Engaging Youth Voices in Community Planning and Design

RiverzEdge Arts Project

Rebekah Speck

Woonsocket, RI

Project Dates:

2009 - Present

Tags

2011 CCX presenter, Civic Engagement, Workforce Development

Posted Date:

Oct 20, 2012

Since 2009, RiverzEdge has been combining real world training in community and landscape design with education and employment intervention for high school age youth through participation in their city's wayfinding master plan process to reconnect Historic Main Street with the Blackstone River. Youth voices were included as part of an ARRA (stimulus) funded summer workforce program that enabled youth to grapple with the question "How can Main Street connect to the Blackstone River to economically revitalize Woonsocket as a historical and ecological asset?" More recently, Riverzedge has been working in partnership with numerous agencies and City partners to enable youth to create public works that advance the community vision for Downtown Woonsocket.

Project Goals

What were the project goals?

Original project goals included: •Educate youth on the links between the environmental and economic sustainability of a community; •Provide hands-on learning and work experience through reclaiming public park areas, and planning and rendering projects to beautify and enhance some of Woonsocket’s spoiled public land; •Offer hand drafting and computer design training; •Use applied math and art skills to enhance and beautify a bleak parking lot retention wall, with a high-quality visible environmentally themed mural that encourages community care; •Install beautiful inputs to a new community garden that make the garden a more appealing place to gardeners and residents; •Improve community green space, with enhancements designed and rendered by Woonsocket youth aided by a wider stakeholder community willing and ready to invest in youth; •Strengthen relationships among community agencies such as Family Resources Community Action, Main Street River Front Initiative, Blackstone Valley Tourism Authority, City of Woonsocket Department of Public Works, Nationwide Construction, the Stadium Theater and others; •Prepare workforce readiness through compliance of expected behaviors outlined in our Participant Handbook and enforced through a point-based stipend system; •Develop beginner-level proficiency in high tech design and competency in office software and internet research through resume and portfolio development and job research; •Enhance awareness of the pressing need to go green, through hands-on project implementation in conjunction with environmental curricula; •Make a noticeable mark on Woonsocket by the program’s end with the beautification and enhancement of several public spaces, the start of public awareness and an initiative to further develop sustainable programs for the future of Woonsocket.

Have they changed over time?

This project provided the foundation for more green initiatives.

Who are the project partners and stakeholders?

Partnerships with the Blackstone Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission and the National Park Service who are now regular partners and supporters of our work. Recent efforts can be found in an ecoRI article that was published on 3/4/2011 at this link http://www.ecori.org/front-page-journal/2011/3/3/riverzedge-promotes-art-life-skills-and-reuse.html.

Project Specifics

How was the project implemented? What were the steps taken?

The project was implemented in line with policies and practices developed over time throughout our programs, designed in line with best practices for youth programs and outlined in our Participant Handbook. A description of our model is as follows: RiverzEdge Arts Project gives educationally and economically disenfranchised youth, ages 12 – 24, in northern Rhode Island paid employment in the arts and a voice in their community, engaging teens in a lifestyle of creative expression, disciplined effort and economic self-reliance. Youth are provided highly enriched mentor-based learning through the design and production of creative goods and services. Working alongside highly qualified artist/educators, participants produce work for clients and develop skills to compete in the marketplace, while completing high school and preparing for college. RiverzEdge Arts Project, which opened its doors in 2002, was designed to offer work opportunities, skills development, high quality learning, and civic engagement within a supportive environment with positive adult relationships in the afterschool and summer hours for some of the most marginalized youth in New England. Through their work running micro businesses along side highly qualified artist mentors, teens get hands-on experience in graphic design, digital media, screen-printing, green design and the visual arts as well as leadership and workforce training, and educational support. Teen participants receive daily education and practice creating their own works of art, commissioned and grant-funded work, and work for clients. Participants are paid educational stipends for their work, providing many a leg up and out of poverty. To be paid for their work, participants must keep their grades up, be on the path to high school graduation, and apply to college. RiverzEdge was founded as, and is considered to be, a drug abuse and delinquency prevention program and has been the subject of on-going substance abuse evaluation. Multiple factors built into the design of the programs are utilized to prevent juvenile delinquency. In particular, various forms of mentoring embedded throughout the programs are thought to be critical contributing factors to delinquency prevention and positive youth outcomes as interpreted through existing research in the field. Youth-centered mentoring, peer mentoring, goal oriented mentoring, group mentoring and site-based mentoring by volunteers are all employed in various capacities throughout organizational programming to ensure youth remain engaged in their pursuit of a high school diploma and post secondary education and training. Year round program implementation provides a large number of contact hours for youth with positive adult role models. Youth work in one of five art and design studios 4 days per week, for 20 hours per week in the summer, and for 10 hours per week throughout the school year. Students are expected to arrive on time and sign in upon arrival. On the sign in sheet, each participate is asked to rate how they are doing. After opening rituals, youth work individually, and in small groups to complete projects and assignments in their studios. Any youth who reported in under a 3 on a 1 to 5 scale is offered optional 1 on 1 adult support throughout the workday if they need it. Through daily work, youth develop marketable skills in graphic design, screen-printing, digital photography and videography, green design or visual arts. For their work, youth are paid educational stipends on a point-based system. The system works to create a safe and supportive environment through the neutral enforcement of expectations and work. Participant pay is docked for not showing up or arriving late without advance communication, and can be docked for treating others disrespectfully, inappropriate disruption of studio work, or for not participating fully throughout work hours. The work atmosphere at RiverzEdge is positive and lively, with 30 to 50 youth on-site each day, music playing, and a plethora of support when help is needed. At the end of the day youth are expected to save their work on a server, participate in a closing circle and participate in 15 minutes of studio clean up. Their mentoring schedule is as follows: •New participants and participants needing extra support to complete their work are paired with a trained peer mentor to help them with skills development and meeting program expectations. This relationship is on-going and they can turn to their mentors as needed for the duration of their studio tenure. The peer mentor is another student close to the age of the new student. The mentor is assigned to check-in on the new student to offer them support, advice, and assistance with work related problems. Expectations on mentors and mentees are outlined in the Participant Handbook and rare personal problems, are dealt with by either party bringing them to an adult for mediation. •Studios are run by adult mentors, industry experts in their artistic field who are trained to mentor youth in a youth-led learning and production environment. Youth and mentors work together to achieve the common goal of producing work for clients or community projects, and to ensure skill and leadership development progress in line with internal assessment tools and state standards for art education. •Participants are expected to attend every day on time, maintain a C average or higher at school, complete high school or GED and apply for college. Youth who do not meet these requirements or who receive a failing grade in any subject are expected to spend part of their day with volunteer mentors or tutors from the community who work with them on-site, or to participate in remediation through other social service agencies. In line with best practices for after school programs, grades of participants are sent to the Program Director as well as to parents and guardians. If all intervention strategies fail and youth leave the path to a diploma or GED, they are asked to leave the program. Students are referred to RiverzEdge primarily from 3 sources, guidance counselors or teachers at school, work of mouth/friends or parents, and other social service agencies. As of June 2011 there will have been 60 graduates of the intensive RiverzEdge Arts & Business program. In total there have been 300 participants. Graduates are defined as youth who stayed at RiverzEdge until after they graduated high school or attained a GED and went on to college. Youth who were enrolled in summer only programs, off site classes or Expanded Learning Opportunities programs at the high school were not included in the calculation of youth who left RiverzEdge before graduation. Although the demographics of participants fluctuate, a current profile of student characteristics is a good indicator of trends in participation. For the 2010-2011 school year, 52% of participants identify as boys and 48% as girls, 74% are between the ages 13-17, and 26% between 18-21. 47% are White, 26.5% Latino 13.5% Black or African American, 7.8% Multi Racial and 5.2% Asian. 85% are considered low-income.

