allowed young people to enjoy a range of cultural art experiences while sharing time with their caregivers and siblings in a welcoming and supportive environment. The second phase was the Summer Intensive which offered a two-week, full day multi-arts experiences for the participants. Students worked together as an ensemble to create an original art installment.  

Approximately 15 area high school teen mentors were selected as inclusion facilitators.  They received specialized training covering disability awareness, ensemble-building, and various art forms. The teen mentor’s primary goal was to ensure that the ArtAbility student felt successful and supported. Teen mentors were close in age to the students and were able to foster a different type of connection than the adults.

Lead Partner: Big Learning

Partners: Class Acts Arts, Passion 4 Learning, and Sligo Middle School

Project Description:  S’TEAM Sligo was designed to develop a corps of student leaders who represented a cross section of the Sligo community and who could model academic excellence, collaboration and engagement for their peers, families and students within Sligo.   

The target group was 26, 6th and 7th graders who comprised a mix of ”high flyers” and “tipping point” students.  Approximately 70% of the selected students were low income as indicated by free and reduced meals at school. The team of students was ultimately responsible for planning and executing a Community Learning Day held in the Fall.  S'TEAM Sligo was structured as an 18 week after-school program from December – May; a five day a week, three-week summer camp; and four more weeks of an afternoon program the month prior to the Community Learning in the Fall.  

S’TEAM Sligo’s Year 1 project focused on environmental issues through the Maryland Green School program providing a real-world platform for the youth to be engaged  through “STEAM” activities such as outdoor adventure, artistic creation, scientific exploration and multi-media communications as they developed their leadership and team building skills.  S'TEAM Sligo’s Year 2 project components included science and engineering sessions focused on renewable and alternative energy sources: digital media communications to bring the project to the larger Sligo community, a therapeutic outdoor adventure program to develop the team; poetry, spoken word and musical composition centered on energy, and a mosaic installation mirroring program themes.  A number of the 8th grade students from the first-year cohort served as program ‘mentors’.  

Lead Partner: Class Acts Arts

Partners: Takin’Off, Big Learning

Project Description:

Takoma Wings Academy (TWA) was a three-week summer camp for middle school boys from low-income immigrant families. The boys investigated the science and engineering of flight in nature, aviation, and space exploration as well as flight as a means of self-expression in the arts. The camp took place at the Takoma Academy in Takoma Park as well as the Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg. The camp included several experiential field trips in the DC region and culminated in a graduation ceremony where participants received badges for acquiring skills and completing camp projects.

Lead Partner: Class Acts Arts

Partners: Montgomery Housing Partnership, Pre-Flight, Pyramid Atlantic

Project Description: Camp Wings was a five week summer camp with an academic year follow up project that served middle school boys from low-income immigrant families. Camp Wings was designed to engage these students in out of school time enrichment opportunities that were hands-on, experiential and fun. Aviation, STEM subjects, visual arts, teaching from professional artists and career development were some of the experiences provided that were usually beyond the reach of boys from low-income immigrant families.  Camp Wings worked with the Montgomery Housing Partnership to recruit boys, as well as additional recruitment from Silver Spring International Greenwood Middle School and Takoma Park Middle School.

Lead Partner: Montgomery Victory Gardens

Partners: Big Learning, YMCA Youth and Family Services, and Francis Scott Key Middle School 

Project Description: Wellness for Success was an innovative program that helped students who were poorly nourished and in poor physical health to overcome obstacles with mental and social emotional issues, to put them on a path to success. The program combined experiential food-growing education, science-based academic enrichment programs, and structured physical activity and nutrition education.

Students were led through a year’s worth of planting, cultivating, and harvesting food – including fall and winter crops – in newly constructed raised beds. Student families also learned about food and agricultural history and traditions. Hands-on activities and explorations were taught utilizing scientific principles to teach the science of growing food and good nutrition and also incorporated elements of the Math Common Core.  Physical activities and outdoor field trips were incorporated using the Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (HEPA) curriculum.

