Rhiannon JonesArtists Mentoring Against Racism, Drugs & Violence 90 Jersey AvenueNew Brunswick NJ 08901December 14, 2016

Sharnita C. JohnsonProgram Director, Arts Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation 14 Maple Avenue, Suite 400 Morristown, NJ 07960

Dear Ms. Johnson,

Enclosed please find application materials on behalf of Artists Mentoring Against Racism, Drugs, & Violence (AMARD&V). We are an arts-focused youth summer program serving low-income and at-risk students and families within the city of New Brunswick New Jersey. The goal of AMARD&V is to empower young people to transform their lives, their attitudes about themselves, and their community as well as develop skills that equip them for a successful education and healthy future. We are founded on the concept of healing through the arts and believe arts education combined with health and life skills workshops, such as conflict resolution, drug and alcohol awareness, gang prevention, cultural identity, self-esteem, and college preparation provide the youth in our program with the skills and tools to better themselves and their community. Founded in 1997 by residents New Brunswick concerned about growing gang violence, racial tension, and drug use in the changing city, we just celebrated our 20th summer of providing this free program to 60 students between the ages of 10 and 16 each year. This is nearly double the program’s original capacity and we are proud to have developed and grown alongside New Brunswick in the last two decades.

Our missions are directly aligned as we both place strong emphasis on enriching communities from within by creating meaningful and culturally relevant programming. AMARD&V highlights cultural histories and pride by providing culturally based workshops and art projects throughout the summer that encourage students to be mindful and proud of their individual ethnic histories and cultures. We view the youth as agents of change for future generations and thus believe creating connections to art for them will have the greatest impact on our community and continue our revitalization efforts far beyond the scope of the 60 students we teach each summer. The range of our five core classes–photography, visual arts, modern dance, drama, and bomba, a traditional Afro-Puerto Rican style of dance and drumming–allow students to explore many different connections to art and push them to expand their horizons, while involved with AMARD&V and in their individual futures.

We are also highly committed to creating economic opportunities for NJ artists and maintaining high standards of artistic excellence, both of which are evidenced through our employment of local professional artists to teach our classes each summer. These industry professionals provide our students with the highest standard of artistic education while allowing them to further hone professional skills to prepare for more employment opportunities in the future. These artists also demonstrate one of the many career paths for professional artists to our students, showing them a line of work they may have not otherwise considered.

We hope you will consider partnering with us to expand this program that provides an essential outlet of artistic expression and personal growth to a socioeconomically disadvantaged population free of charge. Please feel free to reach out to me directly at (973) 900-1267 with any questions. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Rhiannon Jones

2016 FINAL PROPOSAL COVER SHEET

Organization The RWJ University Hospital Foundation Inc. (Artists Mentoring Against Racism Drugs & Violence Program)

Date November 30, 2016

Executive Director Mr. Jerry Murphy

E-mail Address: foundation@rwjuh.edu

Address 10 Plum Street, #910, New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Telephone (732) 937-8750

501 C 3 # 22-2378007

Prepared By Rhiannon Jones – Volunteer

E-Mail Rhiannon.Jones@rutgers.edu

Organizational Budget $1,725,000.00

Year Organization Founded 1982

Project Abstract: This proposal requests $22,800 from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation for the Artists Mentoring Against Racism, Drugs & Violence : Healing Through the Arts Summer Program located in New Brunswick, New Jersey. This program is designed for at-risk youth between the ages of ten and sixteen in the local community to help them improve their attitudes and life skills through an arts based curriculum with particular focus on educational attainment, interpersonal skills, cultural respect and pride, and personal health. The five week long summer program has existed since 1997 when rising incidents of gang violence, drug use, and racial tension displayed the need for a safe space for the youth in the community. AMARD&V has grown alongside the city and we now hope to expand our reach through our request for funding to employ additional 15 counselors each summer and improve our field trip programming. Through these hires we will be able to offer the summer program to more students while keeping our counselor to student ratio low, and through improved field trips even further broaden our students horizons. In the attached proposal you will find a detailed outline of our organization, New Brunswick’s great need for AMARD&V, goals for our students and program, a in-depth description of our

programming, information regarding our key staff and management plan, a discussion of our key stakeholders, evaluation an sustainability plans, and a detailed discussion of our budget.

