Arts Ed Newark: 5 Years of Healing-Centered Engagement

OUR PATH TO ARTFUL HEALING: THE FIRST FIVE YEARS

Compiled by Sonnet Takahisa

OVER THE COURSE OF SIX YEARS,

ARTS ED NEWARK (AEN) has stewarded a movement to align arts education and traumainformed care practices in partnership with The Greater Newark Health Care Coalition (GNHCC), My Brother’s Keeper Newark (MBKN), and other community-based health, safety, education, and arts organizations. Through a continuous process of researching, developing, and advancing best practices, AEN has developed an inspiring training program and aligned a team of teaching artists and social workers who are coaching others to understand trauma, incorporate arts-based strategies that reduce the impacts of trauma and promote healing-centered engagement for students, education and healthcare colleagues, and workers in cultural institutions and community-based organizations.

This report documents an extraordinary experience that was built from a common belief in possibility, opportunity, ingenuity, creativity, and accountability. The ongoing process of collaborative learning and a collective sense of responsibility included players from different domains, leaders, activists, disruptors from different sectors, and large and small organizations. The evolving product was built on core values and structures that delivered relevant and useful knowledge to facilitators and participants. At the same time, strong relationships among planning team members allowed for flexibility and the capacity to rapidly respond to changing contexts and situations.

INTRODUCTION

Highlights

�� Recruiting a cross-section of players –who ultimately “road-tested” ways to strengthen their own practice through sharing and learning.

�� Awareness and recognition of the experiences and knowledge that participants, including school-based arts educators, bring to their own professional practice.

�� Extensive planning, authentic learning, and on-going reflection and iterations of pedagogical and programmatic strategies.

�� A culture of reflection, trust, and confidence among facilitators that allowed for experimentation, pivots from in-person to online, and serendipity.

�� The creation of modular sets of artsbased healing centered tools and strategies featuring different arts medium/media.

This is not an evaluation, but rather an overview of the observations, reflections, realizations, take-aways, and potential next steps, primarily from the perspective of the developers and facilitators.

ARTS ED NEWARK (AEN) IS AN ALLIANCE OF AND FOR ARTS EDUCATION CHAMPIONS

who advocate for equity in high-quality arts education for all youth in Newark. The 90+ partners include arts and culture organizations, public, charter, and private schools, youth and community development groups, businesses, funders, and government agencies. Members include artists, parents, and teachers who come together around the belief in the power of arts education to transform young people and help them thrive.

2016 - 2022

COMING TOGETHER

From its inception, Arts Ed Newark has built upon the power of collective impact, and the belief that by learning together, and aligning and integrating their actions, a network of community members, organizations, and institutions can achieve systems-level change.

For AEN, the work is meant to benefit all young people in Newark. With early funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the group created a shared language and common accountability measures around quality artsbased youth programming in Newark.

AEN has a successful track record in developing, supporting, and getting funding for partnerships that extend beyond the arts and education sectors to envelop out-of-school time program providers, leadership from neighborhood and placebased safety initiatives, and now the healthcare sector.

COMING TOGETHER

When the planning work for this initiative started, educators, social workers, artists, and community residents recognized that the burden of trauma in Newark was high and largely unaddressed.

Newark is the seat of Essex County, New Jersey, which, over the past ten years, consistently ranks among the top three counties statewide for the highest incidence of domestic violence. About one-third of the population, and nearly half of all children, live below the poverty line. Newark’s unemployment rate of 10.2% is far higher than the statewide average of 5.9 percent. While social welfare programs and public safety initiatives seek to address barriers to, for example, a sense of physical and mental security or housing or access to food, little has been done to address the aggregate lived experience of the children and adults who are coping with so many challenges. And, the pandemic has only increased homelessness, hunger, joblessness, and the healthcare divide, putting extra strain on families across Newark. Local leaders and government officials regularly collaborate across sectors and have committed to making Newark a Trauma-Informed City.

TIMELINE

In 2017, building upon AEN’s success in ensuring that the arts and arts education were part of collective impact improvement initiatives in Newark, new funds were received from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to expand the adoption of arts-based traumainformed approaches to healthcare and education. A core planning team started the initiative by focusing on understanding the science and research around trauma and finding the alignment and intersection of the practices of arts educators and healthcare providers.

at improving the structural, governmental, and social conditions necessary for improving the health status of the communities they serve. Another early partner was My Brother’s Keeper Newark (MBKN), an alliance that is focused on breaking down silos, challenging longheld practices of the educational, criminal justice, and health systems that have contributed to racial and gender disparities in Newark, and forging collaborations that will drive improved outcomes for boys and young men of color.

In 2018 AEN established a new collective impact initiative with healthcare and social service providers. Relationships were forged with The Greater Newark Health Care Coalition (GNHCC), a non-profit collaborative dedicated to improving healthcare delivery and health outcomes, with highlevel representatives of hospitals, primary healthcare, educational and higher ed institutions, advocacy organizations, behavioral health organizations, visiting nurse services, and others. GNHCC drives health planning efforts directed

With renewed support from the NEA, AEN and its partners organized working sessions to determine areas for focus and impact based on collective concerns. In addition to administrators, there were teaching artists, GNHCC trainers on trauma awareness, MBKN staff who shared mentoring techniques, an art therapist, and a licensed clinical social worker who came together to engage in a process of collective learning. The goal was to incorporate the arts into trauma workshops and to create a model that developed and fortified quality in both fields when it came to youth impacted by trauma.

In January 2020, after 18 months of learning and planning, the group created a three-part Arts and TraumaInformed Care training series for those working in youth-focused spaces. With great fanfare and substantial acclaim, the first series was offered in person for Newark teachers, providing effective arts education tools and strategies for safer spaces, specifically in support of trauma-impacted students. With the sudden advent of Covid, everything changed. The curriculum was revised and adapted, and all subsequent sessions of the Arts and Trauma-Informed Care series were offered online. From 2020 –2022, approximately 300 art teachers, school administrators, support services personnel, teaching artists, youth development leaders, and community service providers participated. The online platform, partnerships with other organizations, and additional support from funders, including Save The Music Foundation, extended the reach to participants outside of Newark, including other areas of New Jersey, Miami FL, and Anaheim CA.

Newark educators who had attended the three-part training series and were interested in continuing to improve their practice by discussing challenges and successes in bringing the work to their constituents. In addition, AEN has shared information about this work at regional and national conferences. AEN has incorporated arts-based trauma-informed care into their Arts Ambassadors training program for parents, caregivers, and community activists, and a new site-based model with a school in Newark has begun.

