About CfC


The Culture for Change Project (CfC) is an initiative of the Barr Foundation in partnership with Health Resources in Action (formerly The Medical Foundation) that aims to support an ongoing collaboration between artists, youth workers, and young people.  At its core, it values self-empowerment for young people and enhanced creative skills for all.  CfC endorses authentic inquiry and youth voice as critical components of youth programs working for social change.  It uses the arts to explore social issues, and hopes to encourage leadership, self-expression, and self-discovery for children and teens of all races and ethnicities in Boston neighborhoods.

Origins
CfC emerged as a response to the desire of out of school time (OST) staff members to enhance their programming with more creative and effective tools.  Over the course of a year (May 2007- June 2008), Barr Foundation and the CfC team conducted research and focus groups centered on OST staff, youth workers, local artists, and youth.  The resulting data showed an interesting confluence of community needs and wishes that helped build the basis of the CfC project: 

Thanks to the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s “Youth Reach” and “Creative Transitions” funding programs, there existed many successful examples of projects that combined arts with social justice and youth development.  CfC sought to further develop the cross-fertilization of these two areas through support of an ongoing innovative collaboration between artists, youth workers, and young people. 

CfC pilot phase
In 2008, the project was piloted for 10 weeks at 10 out-of-school-time sites, where one artist, one youth worker, and a site staff person worked in collaboration to create engaging activities for participating youth.  As part of the residency, teams received intensive training in youth development, communications and network building, artistic quality, and literary arts from highly recognized institutions and individuals from all over the country.  In addition to receiving a grant, sites had access to a resource library of books, magazines, articles and DVDs that were used for inspiration and guidance during the residency.

As a culminating event, over 100 youth gathered in November of 2008 at Hibernian Hall to present their projects to each other and share their experiences related to the residencies.  Teens used poetry, visual arts, video, spoken word, music and other art forms to interpret social justice issues that were part of their life, such as youth violence, homelessness, identity, and access to education.  145 youth ages 11-21 were served through the CfC pilot.

CfC pilot evaluation summary
The pilot implementation of the Culture for Change project was largely successful in meeting its primary goal of empowering youth through artistic expression and collaborative activities during out-of-school time hours.  The pilot also supported organizations to increase artistic and social change-focused activities for their youth, and helped to develop new programming opportunities. Despite some operational and logistic challenges, most of the ten participating sites operated successful programs.

cfc-report-final

Moving forward
Given the success of the CfC pilot phase, the Barr Foundation and its partners have developed a strategy to implement the CfC program over 20 months.  If funded, the CfC implementation phase will run from November 2009 - June 2011 and will include a combination of grant support, training/project planning sessions, residency activities, and networking activities/events. 

Similar to the pilot phase, participation in CfC at this point will be by invitation only.  It will require the formation of teams at an existing OST site which will include one artist, one youth worker, and one site employee who is a dedicated OST staff member. 

CfC hopes to reinforce and expand the network of change agents throughout Boston’s OST community. Implicit is the hope that these staff members and young people will be harbingers of community understanding, racial justice and cultural equity.

Special thanks to all staff at CfC sites, artists and youth workers. Heartfelt appreciation also extends to intern Maria Kucinski, Project Manager Christine Lamas Weinberg and Project Advisor Lana Jackson who have made this project excel.  Deep gratitude goes out to the trainers and resource folks, Mo Barbosa, Laurie Jo Wallace, H. Mark Smith, Doris Sommer, Emily Ullman, Cassandra Goldwater, Mat Schwarzman, Roberto Cremonini, Toni Blackman, Scherazade Daruvalla King, Wesley Richardson, Ekua Homes, and to program evaluator Julia Gittleman for their commitment and skills.