Table of ContentsIntroduction......................................................................................................................................1Organizational Background.............................................................................................................1Statement of Need............................................................................................................................2Goals & Objectives..........................................................................................................................5Project description...........................................................................................................................6

Timeline.......................................................................................................................................7Management Plan & Organizational Capacity................................................................................8

Key Project Staff..........................................................................................................................8Collaboration & Communications Plan...........................................................................................9Evaluation Plan..............................................................................................................................10Sustainability.................................................................................................................................11Budget Narrative............................................................................................................................11Appendix A: Daily Schedules of AMARD&V Program..............................................................13References......................................................................................................................................15

IntroductionArtists Mentoring Against Racism, Drugs, & Violence (AMARD&V) Summer Program is a program under the umbrella of Community Health Programs at RWJ University Hospital Foundation, located in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We are seeking $22,800 to employ an additional fifteen counselors and provide four field trips for our students for the program for the 2017 summer session. AMARD&V is an arts-based youth summer program with a strong emphasis on mentorship and leading students by example through counselors who exemplify our core values of respect, collaboration, and acceptance. As our counselors are such a key component of our program, it is important to keep our student to counselor ratio low so all involved youth are able to develop relationships with counselors to engage fully with the program and get the most possible out of their summer spent with us. Our closely aligned missions make us a very good fit for your organization. With support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation AMARD&V will be able to serve 80 New Brunswick youth by the end of 2017.

Organizational Background AMARD&V was founded in 1997 in response to a shift occurring in the New Brunswick community. Long time residents and founders Mariam Merced and Claudio Mir noticed a rise in gang activity and violence, drug and alcohol use, and racial/ethnic tension and hostility in New Brunswick due to a more transient and less community-based city comprised of immigrants from many different cultural backgrounds. Since AMARD&V’s inception twenty years ago it has provided a free arts-focused program to the New Brunswick youth ages 10-16 every summer. It has had many different organizations involved in its success over the past two decades and is currently a partnership between the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Rutgers University’s Center for Latino Arts & Culture, the Puerto Rican Action Board, and Suydam Street Reformed Church in New Brunswick. In addition to these organizing partners, we use space in the Mario Gonzalez Child Development Center, New Brunswick Middle School, Rutgers University buildings, and Crossroads Theater in downtown New Brunswick to conduct our programs, making AMARD&V a true collaboration across the community.

As we believe strongly in healing through the arts, the foundation of our program lies in five main areas of artistic expression: photography, visual arts, modern dance, theater, and bomba-a traditional Afro-Puerto Rican style of dance and drumming. In addition to these five major areas of arts education, our program also includes health and life skills workshops for our students covering topics such as conflict resolution, drug and alcohol awareness, gang prevention, cultural identity, body image/self-esteem and college preparation. All students attend weekly field trips spanning New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Past trips have included the Frida Khalo: Art, Garden, Life exhibit at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, the Philadelphia Zoo and Grounds for Sculpture, an interactive museum/park. The program culminates in an arts showcase where

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their families and friends are invited to come see them perform their theater pieces, modern dance, and bomba routines and all of their artwork is displayed throughout the venue. Throughout the program breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack are also provided free of charge to all enrolled students and there is ample time surrounding meals for less structured activities, like jumping rope or playing basketball outside, as well as playing board and card games in the cafeteria.

Statement of NeedOur program seeks out families and students residing in the New Brunswick, New Jersey community via outreach in local public schools, churches, small businesses and existing community programs. New Brunswick is a particularly young city, with 20% of the population being 17 years old or younger and only 7% of the population being 60 years old or older (DADS, 2014). AMARD&V works as a prevention and early intervention program by working with identified at-risk

youth before they become involved with activities that may be detrimental to their success. We believe this method gets to the root of the problems we are fighting to solve by not only educating the youth involved with our program, but also through the dissemination of information that occurs when our students discuss what they have learned with their networks of family, friends, and peers.