From 2021 – 2022, AEN created two Peer Learning Communities for 25

THE WORK MOVING FORWARD

Throughout the process, the core planning team at AEN and its partners, have continued to respond to the changing environment and to incorporate new ideas and strategies. As the world continues to grapple with the impact of the pandemic, and an ongoing reckoning with racial, social, economic, and environmental injustice, we are

just beginning to understand the longterm effects these traumas have on our behaviors, our emotions, and our physical and mental health. All the more reason to celebrate the work of AEN and its partners in demonstrating how the incorporation of arts-based trauma-informed practices can provide safe spaces that offer opportunities for creativity, expression, joy, and wellness that foster healing and liberation.

The incorporation of arts-based trauma-informed practices can provide safe spaces that offer opportunities for...

CREATIVITY EXPRESSION JOY & WELLNESS

TO PREPARE THE ORIGINAL NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS (NEA) GRANT

PROPOSAL and begin the actual work once funded, AEN leadership was strategic in gathering diverse voices around the table. A deliberate mix of practitioners, including teaching artists, school-based arts educators, clinicians, art therapists, licensed social workers, community-based social service providers, professional education and curriculum developers, as well as researchers, funders, and administrators from small and large providers of arts, cultural, educational, health, and social services gathered for regular bi-weekly meetings. The meetings created a space for people to explore and pool knowledge about the urgency of concerns about the well-being of Newark’s children.

2017

GATHERING

The goal of these meetings was to engage participants in a literature review of research and programmatic materials from different domains, to explore a variety of pedagogical and clinical models, and, in the introductory phase, to listen for intersections in the language and practice of arts education and trauma-informed healthcare. Distributed agendas, PowerPoint presentations, meeting minutes, and a shared Google drive with documents and resource folders, allowed for rigorous study and accountable conversation about current neuroscience and brain research, reports on the intrinsic benefits of the arts, and previously explored intersections with the frameworks of social and emotional learning (SEL) and arts experiences.

While managed by AEN leadership, the structure of the planning team was shaped by shared power and authority; the group established community agreements around expectations and norms that would define relationships for the multi-year project. Many of the core group of participants who attended the early meetings were interviewed for this report.

Clinicians and GNHCC and MBKN representatives shared their knowledge of ACEs, or Adverse Childhood

“We were interested in connecting the dots between trauma-informed care and the arts and wanted to explore what role the arts can play in light of the powerful work being done by trauma-informed practitioners. We wanted to understand the intrinsic and intentional role that the arts can play in mitigating the impacts of trauma and on healing.”

(Sanaz Hojreh, Consultant and Former Director of Arts Ed Newark)

Experiences that have lasting, negative effects on health, wellbeing, and opportunity. They described the impacts of traumatic events from childhood, as well as complex or multiple traumas, and generational traumas inherited by children and adults. They shared exercises that helped colleagues recognize and identify examples of trauma and privilege in their own lives, and introduced therapeutic approaches for addressing and mitigating trauma, and building resilience. While the clinicians were familiar with art therapy, they were interested in learning more about arts education strategies that might resonate with their professional training.

ANSWERING QUESTIONS

Why the arts?

What do the arts bring?

What are the benefits and impacts of arts education?

The arts educators, teaching artists, and arts administrators represented the visual arts, music, theater, dance, Hip Hop, spoken word, media, and mixed media. To answer the questions: Why the arts? What do the arts bring?, and What are the benefits and impacts of arts education? the group reviewed “10 Lessons the Arts Teach,” by Elliot Eisner, and discussed different projects currently underway with students throughout Newark. The group focused on how arts education offers opportunities to learn artistic practices and skills, gives individuals ways to channel personal voice and expression, allows for creativity and imagination, and provides a sense of empowerment and liberation.

Several participants straddled the worlds of social work, art therapy, and arts education, and there was a conversation about the distinctions between the goals and practices of the different domains. While the lines may be blurred, there were some distinctions made about the outcomes: art therapy focuses more on internal and personal processes, and arts education adds a focus on skills, techniques, and quality of presentation. The group reviewed the New Jersey State Arts Standards and also talked about the implications of school systems’ increased focus on students’ social and emotional learning across curricula.

THE FINDINGS

It was clear that there was a tremendous exchange of useful knowledge during these planning meetings:

clinicians and social workers reported they were more intentional in how they thought about the use of music and visuals with clients and teaching artists understood more about the sources of student behaviors and were deliberate in their use of language and activities to de-escalate potentially negative situations. As the group shared perspectives and began to align the language they would use to articulate a shared community vision for the collaborative work of aligning arts education and traumainformed practices, they were at times overwhelmed. They saw the benefits of integrating arts education teaching practices with trauma-informed care, but their next steps would depend upon their target audience or audiences. The “proof-of-concept” had been demonstrated in their working group, but their enthusiasm for expanding the impact of their work meant having to make decisions about how to proceed, including the optimal number of sessions, the number of participants, and, most importantly, their concerns about whom to recruit to help cultivate and promote this work.

“We had a keen awareness that we were doing something big…And we had a sense of responsibility to ourselves and to our community to make sure we did it right.”

(Cat Plazas, Theatre practitioner and Social Worker)

“This is heart-to-heart work. We have all grown closer - personally, professionally, and as a community. In Newark, we are not

PUTTING IT INTO ACTION

to coach groups,” and “a curriculum to teach future groups”. As a result, the group focused their efforts on creating a curriculum for a series of training workshops for cohorts of arts education and clinical practitioners that would raise awareness of “What is Trauma?” from healthcare and clinical perspectives and introduce best practices about traumainformed teaching in the arts.

In 2018-2019, to move ahead with an effective program, the group developed a logic model. In the process, they identified the inputs, the activities, the outputs, and then the initial and long-term outcomes.

The logic model helped to capture and clarify some of the long-term outcomes including the “Reduction of trauma effects on students”. Other long-term outcomes, such as a “Framework sharing of trauma-informed arts education work,” “Encourage increased health and arts sector partnerships,” and “Share best practices in the healthcare sector and arts education sector” provided focused objectives to keep in mind during initial program planning. In turn, these shaped the development of outputs and initiatives that included “a shared learning community around trauma-informed arts education work,” “a user guide and resource manual of best practices,” “teams of teaching artists and social workers

Even as curriculum development for the training sessions progressed, the planning group continued to research, refine and incorporate new knowledge. The “community of learning” they had created went beyond key deliverables. In addition to the program models and curriculum outlines and shared accountability measures. They committed to continue to grow and participate in an ongoing feedback loop, a commitment that has continued beyond the initial scope of the project.