Lead Partner: Project Change

Partners: Aspire Counseling, 480 Cares, Gaithersburg Middle School 

Project Description: This was an innovative program that incorporated messages of hope, health, strength and leadership into a variety of activities addressing often overlooked needs relating to bullying, mental health, and the repercussions of poverty.

The innovation of the program was rooted in the recognition of these needs and their importance to student well-being, the coordination of several evidence-based programs to target these needs, and the maximal leverage of peer support networks.  

Lead Partner: KID Museum

Partners: Parkland Middle School

Project Description: Full STEAM Ahead provided 72 high need students a multi-faceted, project-based learning experience that built student engagement in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math), promoted academic and career readiness and empowered the next generation of creative leaders. 

This project nurtured student interest through very broad and deep engagement in STEAM thereby leveraging the whole school aerospace magnet program.  This program was awarded five years of funding. The first two years it was a STEAM project. Partners included Passion for Learning, AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center.  The third and fourth years it became a STEM pilot for MCPS. The fifth year was a teacher training program.

Lead Partner: Arts on the Block

Partners: Briggs Chaney Middle School, ClancyWorks Dance Company, IMPACT Silver Spring

Project Description: Explore-Create-Connect at Briggs Chaney M.S. was an arts infused after-school program for 40 high need students utilizing inquiry based learning and 21 st century skills to help increase attendance and connectedness. Arts inquiry based learning starts by posing questions, problems, or scenarios about which students have an interest. It was a catalyst for community engagement sessions during which students shared their artworks-presentations-exhibitions.

Lead Partner: Latin American Youth Center

Partners: YMCA Youth and Family Services, Identity, Watkins Mill High School

Project Description: The “Youth Summit Project” prepared 90 incoming 9th grade students to enter Watkins Mill High School (WMHS). The cross section of students from feeder middle schools participated in a summer “bridge” program to create a peer support network; familiarize students with policies and student supports at WMHS; teach key skills for success; and engage and educate parents about how to help their teenager. The yearlong follow-on program reinforced the building of relationships and development of skills.

Lead Partner: Identity

Partners: The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Gaithersburg High School 

Project Description: This program was aimed at changing the high school trajectory of 100 ninth graders with risk factors that can prevent them from reaching their true potential. The vision of this TeamUp program was to increase participating students’ “connectivity, comfort and community”, primarily through an intensive one-week Trojan Summer Experience program and during the school year in the GHS Leadership Academy. A video was made: THE TROJAN EXPERIENCE.  For more information about the program, contact the Trawick Foundation. 

Lead Partner: Aspire Counseling

Partners: Forest Oak Middle School, Conflict Resolution Center, 480 Cares

Project Description: Team Unity served students grades 6-8 at Forest Oak M.S., focusing on students who may have early warning indicators (absenteeism, behavior, and social/emotional needs). It included after-school enrichment activities in the areas of STEM, sports, documentary film-making and business skills.

Lead Partner: Story Tapestries

Partners: Aspire Counseling, Conflict Resolution Center, 480 Cares, Montgomery Village Middle School

Project Description: "Mustang Pride – It Takes a Village" at MVMS was a collaborative effort by community partners to meet the social and emotional needs of MVMS students. The partners helped develop and strengthen communication, conflict resolution, and team building skills. The partners also helped to provide direct therapy (individual and group) to improve social-emotional skills, leading to increased capacity to face life’s challenges and overcome mental health issues. The program aspired to empower youth to find their voice, express feelings respectfully, and deal with conflict in non-violent ways.

Lead Partner: Story Tapestries

Partners: Neelsville Middle School, Aspire Counseling, Conflict Resolution Center, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness Montgomery County (NAMI) 

Project Description: The NMS “uKnight” project was designed to improve students’ academic achievements, develop their social-emotional skills, and increase overall community engagement. To this end, the project included arts integration strategies, mentorship and Sources of Strength (mental health program) to address the school’s needs.