The cultural competency of the AMARD&V program is vital to the New Brunswick population as half of the city’s population identifies as Hispanic or Latino and more than one third are immigrants. 83% of these immigrants are not U.S. citizens and 80% identify as Hispanic or Latino (DADS, 2014). Of the individuals identifying as Hispanic half also identify as Mexican, making up 25% of New Brunswick’s total population, the remaining Hispanic population reports over 18 countries of origin (DADS, 2014). The large Hispanic and Latino population as well as the breadth of countries New Brunswick residents come from speak to the need for the cultural competence aspect of AMARD&V’s program. Ensuring the youth understand and respect one another’s backgrounds is a step away from the ignorance that often precedes gang activity drawn on ethnic lines and towards a community built on tolerance and working together. As of 2010, there were an estimated 392 gang members in 13 different gangs in the city of New Brunswick, placing it in the top 2% of towns in regards to gang activity in New Jersey (Gangs in NJ, 2011).

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Photo 1: AMARD&V students marching on stilts in a parade prior to the final showcase

The cultural component of our program combined with conflict resolution trainings and gang prevention workshops work to keep New Brunswick’s youth off the streets and out of gangs.

There is a wealth of research showing summer breaks create achievement gaps between low socioeconomic status students and moderate and high socioeconomic status students (Fairchild, McLaughlin, & Costigan, 2007). This is due in large part to lower socioeconomic status students’ lack of access to school-based resources that help them continue to learn and challenge themselves over the summer months. In addition to achievement gaps, poorer students are have an increased risk of violence and abuse over the summer months due to the stressors associated with caregivers providing full time care and face higher food insecurity affecting their behavior and cognitive development (McDonald, 2013). With 40% of New Brunswick’s children residing at or below poverty levels, services that work to prevent these summer gaps are vital to keeping low socioeconomic students on pace with their wealthier counterparts, and ensuring they achieve all they can in and out of the classroom (DADS, 2014).

There exists a quickly growing body of work exploring the benefits of programs such as AMARD&V, which combine art, education and life skills in one highly accessible place to youth. Research done in other programs suggests “community based art programs can increase art skills, self-esteem, peer interactions, confidence, and self-regulation. ” (Averett, Crowe & Hall, 2015). One such program is the 4-H Bloco Carnavle Youth Program, which works with predominately Latino low-income immigrant families to provide “professional level arts education” to 60-80 youth annually (Conklin-Ginop, Braverman, Caruso & Bone, 2011). The program focuses on connecting with the youth through Brazilian inspired dance and drumming education, using this as a gateway to promote cultural understanding, increased exercise, and healthy eating habits. Evaluations of the 4-H Bloco program bode well for such community-based cultural arts programs. As seen in the chart below, which presents results from 2006 through 2009, there are gains in all evaluated areas, all shown to have very strong statistical significance at a significance threshold of less than .001 (Conklin-Ginop et. al, 2011).

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Figure 1: 2006 – 2009 Evaluation Results for the 4-H Bloco Project

Source: 2006-09 4-H Bloco Evaluation Results adapted from Conklin-Ginop, E., Braverman, M. T., Caruso, R., & Bone, D. (2011). Bringing Carnaval Drum and Dance Traditions into 4-H Programming for Latino Youth. Journal Of Extension,49(4), 49.

In addition to this promising research, students have shown strong interest in arts-based programs, as they are highly involved with school based visual and performing arts programs. In New Brunswick Middle School students are enrolled in school based dance programs at over 11 times the state average rate and drama/theater at six and a half times the state average rate, with 80% of all students involved in any visual and performing arts programs within the school (NJDOE, 2014-15). We want to keep these passions alive and retain students’ excitement about existing school based programs over the summer with AMARD&V.

It is vitally important we access these funds and resources now as the effect the impending presidential administration will have on arts and education funding streams is unknown but certainly appears grim based on statements made on the campaign trail in the past 18 months. The appointment of Betsey DeVos to Secretary of Education has furthered these concerns as she is a strong proponent of school vouchers, which allow students to attend private schools using public funds thus diverting taxpayer money from public schools (Mark, 2016). History has shown when public schools lose money arts programs are often the first thing to go. As funding streams rapidly decrease and historically available public funds dry up the importance of arts

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education programs such as AMARD&V will only increase, especially in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities such as New Brunswick where families are unable to afford to send their children to private arts education programs.