Agendas, facilitator outlines, PowerPoints, resource folders, online recordings and reflections from facilitators and participants, and new program proposals all demonstrate the ways that thinking has evolved. While core programming around trauma-informed arts education has remained, there is new language and guidance that incorporates concepts of healing-centered engagement, CulturallyResponsive pedagogy, and the importance, and joys, of creativity and artistic self-care.

siloed. We are all part of something bigger.”

(Rachel Alban, Visual Artist, Teaching Artist and Art Therapist)

BUILDING UPON THE LEARNING PROCESS OF THE PLANNING TEAM TO CREATE BASIC TRAINING

The planning team developed a curriculum for an inperson, three-part series that would align arts education and trauma-informed practices. Conceived as a training program that would mirror their own learning process, the team thought about: What content is important? What is the optimum mix of teaching styles and presentations?

Other core values reflected the importance of building community among and with participants, acknowledging the different identities and diversity of experience and expertise in the room, modeling best teaching and learning practices, and remembering to center the joy of creative arts expression.

Key to the success of the training series was a keen awareness and sensitivity to the audience, a good mix of facilitators, and an excellent sense of what works for adult learners (E.g., how much time, a variety of learning experiences, and timing).

2019 - 2020

FINDING FACILITATORS

“Classroom Art teachers are often unicorns – outsiders or loners – in their buildings. These training sessions would lift up and validate their work by acknowledging the very special connections they make with students, often spanning multi-year relationships.” (Sanaz

Hojreh)

As a champion of quality arts education, Margaret El, the Director of Visual and Performing Arts at the Newark Board of Education was a powerful partner in promoting this work to art teachers and also secured a site for the first in-person workshops. With many classroom art teachers as participants, the curriculum had to validate and support their work, acknowledge the often-unique relationships that art teachers have with students across grade levels, and demonstrate that this was not a new and additional layer of work. At the same time, the core planning team understood that this was an opportunity to profoundly change how art teachers work with students; to help build intentionality for reducing trauma.

In terms of facilitators, the core planning team chose Master Teaching Artists to partner with trauma-informed healthcare specialists. The selected teaching artists were high-quality arts educators who value artistic excellence and rigor and had previously exhibited intrinsic knowledge of and experience with what works for students. In the planning sessions, their work was validated by the presentations of healthcare specialists, and they learned the scientific and clinical rationales that underpin their work with students, and they were able to incorporate new vocabulary and language to name and make their practices more intentional.

GETTING STARTED

As the schedule for each session came together, time was included for checkins, repetitions, and reinforcement of the content, as well as listening, reflecting, and adjusting. Each series was designed as a three-session program: What is Trauma?, Why the Arts?, Digging Deeper in the Arts, and Building Resilience. In each session, there were rituals, reminders, and routines that strengthened the relationships between facilitators and participants. AEN provided materials, including templates for activities, copies of articles, and links to videos and there were followup activities, reflections and preparatory homework prompts for the next sessions. And, after each session, there were weekby-week in-depth reflection and review sessions for the facilitators.

“Participants who completed the post surveys identified many ways in which the trainings have impacted them personally and professionally. …(M)any participants have already implemented many things that they learned in the trainings with the communities they work with.”

(Dr. Deborah E. Ward, Researcher)

In January –February 2020, the first sessions were offered in person to 25 teachers. Due to the pandemic closures, all subsequent sessions from 2020 – 2022 were offered online, and approximately 300 art teachers, school administrators, support services personnel, teaching artists, youth development leaders, and community service providers in Newark NJ, throughout New Jersey, in Miami. FL, and Anaheim CA. Again, the core planning group maintained the integrity of the curriculum and goals for the training sessions, while thoughtfully responding to disparate locations, different audiences, changing schedules and class times, and the move to an online format.

Whether participants were in person for fifteen hours or online for six and a half hours, the core of the curriculum was consistent, and survey data revealed that the trainings, regardless of the format, were very impactful to participants, who reported:

�� increased knowledge about trauma and how trauma impacts youth,

�� more confidence in working with communities impacted by trauma, and

�� skills and new strategies to work with communities impacted by trauma.

In-person Training at Newark’s Arts High School (2020)

The first series was rolled out on three Saturdays: January 25, February 1, and February 8, 2020, from 9 am – 3 pm at Newark Arts High School. Twenty school-based arts educators and administrators, and other communitybased teaching artists participated. At each in-person session, Social Work graduate students were on hand if someone felt triggered. In addition, music and mindfulness programs were available on iPads throughout the room, and breakfast, lunch, and beverages were provided each day for the care and nurturing of the participants and facilitators.

“Trauma 101”, the first session provided a basic introduction to 1) What is trauma? What is the impact of trauma on people? How does trauma manifest in behaviors?, and 2) Why the arts? What do the arts bring? What are the benefits and impacts of arts education?

As with every session, people were welcomed and encouraged to introduce themselves. There was a review of the Community Agreements, reminding participants that this would be a brave zone and confidential space. Participants were expected to be active listeners, demonstrate respect, share at their level, share the airspace, be

LAUNCHING THE SERIES

mindful of the impact of their words, agree to disagree, and put away their technology. The idea and the importance of developing a “Personal Safety Plan” encouraged participants to generate a list of mental and physical strategies that would ensure their sense of safety in the face of potentially threatening or dangerous situations –during the workshop or in their daily lives.

The next moments were dedicated to getting participants in the habit of identifying and naming feelings, promoting connections, and empathy. In pairs and small groups participants shared memories and described their emotions from specific times they felt safe and unsafe, as well as the emotions they felt at a time of creativity. This laid the groundwork for a conversation about trauma; for some participants, it was a discussion about the ACEs survey – recognition of the different kinds of adverse childhood experiences and recognizing their own experiences, for others the “privilege walk” laid bare the pervasiveness of social, economic, and political inequities and their role in the system.

William Simpson, from My Brother’s Keeper Newark, and Charisse Carrion from The Greater Newark Health

LAUNCHING THE SERIES

Care Coalition defined trauma and its ongoing effects. They discussed the original public health study administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifying ten adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) or traumas that revealed that 67% of participants had experienced one or more in their lifetime, and 12.6% had experienced four. AEN workshop participants recognized that trauma is indeed everywhere: in the lives of their students, and their own lives.

