Heather Ikemire

March 29, 2014, was the final day of the first-ever National Summit on Creative Youth Development in Boston—a national convening of more than 200 youth arts practitioners, funders, policymakers, and students designed to bring new energy and focus to creative youth development. On that day 86 individuals stood up at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and declared personal commitments to advancing creative youth development. I was proud to be one of them.

The Movement

Creative youth development is not new. Many organizations—mostly working independently and building from the grassroots— have 10 or 20+ years of experience making a positive impact on the lives of young people through programs that integrate arts learning and youth development. Over the past few decades, key  research and new resources —as well as recognition by national organizations like Americans for the Arts, the National Guild for Community Arts Education (National Guild), and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH)—have helped the field realize its distinct character and document effective practices.

There are now hundreds of organizations and programs doing this work across the country.

Research in advance of the Summit found that while the number of creative youth development programs is growing, more recognition, support, and integration of creative youth development across sectors is needed. The Summit—organized by the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC), the National Guild, and PCAH—aimed to unify and activate the field and draw attention its incredible potential to fully engage the creative capacities of our nation’s young people.

The Agenda

Passion, sweat, and tears of joy (and exhaustion) are what it took to shape Collective Action for Youth: An Agenda for Progress through Creative Youth Development over the course of those two days in March.

This two-page document is the result of deeply inspiring, often messy and difficult, conversations. The agenda asserts the central role creative youth development plays in young people’s personal, social, and intellectual development.

And it calls for expanded public and philanthropic support in five key areas. The imperatives are to:

• Position creative youth development as the catalyst for dynamic cross‐sector collaborations to ensure young people’s academic, professional, and personal success.
• Establish young people and their creative youth development programs as key leaders in discovering and developing opportunities to improve the livability and economic viability of their communities.
• Develop and deepen opportunities for young people to create a more just and equitable society.
• Document and boldly communicate the vital impact and experience of creative youth development.
• Support and advocate for a strong creative youth development sector with effective business models, new revenue sources, and partnerships that generate adequate funding and sustain the sector.

The Charge

At the end of the day, it’s what we do with this document that is going to having lasting consequence. So let’s get going. There is a lot to get done.

Here are a few actions you can take to keep the movement growing:

1. Read the full policy and advocacy agenda.
2. Make a personal commitment for how you are going to help implement the five key imperatives in the agenda.
3. Join the conversation:
   1. First, get charged up. Grab a cup of joe and immerse yourself in learning about some of the incredible publications, resources and developments that have help define creative youth development, illustrate its value and impact, and bring us to this pivotal moment in the field’s advancement.
   2. Attend the 2014 Conference for Community Arts Education (Nov. 19 -22) in Los Angeles to participate in the Guild’s creative youth development track. A full-day pre-conference institute is being presented to build on the Summit and begin to chart a plan for moving forward. There also will be opportunities for dialogue and skill building in breakout sessions and roundtables during the main conference.
   3. Contribute to the dialogue during this week’s ARTSblog Salon
   4. Share the agenda with your organization, partners, local leaders, funders, and youth. Ask for their input and response and work together to start putting the agenda into action.

In addition to this national conversation on ARTSblog and the National Guild’s conference track, there are other indicators that creative youth development is beginning to gain more traction.

But our work is just getting started.

Electrified by our collective effort over those two days in March, delegates vowed to engage in dialogue with funders, boards, staff, youth, elected officials, business and civic leaders, public school educators, and researchers. We vowed to create more leadership opportunities for youth at every level of our organizations. We declared our intentions to find bold and beautiful ways to document and share the value and the impact of this work. All 86 of us wrote our personal commitments on construction paper and held them up for the nation (or for those who were watching via web cast) to see and to hear us read aloud.

Youth participants pledged their commitments as well—to lead their peers in social justice initiatives back home and to share information about creative youth development with their mentors and community leaders.

I promised to remember the moment and keep up the momentum.

It’s our collective action that will make the difference. What part will you play in helping to strengthen and build opportunities for young people to develop their creative potential?