Goals & Objectives AMARD&V’s goals strive to address the multifaceted issues raised facing the New Brunswick community today and aim to:

Goal 1: Increase cultural pride, respect, and understanding among studentsObjective 1a: AMARD&V participants will have a greater understanding of their own cultural background and history, with over 85% agreeing that they feel proud of their culture in the evaluation post-test.Objective 1b: AMARD&V participants will have a greater respect for other cultures, with over 85% agreeing that they get along well with children of other cultures from their neighborhood in the evaluation post-test.

Goal 2: Decrease drug and alcohol use in New Brunswick youthObjective 2a: AMARD&V participants will have lower reported instances of drug and alcohol related legal issues and school referrals than nonparticipants.Objective 2b: AMARD&V participants will report lower drug use than nonparticipants in follow up surveying done in New Brunswick middle and high schools.Objective 2c: AMARD&V participants will report they are less likely to use drugs at the end of the program than they were at the beginning of the program in the evaluation post-test.

Goal 3: Decrease gang activity in New Brunswick youthObjective 3a: AMARD&V participants will report lower rates of gang involvement than nonparticipants in follow up surveying done in New Brunswick middle and high schools. Objective 3b: Over 85% of AMARD&V participants will report that joining a gang is not a good decision and that lessons learned at camp taught them this in the evaluation post-test.

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Photo 2: Students performing their modern dance piece at the end of program showcase

Objective 3c: AMARD&V participants will have lower reported gang activity legal issues and school referrals than nonparticipants.

Goal 4: Help students develop lifelong interpersonal and intrapersonal skillsObjective 4a: Over 85% of AMARD&V participants will report that camp helped them learn to get along better with other people in the evaluation post-test. Objective 4b: Over 85% of AMARD&V participants will report that camp taught them more productive ways to fix/solve problems than fighting in the evaluation post-test. Objective 4c: AMARD&V participants will have lower rates of behavior and fighting referrals throughout the school year than nonparticipants, shown in follow up surveying done in New Brunswick middle and high schools.

Goal 5: Improve students’ educational success and attainment Objective 5a: At least half of the AMARD&V participants will improve their annual standardized testing scores in the school year following their participation in the program. Objective 5b: Over 85% of AMARD&V participant will report “agree” that they believe they are going to graduate high school and attend college in the evaluation post-test. Objective 5c: A greater number of AMARD&V participants will apply to and attend higher education institutions than nonparticipants, as evidenced by a follow up survey performed during students’ senior year of high school. Objective 5d: AMARD&V participants will be more likely to join an after school activity or club than nonparticipants, demonstrating their involvement in their school and education.

Project description   AMARD&V’s summer program works to fulfill the needs of the New Brunswick community using a multi-pronged approach to the issues families and youths face. At the most basic level, by providing our summer program free of charge we give a group of our youth population a safe and productive space to spend their week where they are challenged to expand their horizons and education beyond what they do in the classroom over the course of a typical school year. This not only allows them to discover passions they may not have otherwise found, but keeps them on track with more socioeconomically privileged students whose families can afford to pay for programs such as AMARD&V, allowing them equal footing when they return to school in the fall. The program also gives families and caregivers the peace of mind that their children are well taken care of and allows them to go out and work, providing more financial stability for the family, or focus more attention on caring for other children in the family potentially broadening the experiences they have as well. The benefit of alleviating the cost of childcare for these families also cannot be ignored, with skyrocketing childcare costs and free programs few and far between AMARD&V provides a valuable service in free childcare alone.

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In addition to these fundamental solutions, we go above and beyond other child care and summer programs by providing professional level teaching artists to our students in five unique areas including one–bomba–that connects directly to our students’ primary Latino and African-American backgrounds. In our arts programs, students not only learn new forms of self-expression but also work to synthesize ongoing real world news and events into original artwork as a means of processing and reflecting upon what is happening around them. Our life skills and health workshops also teach our students how to stay on track for educational and lifelong success and avoid risky behaviors they may witness in their community.