The team introduced the work of medical researchers and scientists who are studying the long-term effects of trauma, offering the “trauma iceberg” as a metaphor that depicts the responses to trauma, including visible actions that only suggest the unseen impacts

on emotional, behavioral and physical health. They shared the work and the words of Dr. Nadine Burke Harris who linked trauma to its negative impacts on brain development, hormonal and immune systems, and a person’s DNA. They focused on the importance of multidisciplinary approaches to the treatment and prevention of the impacts of trauma, i.e., traumainformed care and practices.

AEN staff and key consultants then shared some thoughts about their decision to “step into this work”. Building upon personal and professional experiences with the arts, they spoke about the well-documented benefits of arts education. They reviewed the language of Dr. Elliot Eisner’s “10 Lessons the Arts Teach” and the New Jersey Arts Standards and invited the group to consider their experiences with arts education in the context of learning about traumainformed care. They hoped that the design of the sessions would allow participants to, among other goals, see how rigorous arts education can be intentionally trauma-informed, model language and arts-based exercises that are supportive and help build selfcare, self-regulation, and resilience, and provide opportunities for creative expression, joy, and healing.

Hip Hop artist Sheikia “Purple Haze” Norris offered a workshop that energized the participants and demonstrated the intuitive ways that arts education work embodies traumainformed care. Her fast-paced, highenergy activities inspired audience movement and positive thoughts. Showcasing the visual, musical, verbal, and dance aspects of Hip Hop, she provided ways for participants to express their individual identities, build and contribute to a communal support system, and restore a sense of power and agency.

In the “ritual” wrap-up and debriefing discussion, participants made connections, valued the common foundation of information that they could build upon in future sessions and in their classrooms, and loved seeing how trauma-informed care work was embodied in the work they did with Purple.

LAUNCHING THE SERIES

long workshop culminated in a musical education experience and a followup de-brief to identify the traumainformed aspects of the lesson.

The session began with a review of the Ground Rules, a discussion of the creation of Personal Safety Plans, and a warm-up writing activity that encouraged individuals to find new ways to share their backgrounds and name the experiences that have shaped their identities.

Linda Andino, a Rutgers UBHS schoolbased healthcare clinician gave an introduction to the structure of the brain, providing visuals and metaphors to distinguish the parts of the brain and their different functions. She offered further information about what happens to the brain during times or experiences of stress and how those effects are translated into systems of the body.

The second session offered a “Digging Deep Through the Arts”; with a presentation about the science of how trauma affects the brain and an exploration of different categories of trauma, and then an introduction to the importance of self-care and resilience-building strategies. The day-

A thought provoking exercise invited participants to consider the different “lenses” we wear, and how those lenses influence the way we view the world. Another type of metaphor, this exercise encouraged participants to compare their own perspectives and biases, as well as how the contexts and presentation surrounding a story influence our interpretation.

LAUNCHING THE SERIES

The second part of the clinician’s presentation focused on different categories of trauma (acute, chronic, complex, systemic, and vicarious among others), as well as new research about the ways that trauma can alter one’s DNA and impact future generations.

After lunch, the group began to think about constructive responses to the current public healthcare crisis, and visual artist Rachel Alban led a series of exercises focusing on the importance of “self-care”. Situations of secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma stimulate emotional and physical symptoms, and participants were reminded to “put on their oxygen masks first”. Rachel’s presentation, “The M.A.G.I.C. of Self Care offered suggestions for finding: meaning, awareness, getting physical, imagination, and community. Finding your heartbeat, slow breathing, or tracing the outline of one’s hand proved artful strategies that participants added to their self-care plans. The final presentation was led by

Tamara Williams of Music Beyond

Measure and focused on teaching coping and resiliency-building skills through music education, collaborative songwriting, and performance.

In the “ritual” wrap-up (E.g., I heard…, I think…, I feel…, and I will…) and the debriefing discussion (E.g., Pluses and Deltas of the session), participants recognized their role as “drivers” in a classroom, and that music, or other art forms, can be a vehicle for empowerment and expression. The design of the presentations offered a balanced experience and ensured that the content was not too scary. The self-care session balanced out a feeling of being overwhelmed. Participants appreciated the exercises and the strategies they could use, and, even though this was a longer session, wanted more time for questions and connecting.

The third session focused on “Building Resilience Through the Arts”, from the science of resilience to examples of arts-based resilience building through dance, theater, and public art.

The session began with a review of the Ground Rules, a discussion of the creation of Personal Safety Plans, and a reminder that as the group continues to “Reframe the Journey” of arts-based trauma-informed practices, Maya Angelou’s refrain from “Still I Rise” serves as a powerful mantra and cry for resilience.

Clinician Linda Andino offered insights about “Understanding Resilience from a Research Perspective”. She reflected on a paradigm shift from thinking about the vulnerability and deficits of trauma survivors to their strengths and assets. Research points to the neuroplasticity

LAUNCHING THE SERIES

of our brains, i.e., the ability to adapt in the face of adversity, and address injuries or changes in the environment. From a treatment perspective, the work of Dr. Shawn Ginwright has moved practitioners from trauma-informed care to healing-centered engagement. A more complete approach that is less clinical and more culturally grounded, healing-centered engagement is asset driven and focused on wellbeing, rather than suppressing symptoms. Further discussion about the skills that are needed for resiliency, including effective communication, demonstrating empathy, eliciting support from others, instilling optimism, and facilitating success (among others) was the perfect segue way for the next arts-based workshop.

Nicholas Rodriguez, dancer and artistic director of the Inner City Ensemble, invited participants to consider the ways that we use movement and our bodies to communicate verbally and non-verbally and to build community. He outlined the importance of setting the physical parameters of the playing space for emotional safety and demonstrated warm-ups and movement modifications to prevent injuries.

LAUNCHING THE SERIES

His choreography is rooted in social justice, and he spoke about the power of dance as an expressive medium. He offered things to keep in mind when working with students and shared the language he uses to engage, respect, motivate, and build trust with his students.

After lunch, Alysia Souder, arts educator and Executive Director of the Institute of Music for Children, presented a workshop that offered participants theater and acting tools to help children identify and express their feelings. Central to a healing-centered approach, her questions prompted participants to say both “how do I feel” and “how do I want to feel”. The ability to voice one’s emotions is at the core of acting, and a key aspect of being human. The simple “feelings wheel” she shared helps put words to emotions and reinforces empathy and self-worth.

