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Learn how you can use the recently released Creative Youth Development (CYD) National Action Blueprint as a resource in your work to advance the role of creativity in youth development. Led by the CYD National Partnership and a cross-sector coalition, this one-hour, interactive forum is designed for CYD practitioners and alumni, funders, researchers, and allied youth sector leaders.
During the forum, we discuss:
- The CYD National Movement and Blueprint goals
- How CYD aligns with the priorities of allied youth sectors, including education, juvenile justice, and afterschool
- Recommendations for advancing CYD in three strategic priority areas VISIBILITY & IMPACT: Documenting and Communicating Outcomes and Impact FUNDING: Expanding Pathways to Funding FIELD BUILDING: Professional Development, Networking, and Technical Assistance
- Opportunities to get involved
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Creative youth development is a recent term for a longstanding theory of practice that integrates creative skill-building, inquiry, and expression with positive youth development principles, fueling young people’s imaginations and building critical learning and life skills. The National Action Blueprint identifies and prioritizes actionable strategies for increasing equitable access to creative youth development (CYD) for children and youth in the United States. The purpose is to drive collective action to advance the role of creativity in positive youth development.
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Increasingly, effective leaders are those who understand how power impacts organizations and take transparent steps to build a culture of equity. Ama Codjoe, former director of DreamYard Art Center and faculty member for the Guild’s Community Arts Education Leadership Institute (CAELI), argues that anti-oppression practices and compelling leadership are inextricably linked. In this article, Ama provides arts leaders with a framework for assessing their own privilege and adopting ways of “seeing, listening, and being that can deeply transform not only your leadership practice but your life.”
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In this clip from her transformative 2016 Conference keynote presentation, Dr. Bettina Love explores the way that cultural memory (i.e. the rituals, norms, and forms of expression that are ingrained in our daily experience) plays a role in youth creativity. She explains that all students have a cultural memory–even if it is not the one that a teacher may be familiary with–and it is the job of the educator to draw upon and ignite that creative source.
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Ginwright’s bold and nuanced keynote proposes a new movement of healing justice to repair the damage done by the erosion of hope resulting from structural violence in urban communities. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from around the country, he emphasizes the need to place healing and hope at the center of our educational and political strategies. In his talk he shares how "teacher activists" in community organizations and stressed schools are employing healing strategies to help their students become powerful civic actors.
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An accompanying resource for The Practice of Partnership: High-Impact Arts Education Partnerships with K-12 Schools, this document gives a concise overview of the report's core findings. Recommendations for practitioners are provided in the areas of "creating and sustaining effective partnerships" and "developing high-impact programs."
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"We Are What We Art" was produced and edited by the young artist, César Martinez, during the National Guild's 2012 Conference for Community Arts Education in Dallas, TX. The short video features the perspectives of students, educators, and arts and social justice experts on the key topic of creating equitable access to arts education. César previously studied at SAY Sí, a year-round, arts-based youth development program in San Antonio, TX. His video speaks not only to the benefit of providing and enhancing arts education opportunities for all, but also—as a youth-led media piece— illustrates what is possible when you engage the unique creativity of young people.
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This article provides a definition for the term creative youth development, describes core characteristics of CYD, and briefly describes four programs. It provides background on the origins and history of CYD, including current advances in the field and signs that the field is coalescing. The article describes CYD in the larger contexts of arts education and of education reform. Lastly, the piece discusses policy, funding, and research needs.
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On March 27-29, 2014, youth and adult leaders from out-of-school and community-based youth development programs in the arts, humanities, and sciences–i.e. creative youth development (CYD) programs–convened in Boston to chart a strategic agenda to increase the sustainability and impact of their programs. Setting the Agenda is a research study that set the foundation for the National Summit's discussion.
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Engaging Adolescents: Building Youth Participation in the Arts is the result of the National Guild’s research on effective practices throughout the multi-year Engaging Adolescents initiative, designed to increase teen participation in arts education. The report outlines a holistic approach that integrates arts learning with principles of youth development.