While our management and artistic teams are vital to the success of our program, the counselors and interns are the ones who build relationships with our students from the moment they step through our door and the ones our students rely on most heavily when dealing with some of the difficult topics covered over the course of the program. These relationships are pivotal to the program’s success as students need to feel AMARD&V is a safe space where they are supported and can be their authentic selves. For this reason, having counselors easily accessible and as a strong presence throughout the program is a key in achieving our goals and ensuring our students success which is why we strive for low student to counselor ratios to allow all these needs to be met.

Timeline This is an ongoing annual project that occurs for five weeks from July to August each summer. Each week students spend three days attending their core arts based classes, one day away from New Brunswick on a field trip, and one day doing life skill building workshops.

On regular arts-based days students arrive at 9am for breakfast all together before breaking into their age-based groups to attend two one-hour-long arts classes in the morning. All students come back together have lunch at 12:15pm, then again break into their groups to attend three 50 minute arts classes in the afternoon. This class schedule is rotated daily so students don’t begin to view the program as “boring” or overly structured and too similar to their classes at school. The day ends with snacks and announcements at 4:15pm.

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Photo 3: A close up of a large mural reflecting on current events created by AMARD&V students

Workshop based days operate on a slightly different schedule. Again all students arrive at 9am for breakfast but instead of going with their typical groups they are divided into the broader age groups of 10 – 13 year olds and 14 – 16 year olds. They then attend two workshops most commonly run by outside guests in the morning, break for lunch around noon, and continue with two more workshops in the afternoon. These days also end with snacks and any pertinent announcements. Example schedules of both art class based days and workshop based days can be found as an appendix to this proposal.

Field trip day schedules vary based on the location of the trip but students typically are expected to arrive a bit earlier than 9am and arrive home a bit after the typical 4:30pm pick up time. While we have successfully provided our program to New Brunswick youth for twenty years we want to continue to expand our reach in the community by involving more students. This funding will allow our 2017 program to expand to serve 80 New Brunswick youth.

Management Plan & Organizational Capacity AMARD&V has successfully operated its summer program for twenty years, growing and adapting to the needs of the community over that time and showing the organization’s commitment to and capability of running such a program. The large number of collaborating organizations makes this possible by donating the vast majority of the staff, space, and resources needed to run the program each year. Our Rutgers University partners, the Center for Latino Arts and Culture (CLAC) and Community Leadership, Action and Service Project (CLASP), are vital in securing our mentoring counselors each summer. Historically about half of our counselors come from each program, with all going through a rigorous application and interview process. Our CLAC counselors are typically involved in other programming within the center and have marked interest in Latino cultural identities and pride. Our CLASP counselors have demonstrated a commitment to community service and are placed specifically with AMARD&V from a choice of about ten local organizations. As we enter our 21st summer we have also seen past program participants come back to serve as volunteers and counselors in the program. All of our staff undergoes fingerprinting, a background check, and a Protection of Minors training to provide them with tips to working with youth and assist them in identifying signs and protocols regarding child abuse and neglect.

Key Project Staff In addition to our counselors our key staff is comprised of approximately 10 artists and artist assistants (two or three per artistic area), our Artistic Director Claudio Mir, RWJ University Hospital (RWJUH) Administrator Mariam Merced, School Based Counselor Don Stager, Center for Latino Arts & Culture (CLAC) Administrator Saskia Ciprani, CLAC Coordinator Silismar

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Suriel, RWJUH Administrator Yesenia Hernandez, and New Brunswick Public School Coordinator Jenny Santiago.

Mr. Mir and Ms. Merced founded the program and hold positions as Program Coordinator of the Civic Engagement & Service Education Partnership Program and Director of RWJ Community Health Promotion Program respectively. Mrs. Ciprani holds an BA in Spanish, MPA in Public Affairs and Administration and is currently a Doctoral student in Educational Leadership in Higher Education, as well as holding a position as the Assistant Director of the CLAC for over 4 years and as an Administrative Research Assistant for the center for 5 years. Ms. Suriel holds a BA in Political Science and Puerto Rican and Hispanic Caribbean Studies and has held a position as Program Coordinator with Rutgers University for 11 years. Ms. Hernandez has a BA in Journalism, Communication, and Related Programs and has been the RWJ Community Health Program Coordinator for over 8 years. Ms. Santiago is currently the Director of PRAB.