Have they been refined over time?

RiverzEdge has grown from serving 5 youth in 2002, to over 350 in 2011, now involved in multiple on and off-site programs.

Obstacles

What were your major obstacles?

Major obstacles included on-going insufficiency of resources that drained the energy of staff and youth, but necessitated a positive resourcefulness and deepening of interdependency with the City and other partners. Youth in Woonsocket face many barriers to positive education and employment futures, but in this program the need was even more acute. Youth statistics in Woonsocket pretty much tell their story: Woonsocket has the highest rate of child abuse and neglect in RI, 26.6% well above the rest of the core urban cities at 17.4% and the state at 11.7%; the highest rate of births to teens at 212.4 per 1,000 teens in RI, as well as the largest percentage of children participating in school breakfast programs at 39%. 19% of youth in the RI Training School are from Woonsocket, and 10% of homeless youth, but Woonsocket youth comprise only .2% of RI’s youth population. Educational outcomes are similarly disproportionate. Woonsocket has the highest rate of school disciplinary actions in the state (disciplinary actions, which are defined as in-school or out of school suspensions and referrals to alternative programs are considered a risk factor for delinquency and violence), Woonsocket 8th graders perform below both the urban core city average and the state average in math and reading, Woonsocket has the 2nd highest drop out rate and less than 25% of high school graduates start college.

Who or what was instrumental in overcoming these obstacles?

More important in this particular program though, was a high thresh hold for failure on the part of the youth that required us to continuously modify the program design over time to be responsive to their needs for stimulation and new environments to stay engaged in the program.

What top three suggestions would you give to others attempting a similar project?

Our top three suggestions to others would be: 1) Do not go over a 1:8 ratio of high need youth to grown ups even if they are older youth, they need more support! 2) Make much time for youth to share their opinions, tell their stories and to be wholly engaged on a personal level in what they are doing, even if you have to give up on specific learning goals or approaches to skill building. How they learn and the depth with which they learn trumps short term goals and will pay off in the end if you have enough time. All of our participants made significant gains in reading and math though they came into the program generally at about an 8th grade level. 3) Give more time for your expectations to take hold and be respectful throughout the process of introducing how you work and what you expect. Make sure that the focus is always on their future with great understanding of what they overcome to be with you, and make whatever they are learning related to their goals and aspirations. In our experience, these really high risk youth have even greater expectations on the world around them than other youth and that is the main reason they drop out of education and employment. Let them dream big, and align your programs with those big dreams along with realistic expectations of how to get there. We actually mapped the pathway for video game designer for our youth that included listing the 10 schools around the country that produce the highest paid designers and the specific classes they had to take. Then we assure them that we think they can do it, even if they have to take extra classes at a community college to get there!

Project Impact

How has this project contributed to creative community building?

This project has morphed into a long term partnership with the City, the Heritage Corridor, RI LISC and Neighborworks Blackstone River Valley with whom we just submitted an NEA Our Town letter of intent to apply for the redesign of a crucial crossroads Downtown.

How did it achieve your original goals?

Supplementary information and press is available upon request.

Were there unexpected impacts?

An unexpected impact is the credibility we received as partners at the table in economic development and problem solving in education, planning, design and implementation. Pretty much everybody who encounters our work is surprised at the quality of the output from our youth-led projects, works and initiatives.

CCX Workshop Handout

Download workshop handout here.

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