Malcolm Rolling, a multi-disciplinary visual artist shared insights about the work he has done as Production Manager at Yendor Arts. A series of public art and murals give voice to youth, allowing self-expression in non-traditional spaces and building a sense of communal responsibility. Drawing inspiration from the legacy of

American hardship and the triumphant resistance of oppressed people, his work showcases the spirit of healingcentered artwork.

In the final wrap-up and the debriefing discussion, the AEN planning team expressed the hopes that participants were inspired to learn more about trauma and trauma-informed practices, had gained new insights and appreciation for the role of arts and arts education in building resilience, had created their safety and personal care plans, and were confident that individually and collectively “we can influence attitudes and behaviors towards trauma in ourselves, our colleagues, and our children and students”. In turn, participants commented that the training sessions had been “well-paced and balanced with clinical- and arts-led workshops [that] were different and valuable”, and that it was “really important” that they “got all four art forms”. Another remarked on the “safe space – arrival, food, iPads to get in a different zone, be here be present and everything is taken care of”, and “[I am] leaving here happier than when I walked in”. Lastly, for the future, participants wanted a better speaker system and more time for processing and networking/ socializing.

PIVOTING

Virtual Training Sessions (April 2020 – August 2022)

The next three-part series was scheduled to start on March 14, 2020, but suddenly, schools and businesses were shuttered and all in-person events were canceled due to the Covid pandemic.

Due to the pandemic closures, from April 2020 – August 2022, subsequent sessions of the Arts-based Trauma-Informed Care series were offered online to approximately 300 art teachers, school administrators, and support services personnel, teaching artists, youth development leaders, and community service providers. The online platform, partnerships with other organizations, and additional support from funders, including Save The Music Foundation, extended the reach to educators and participants outside of Newark, including other areas of New Jersey, Miami FL, and Anaheim CA.

The onset of Covid required a mindset shift for those in the planning group. In addition to the fears and health inequities that surfaced, emotions and feelings were roiled by racially motivated murders, and the protests and demands for social, economic, political, and environmental reckonings to address systemic injustice.

Everyone was on a trauma spectrum, and the needs of teachers and students became more dire. With the overwhelmingly positive feedback about the Arts-based TraumaInformed Care Training series, the planning team quickly pivoted, and like so many, turned to the online Zoom platform to continue to build community and find ways to make connections. The team considered issues of scheduling, timing, lengths of sessions, and how the medium would impact the presentation of content, the kinds of participatory activities that would be possible, and how to replicate the brave and safe space on this unfamiliar, and untrusted medium for teaching and learning.

“Covid was a nightmare and a gift.” (Lauren Meehan, Director, Arts Ed Newark)

VIRTUAL SESSIONS

To AEN’s credit, it is clear from facilitators’ comments and participant feedback that they were able to maintain the integrity of the content and the spirit of the in-person experience, while revising, strengthening, and condensing the schedule to fit the needs of an online audience in the throes of volatility, uncertainty, complex and ambiguous times. As AEN built capacity to offer high-quality professional development, they also modeled effective online practices for teachers, educators, and clinicians, and showcased arts-based trauma-informed and healing-centered activities (TIC/HCE).

Surveys of the presentations and resources for the 18 cohorts reveal two- and threesession online training series that were thoughtfully and respectfully programmed to respond to disparate locations, different audiences, and changing schedules. Several key elements were modified and strengthened to emphasize new information and respond to changing contexts, adjustments were made as Zoom functions improved, and new presenters brought new perspectives to the individual segments and workshops.

For most of the cohorts, the structure of the three-part training series remained the same:

�� “Trauma 101” focused on What is trauma, Why trauma and the arts, and introduced creative practices that are intrinsically trauma-informed.

�� “Digging Deep Through the Arts” offered deeper knowledge about trauma and the brain, the importance of self-care, and arts practices for self-care.

�� “Building Resilience Through the Arts” provided information about Historical Trauma and Resiliency, reviewed concepts of trauma-informed care and healing-centered principles, and overlaps with social and emotional learning (SEL), culturally-responsive teaching, and art standards, and more arts and creative strategies were experienced and recognized for explicit trauma-informed and healing-centered qualities.

�� Each of the sessions provided an arts-based experience modeling trauma-informed and healing-centered practices.

Although there was much less time than in the original inperson series, the repeated routines and rituals were an important strategy to build and maintain a sense of community and connection in the online community.

�� Check-ins: All sessions included a check-in about how participants were feeling and how they wanted to feel. These were valuable opportunities to take stock, acknowledge, share and empathize with colleagues. The facilitators modeled different creative strategies (e.g., going beyond emojis to find pictures of animals, celebrities, and pop stars to illustrate feelings) and fun.

VIRTUAL SESSIONS

�� Breathing and Centering: Different exercises encouraged participants to take a moment to center themselves and be present in the moment.

�� Ground Rules and Shared Power Community Agreements: As people adjusted to online forums, these reminded participants to pay attention to the impact of their behaviors, their words, and their actions on others in the group.

�� Personal Safety and Self-Care Plans: These served to remind facilitators and participants that it is hard to find a safe space. Naming intentional strategies to help make the online sessions “brave” spaces (e.g., cameras on/cameras off) helped model the ways that this new platform can build a robust and trusting

“This training helped me to have a better understanding of how trauma affects us all, and it gave me some tools to start addressing trauma in my arts classroom. I started applying the idea of a ‘safety plan’ with my students. We are living in difficult times, and having them/us come up with a safety plan has been very helpful to me and my students.” (Anonymous Participant Survey Response)

VIRTUAL SESSIONS

As noted above, while many facilitators and participants began by moving from being trauma-reactive to becoming trauma-informed, the overall initiative had evolved from being trauma-informed to being trauma-reducing and purposefully healing-centered.

The permission and encouragement to engage in artistic self-care were potent aspects of the online sessions. Facilitators and participants took away various exercises that offered them outlets for creative expression – from simple movement and breathing techniques to meditative drawing exercises.

With increased programming, the planning team deepened its bench strength and added new clinicians and different master teaching artists. And while the core presentations and structure of the curriculum remained the same, presentations were tweaked, adapted, and revised to include up-to-the-minute examples of trauma and harm from the current healthcare and public safety crises, as well as stories of mitigating trauma and building resilience. The different facilitators were usually able to stay for an entire session and could get to know participants as well as make deeper connections with the lessons and activities of other facilitators.