Volunteers join the staff on field trips where students require more oversight. They also assist the staff on showcase rehearsal days and on the day of the actual showcase, helping run backstage, set up displays, organize students, and welcome and direct guests of the show. These volunteers are most frequently counselors from previous years and sometimes include graduates of the AMARD&V program.

Collaboration & Communications Plan AMARD&V has many partners in making the summer program a success each year. Our long term partners include Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Community Health Promotion Program, Rutgers University’s Center for Latino Arts & Culture, the Puerto Rican Action Board, and Suydam Street Reformed Church. More recently we have also developed relationships with the Collaborative Center for Community Based Research and Service and their associated Civic Engagement and Service Education Partnerships program, Rutgers University Housing and Student Centers, Crossroads Theater, New Brunswick Middle School and RWJBarnabas Health. These many collaborators supply managerial staff, counselors, volunteers, programming support, spaces to run daily camp activities and special programs, rehearsal space, final showcase space, field trip supplies, games and toys for the students, art supplies, artists, and connections to many funding opportunities. The sheer number of involved partners reflects the true community spirit of the program and number of people and organizations invested in our children’s and our community’s future. AMARD&V is a profoundly collaborative effort and would not have been able to thrive as it has for the past two decades in New Brunswick without the support of these many funders and stakeholders.

As many of the full-time staff working with AMARD&V come from these collaborators they are kept abreast of all major decisions throughout both the planning process and actually

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programming of AMARD&V. Throughout these stages we expect out staff to relay information back to their organizations and invite their feedback on all choices made. At both the beginning planning stages and conclusion of the program each year we conduct a more formalized meeting where all stakeholders are invited to weigh in on their vision for, expectations of, and suggestions for AMARD&V.

All stakeholders as well as the community at large will be invited to AMARD&V’s final showcase, which proudly puts students’ summer of hard work on display for all to enjoy. As will be discussed in the Sustainability section of this proposal if a private show requiring tickets is implemented stakeholders and funders will be offered bundled ticket options, allowing them to further fundraise for their own organizations. As evaluation data is collected and analyzed AMARD&V will also begin a annual newsletter relaying the successes of the program on students educational and personal lives via our survey and interview evaluation responses.

Evaluation Plan AMARD&V will hire the Rutgers’ Center on Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) research staff to conduct evaluation of the summer program. Throughout the program pre and post surveys will be performed for workshops and field trips such as conflict resolution, bystander intervention, and gang prevention to assess how students are responding to these workshops, what they are taking away from them, and how interested they are in these programs. These and all printed evaluation tools will be offered in both English and Spanish due to the high bilingual population in New Brunswick. We will also have weekly check ins with the student groups that allow counselors and staff to note what is going well, what has been challenging, and where improvements or additions can be made to the camp based on the students’ perspectives. VAWC researchers will also conduct observations of camp activities over the five-week program to expand upon the findings made via the student check ins.

At the end of the summer program we will track overall changes in attitudes of the 80 New Brunswick students served, with a particular focus on their appreciation of art, sense of community, sense of hopefulness, and self-esteem. These factors will be measured through an evidence based pre and post survey adapted to fit the goals of the AMARD&V program, similar to surveys found in the attachments of this proposal. The students will also produce a final showcase in which their visual arts and photography projects will be displayed and they will showcase their modern dance piece, bomba dance and drumming piece, and original plays for the community, their friends, and families. We will also conduct end of program interviews with students and staff to evaluate the overall program. This will include individual interviews with the artists and management level staff, focus groups with counselors, and focus groups with students. These interviews and focus groups will consist of a semi-structured interview format, allowing those interviewed the freedom to navigate the conversation and explore themes and

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subject matter they find most relevant. Counselors will additionally be evaluated by both students and management staff via a counselor evaluation.

Graduating AMARD&V participants will also be tracked via long term surveying done in New Brunswick middle and high schools to ensure long term goals of decreased behavioral referalls, decreased gang activity, decreased drug use, increased annual standardized testing scores, and increased higher educational attainment are achieved. Surveying will be completed annually with age-appropriate adjustments made to materials based on students year in school.

Sustainability As much of AMARD&V’s expenses are covered by in-kind support from our many collaborating organizations we expect to be able to continue to run the program primarily on donations

obtained from these growing networks. As AMARD&V expands its reach to more students through funding for additional counselors we hope to attract even more local organizations that can help fund our efforts as our visibility continues to improve throughout the community and beyond. This increased breadth will also allow us to expand upon the grants we seek out to fill in potential gaps in funding. In addition to these grants and donations we may hold a private showcase of the students artwork and performances, giving our students another chance to show off the skills they have learned, inviting our funders, and charging a ticket price to create revenue to fund future programming. At this showcase we could also action and/or raffle off students artwork, lessons with our professional teachers, and donations from our many collaborators to gain even more donations and funds for AMARD&V.

Budget Narrative We are requesting $22,800 total. The greatest expenditure is $15,000 to pay an additional fifteen counselors a stipend of $1,000 for their work with the program. These additional counselors will allow us to expand our enrollment to 80 students while keeping the 3 students to 1 counselor

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Photo 3: Students on a field trip to Grounds for Sculpture

ratio that had been our standard before we experienced a funding cut this past summer. This amount has been determined through past partnerships with the Rutgers University Community Leadership, Action and Service Program, which pairs undergraduate students with our organization allowing them to earn a predetermined stipend with the option to earn course credit for their work with us. The $17,000 listed as other funds on the budget will cover the full summer salary of 10 full time counselors paid at an hourly rate. These counselors and their salaries are contributed buy the Rutgers Center of Latino Arts & Culture. $577 has been requested for the cost of hiring VAWC staff to conduct evaluations of the program via the surveying and interviewing methods described in detail in the Evaluation Plan section. $2,000 has been requested for bus transportation costs, with bus rental for students and staff costing an estimated $500 round trip for each of our weekly field trips. Though the program lasts five weeks we will only go on four field trips, with the typical field trip day being a dress rehearsal of our showcase during the final week of the program. Finally, $5,223 was requested as field trip funds for these four weekly trips. Current field trip options for the coming summer include the Philadelphia Zoo, New York Botanical Gardens, Grounds for Sculpture, a Somerset Patriots Baseball game, and Jenkinson’s Boardwalk. This $5,223 request was calculated based on the most recently available estimated costs of tickets and fees associated with these trips based on the number of staff, students, and volunteers we expect to attend.

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Appendix A: Daily Schedules of AMARD&V ProgramPhoto 1 : Art Classes Based Daily Schedule

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Photo 2: Workshop Based Daily Schedule

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References

Averett, P., Crowe, A., & Hall, C. (2015). The Youth Public Arts Program: Interpersonaland Intrapersonal Outcomes for At-Risk Youth. Journal Of Creativity In MentalHealth,10(3), 306-323. doi:10.1080/15401383.2015.1027840

Conklin-Ginop, E., Braverman, M. T., Caruso, R., & Bone, D. (2011). Bringing CarnavalDrum and Dance Traditions into 4-H Programming for Latino Youth. Journal OfExtension,49(4), 49.

Data Access and Dissemination Systems (DADS). (2014). American FactFinder.Retrieved September 21, 2016, fromhttp://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml

Fairchild, R., McLaughlin, B., & Costigan, B. P. (2007). How did you spend yoursummer vacation. What public policies do (and don't do) to support summerlearning opportunities for all youth. Afterschool Matters Occasional PaperSeries, 8, 1-31.

Gangs in New Jersey: Municipal Law Enforcement Response to the 2010 NJSP GangSurvey. (2011). Retrieved September 21, 2016, fromhttp://www.njsp.org/info/pdf/gangs_in_nj_2010.pdf

Mark, M. (2016, November 25). Meet Betsy DeVos, the polarizing charter-schooladvocate Trump has tapped as education secretary. Retrieved December 01, 2016,from http://www.businessinsider.com/betsy-devos-trump-education-secretary-common-core-choice-2016-11

McDonald, M. (2013). The Impact of School Breaks on Students Living in Poverty.Communique, 41(7), 32-33.

NJDOE School Performance Report - homeroom5.doe.state.nj.us. (2014-2015).Retrieved September 21, 2016, from https://homeroom5.doe.state.nj.us/pr/

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