As Zoom functions improved, teaching artists such as Sheikia “Purple Haze” Norris, Rachel Alban, and Alysia Souder were able to play with the ways that people turned their cameras on and off and how they connected visually “across” the tiles on the screen; they had participants mute and unmute for call and response, and they used the chat function to allow “quieter” people to interact. In addition, functions such as jam boards and small group breakout rooms allowed for more individual expression and intimate conversations about specific topics of interest and reinforced the sense of community.

“Sadly, with the transition to online, we lost dance! But we did add new teaching artists and certainly included movement.” (Lauren

Meehan)

While the clinicians had to drastically condense their presentations to fit the time slots, the intensity of the content – both in terms of the amount and the complexity of the scientific research and concepts – was well-suited to online PowerPoint presentations. Everyone could hear and see the material and the material was easily shared as a resource for future viewing.

VIRTUAL SESSIONS

The built-in week-by-week feedback and reflection sessions, both during and after each session, and over time, allowed facilitators to share observations, give feedback, and make suggestions. In turn, facilitators felt appreciated and fully supported in improving their language and teaching strategies.

“I was surprised at how interested participants were in the concepts of trauma, including historical and generational trauma. They really connected with my examples and our discussions about brain science (upstairs/downstairs) and the impact of trauma (fight or flight responses). As time went on I learned a great deal from our teaching artists and found ways to connect the information I was sharing with their impactful work.”

(Linda Andino, LCSW, School Based Clinician at Rutgers UBHC)

WITH COVID STILL AFFECTING WORK AND SCHOOL, AFTER THE

SESSIONS

ENDED FACILITATORS AND PARTICIPANTS MISSED THE SENSE OF COMMUNITY. They were eager to engage in conversations about the successes and ongoing challenges of applying the learning. From February – June 2021, and again in 2022, AEN invited cohorts of 25 people to meet monthly in a Peer Learning Community. In five two-hour sessions, past training participants briefly reviewed the training content, checked their understanding, explored strategies for facilitation and implementation to deepen their practice, and found space and support for reflection.

2021 & 2022

Building upon the relationships established in the training sessions, the Newark-based educators, teaching artists, community workers, and school-based healthcare clinicians met as fellow “unicorns” to activate their own learning and consider ways to spread the information to others at their worksites.

More people registered than attended, and in 2022 especially, participation gradually

PEER LEARNING

diminished over time. Nonetheless, the experience was powerful and moving, as shared by art teacher participants at the Newark Trust for Educationís 2021 Trust Matters: Safe and Supportive Learning Environments Summit. The PLC became a place to find regular support as teachers and arts educators returned to school and work.

“Art will be so essential for the work that we need to do after such a tumultuous year.”

(Olivia Betzen, Newark Board of Education Music Teacher)

PEER LEARNING

People remembered different exercises for both the impact on their own need for self-care and healing, as well as the ways that the structure of the sessions modeled good facilitation. The group dynamics helped to shape the collaborative learning process. For example, an exercise that invited participants to show an artifact that reflected their culture or identity took 90 minutes, rather than the allotted 20 minutes! Agendas were adjusted, and in subsequent sessions, the group was guided in continued explorations of expressions of social identity/identities. Similarly, an exercise about the different ways that context impacts how one interprets a story unexpectedly became a platform for sharing stories of loss and grief, and another opportunity for the PLC group to show grace and foster healing. Others reflected on how the visual and theatrical exercises helped them be mindful of how they present themselves to their students physically and in their use of language. Remembering impactful moments in the PLC sessions, the participants felt safe revealing their strong emotions, even when sharing at the public forum of the Newark Trust Summit.

The planned PLC sessions, as well as the sometimes-unanticipated depth of sharing fortified the practitioners as they struggled with unfamiliar situations and emotions. Reminders of the essentials of arts-based trauma-informed/ healing-centered practices and repeating routines to foster self-care, mixed with new art forms, Zoom techniques, and fun activities kept the sessions lively, engaging and valuable for the core group of participants who attended regularly and over the course of the five sessions.

AEN WAS INVITED TO SHARE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS WORK

and present mini-workshops at regional and national conferences, including Newark Trust for Education’s Safe and Supportive Learning Environments Conference: Arts Education and HealingCentered Practices to Build Resilience (May 2021), Grantmakers for Education 2021 Annual Conference (October 2021), El Sistema National Conference (April 2022), and National Young Audiences RAISE Conference (May 2022). These conferences gather leaders and practitioners in their respective fields, and presentations are competitively selected for relevance and significance.

2021 and beyond

NATIONAL PRESENTATIONS

NEW INITIATIVES

As the 2022-2023 school year began, AEN initiated efforts to explore the ways that artsbased trauma-informed/ healing-centered engagement can best be implemented as a whole-school model. Building upon the success of the training series, AEN is partnering with the Lincoln School, a PreK- 8th-grade school of approximately 400 students. According to state test scores, 14% of students are at least proficient in math and 28% in reading. With strong leadership, the school’s faculty has participated in numerous trainings to improve school culture and climate and to support students’ academic progress. At the first AEN introductory training sessions, participants included staff from all school departments and all aspects of the school community. Part of AEN’s work will monitor the different ways that this work manifests in school spaces other than classrooms and outside the regular school schedule.

AEN

AND THE CORE PLANNING

TEAM ARE CAREFULLY CONSIDERING HOW TO BUILD UPON SUCCESSES and assessing the costs and benefits of different strategies for continuing and growing the work. Across all aspects of the work over the past six years, the planning team, the facilitators, and all participants represent a range of experience and expertise and come from a variety of backgrounds: K-12 teaching and administration, Health Care clinicians, and supervisors, therapists and social workers, arts, cultural and communitybased youth educators and service providers, as well as independent teaching artists. While most of the programs targeted Newark-based participants, thanks to Save the Music Foundation funding, the program has touched people across the state of New Jersey, Anaheim CA, and Miami FL.

Reflections: Core Planning Team and Training Facilitators

It is clear from interviews that no matter the role or professional experience, the facilitators and the core planning team were the first line of learners, and their respective practices have been mightily changed.

As a group, they recognized the prevalence of trauma, with different levels of acuteness and intergenerational impacts on their own lives and the lives of their students. As they learned from each other, exploring alignments, they created and tested the model of collaborative learning.

“There are safe ways for artists to discuss deeper discussions without triggering their audiences. I guess the best way to describe it is how does one speak kindly on scary topics? It seems like many of the people who taught the training spoke in such a way. And how can I engage more honestly and empathetically without crossing into therapy territory?

(Anonymous Participant Survey Response)

With the experiences of the last two years, including the Covid Pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests, racial, social, economic, political, and environmental upheavals, and exigent demands for reckonings, it was tremendously important to provide support for this community.

�� Arts educators studied new theories and brain research that changed the ways they thought about pre-requisites and optimal conditions for teaching and learning and they incorporated new language and practices that reinforced and made more intentional the benefits of introducing arts experiences to trauma-impacted youth.

�� Clinicians and social workers paid more attention to the ways that the arts were essential to so many, and recognized the power of arts-based traumainformed approaches to health care and

education in a way that better supports families. They commented, gratefully, about the arts- based exercises that contributed to their own self-care needs, and were eager to further explore the ways that arts engagement can provide a framework to mitigate the root causes and effects of trauma. For example, one healthcare practitioner plans to incorporate art and places for art-making in a new clinic; rather than simply treating symptoms or reacting to crises, this would be a wise investment in health and well-being.

REFLECTIONS

Several remembered and acknowledged the messiness of the collective impact process. But the strength of the group was anchored in a sense of trust and, again, shared urgency. Once established, the model for their work was clear; several spoke about a “mindset shift” to 1) Create a common awareness and shared language, 2) Activate the learning, 3) Implement the learning at an individual/personal level, the interpersonal level and at the institutional level (school/organization, community/ neighborhood, city).

As the core group sought to “translate” their learning process they identified core presentations (e.g., scientific research about the different kinds of trauma and their impacts, new knowledge about brain functions and resilience), and arts-based modules (e.g., Hip Hop Heals, Emotions and Acting, Visual Arts and Self-Care, as well as Music and Healing, and Body/ Movement and Communication). And while time frames, number of sessions, geographic locations, and other factors varied, a set of routines and rituals (e.g., emotional check-ins, breathing and centering exercises, and large and small-group reflections) were built in to strengthen the sense of community.

WORK AS

A NEW

“I SAW OUR

‘TRANSLATORS’, FINDING

LANGUAGE AND THEN CREATING A ‘RIPPLE EFFECT’.”

(Cat Plazas)

REFLECTIONS

The presenters and facilitators at the training sessions remained a consistent group. Their presentations were well prepared, but their sense of camaraderie ensured a comfortable grace if and when last-minute changes or substitutions needed to be made. Over time, the facilitators acted as a unified group in response to new concerns and situations. As the number of programs intensified, and as AEN began to partner with other cities, they worked to identify new facilitators who could add relevant local information and comfortably add to the sense of community.

“The work has gone beyond selfcare; so many are struggling with toxic environments, racism, and unhealthy relationships. The work has provided strategies to help build awareness, encourage relationships, and create affirmations in the spoken word, the written word, and other modalities (kinesthetic/dance, visual, sound) that work, even for artists and non-artists. We built a community (a la Purple’s

cyphers).” (Sanaz Hojreh)

REFLECTIONS

Reflections: Participants in Arts-based TIC/HCE Training series and PLC

In reviewing the preliminary reports on participant surveys compiled by Dr. Deborah E. Ward, it is clear that the various trainings and Peer Learning Community activities were unequivocally appreciated; participants used the training, reported that the training has impacted their professional and personal lives and that they valued the camaraderie and sense of community the gatherings offered. The reports capture specific, individual responses to different aspects of the AEN arts-based trauma-informed healing-centered strategies that can be summarized as consistently asking for more opportunities to “brush up,” “deepen,” “share and network,” and continue their learning.

more expansive ways to communicate that feel authentic, patient, and empathetic. I am mindful of how the creative and learning experiences I am facilitating can be used as an outlet for emotional expression and connecting to healing processes.”

Participants, whether in person or online, were almost unanimous in reporting that the trainings were impactful, and led to:

�� increased knowledge about trauma and how trauma impacts youth,

�� more confidence in working with communities impacted by trauma, and

�� learning new skills and strategies to work with communities impacted by trauma.

The choreographed presentations that paired the knowledge of clinicians and teaching artists were central to the success. The science was presented in language that was readily accessible and useful, with images and metaphors to help reinforce the content; and the arts activities were engaging, inspiring, and healing. All the presenters offered additional materials and resources if participants wanted to do additional research, and all templates for the activities were generously shared so that teachers and educators could easily replicate the experience with their students.

“I am mindful of the various ways I can check in with youth, and use

(Anonymous Participant Survey Response)

Next Step Scenarios

With the success of the first few phases of the initiative, AEN leadership and the facilitators are grappling with how to continue the work. With the return to in-person schools and business in spring 2022, there was a drop off in registration for the Art-based TraumaInformed/ Healing-Centered Engagement Training sessions and the Peer Learning Community.

Are there ways to strengthen connections with GNHCC, MBKN, NBOE, and other partners to deepen and spread the work in Newark? If AEN reaches out to new audiences, how will they maintain the honesty, authenticity, and quality of particular presenters and their presentations? Are there opportunities to build new strategic partnerships with existing Newark-based organizations, groups, and/or schools to share this work with their constituencies? How can AEN

NEXT STEPS

support those already trained, and at the same time address the recent staff turnover and new staff in many of their partner organizations?

With a strong commitment to the youth and communities of Newark, there are questions about how to balance interest from other sites and remote locations.

And finally, there are the realities of different delivery and community-building models: in-person vs. virtual vs. hybrid. While the planning group appreciated the amount of time devoted to the inperson sessions and missed the physical connections with others, the flexibility, ease, and ultimately the kinds of bonding people made in the virtual sessions were much appreciated. Most are eager to find hybrid solutions that most importantly build in time for powerful and rich group conversations that occur when learning new material with a group of colleagues.

NEXT STEPS

Below are some of the scenarios suggested by facilitators and participants:

Support for networks of already trained arts education practitioners

Building upon AEN’s commitment to Newark, there is strong support for finding ways to offer engaging “brushup” sessions mixed with social activities. To encourage engagement, the meetups should provide opportunities for informal exchange and sharing focused presentations of new information and resources. A Facebook group or “chat and chews” are two low-commitment formats that would allow facilitators and participants to stay in touch, particularly as the continued uncertainty leaves everyone feeling vulnerable and isolated. It would be a way for the collective group to continue to keep abreast of the most pressing needs of the community in Newark.

Periodic deep-dive explorations of other organizations, new research, and/or new programs that teach strategies for leadership and change-making might appeal to participants as they consider the next steps in their careers. With the support of AEN, one of its partners, or a partner organization in Newark, smaller focus groups might self-establish to study a particular topic.

And as AEN continues its work, contact with previously trained participants will provide invaluable information about the

long-term outcomes predicted by the logic model, including policy changes in city agencies, new required professional development in arts education, and new ways to observe and measure the impact of arts-based trauma-informed healing-centered engagement on the effects of trauma in Newark students and communities.

Support for NEW school arts teachers and teaching artists, and other educators in Newark

AEN now has a strong curriculum and a model for effectively training arts educators about arts-based traumainformed healing-centered practices. Reiterating that this work is not an addon to current work and that there are elements of the work that can be applied in any classroom, AEN will continue to work with Curriculum Supervisors, School Administrators, and unions to embed this work in other in-service education training programs. Some teachers and school personnel will seek professional development credits to advance their salary status, while others will be interested in a stipend to justify their sustained participation. Both of these will require partnerships with Education Department officials and/or degreegranting institutions, as well as additional funders.

NEXT STEPS

Support for healthcare providers/ clinicians/ social workers

GNHCC and the other partners who shared clinical and social worker expertise all reported gaining a lot both personally and professionally. AEN could negotiate with new partners in schools of social work and clinical psychology who are willing to contract with AEN to offer professional development for in-service and pre-service students in their programs.

The healthcare facilitators report that the arts are missing from mental health provider communities. They would tweak the training sessions to emphasize science, creating greater alignment with traditional professional development in the healthcare sector, and then introduce the arts and culture approach. With the imprimatur of GNHCC and other programs, this would be a valuable addition to preprofessional clinical training and would offer new and effective ways for them to build community, and extend to the schools and community-based organizations in their domain. Another possibility is to work with others in the allied health fields (e.g., PTs, OTs, etc.) who must get clinical professional development points that are sanctioned through the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association, for example.

GNHCC and MBKN can also work with AEN to recruit workers in other collective impact initiatives in Newark who serve the most challenged youth.

Recently, physicians in Great Britain have begun to prescribe visits to museums for

patients suffering from trauma. And a new movement has seen pediatricians prescribe reading for families and young children. At the very least, an advocacy campaign about the power of participation in the arts might just encourage a new approach to wellness and self-care.

Creating a business model

AEN was awarded a PruBono NonProfit Consulting Grant in collaboration with Taproot Foundation to help do a cost/ benefit analysis of the Arts-Based TraumaInformed/ Healing Centered work. It was important to understand the true staff costs. Even with a fairly complete curriculum, there are still significant costs for the staff time involved in preparing, customizing, scheduling, presenting, and regular refining, as well as additional costs for materials and travel. This leaves major questions about how much are other sites willing to pay to cover costs. And how much additional profit would be needed to offset AEN’s focus on Newark, and/or allow AEN to build a separate for-profit business that would ultimately underwrite their work in Newark? Is there another partnership that would continue the research and work necessary to build relationships in a new location? If there is a separate entity, how much funding would AEN need to maintain the integrity, vitality, and responsiveness of the original flexible program vs. selling a pre-packaged program?

In this scenario, AEN’s leadership must decide how to prioritize their strengths, and makes it worthwhile to share, without compromising the focus on Newark.

AEN HAS DEVELOPED A POWERFUL FORMULA FOR ARTICULATING AND ACTIVATING THE INTERSECTION OF TRAUMA-INFORMED/ HEALINGCENTERED ENGAGEMENT AND ARTS EDUCATION.

This initiative is built upon the recognition that trauma is prevalent and that all trauma has only been exacerbated by our personal and global experiences of the past few years. Trauma is indeed a public health crisis, and the work of the past six years has mitigated the impacts of trauma experienced by a cross-domain community of arts educators, healthcare providers, and community workers. These arts-based training sessions have been a joyful and generative process for all involved. AEN, its partners, and the individual facilitators and participants are eager to continue and expand their work together.

The arts educators at the table believe trauma-informed care and healingcentered engagement are at the heart of what they have been doing, and healthcare providers see the tremendous benefits of adding arts to their environment and clinical practices. Neither group sees the work as an addition or add-on; it IS the work they do.

For the facilitators and participants, the experience was more than a curriculum and training sessions; it was about the people, the connections, and the relationships. The training sessions and the professional learning communities were vehicles to gather, listen, and learn.

All participants in this initiative look forward to sharing what they have learned, including the effective capacity-building strategies for supporting a community around this work and the creative activities that have helped to mitigate adversities and allowed healing and liberation to flourish.

“The majority of participants who responded to the post-program surveys said that “the arts are either a centerpiece of or are intentionally used in their trauma-informed curriculum”.

(Dr. Deborah E. Ward, Researcher)

“I’ve learned the importance of the healing process as a community activity. I will definitely use my music classes as a place where students can start the process.”

(Anonymous Participant Survey Response)

“The most impactful thing that I learned was that some of us who have experienced trauma have an inner strength that we may not even identify as strength. I feel that this is something I would like to intentionally address in everything I do from here forward.” (Anonymous Participant Survey Response)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Arts Ed Newark wishes to gratefully acknowledge the members of our partner community who have come together since 2017 to create the foundation of this important work for the people of Newark.

Rachel Alban

Linda Andino

Ron Augustin

Marie F. Brown

Charisse Carrion

Dr. Latasha Casterlow-Lalla

Mayuri Chandra

Crystal Des-Ogugua

Natasha Dyer

Chiho Feindler

Chantel Fletcher

Robert Gregory

Sanaz Hojreh

Donna Kirkland

Wendy Liscow

Lauren Meehan

Keri Logosso-Misurell

Sheikia “Purple”Norris

Stephanie Parry

Tahina Perez

Cathleen Plazas

Nicholas Rodriguez

Natasha Santana-Viera

Dr. Jah Jah Shakur

Will Simpson

Alysia Souder

Sonnet Takahisa

Cortne Thomas

Gemma Tierney

Jennifer Tsukyama

Tamara Williams

Dr. Deborah E. Ward

City of Newark

Equal Justice USA

Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

Greater Newark Healthcare Coalition

Institute of Music of Children

My Brother’s Keeper

Newark Trust for Education

Newark Museum of Art

New Jersey Performing Arts Center

Newark Board of Education

Sadie Nash Leadership Project

Save the Music Foundation

Rutgers, University

Behavioral Health Care

Teach for America

Trust for Public Land

Young Audiences of New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania

Arts Ed Newark is under the umbrella of