Arts Ed Newark To Receive $100,000 Grant From The National Endowment For The Arts

Arts Ed Newark has been approved for a $100,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support an arts education collective impact project entitled, "Trauma-Informed Care and the Arts". This project will provide trauma-informed, healing centered (TIC/HC) professional development to educators and youth-serving individuals, weaving in Culturally Responsive, Relevant, and Sustaining Pedagogy (CRP) and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) practices. Arts Ed Newark's project is among the more than 1,100 projects across America totaling nearly $27 million that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2021 funding.

"As the country and the arts sector begin to imagine returning to a post-pandemic world, the National Endowment for the Arts is proud to announce funding that will help arts organizations such as Arts Ed Newark reengage fully with partners and audiences," said NEA Acting Chairman Ann Eilers. "Although the arts have sustained many during the pandemic, the chance to gather with one another and share arts experiences is its own necessity and pleasure."

This work by Arts Ed Newark and its partners will meet community needs and demand for trauma-informed and healing centered arts education by providing our virtual series to 100 youth serving participants. Additionally, we will further collaborate to build support for a cohort of approximately 25 individuals who have already gone through our initial training to develop a Professional Learning Community and engage in 10 virtual sessions. We seek to create a site-based model, with materials and training that address the successful implementation of arts infused for trauma-informed and healing centered engagement. We plan to test assumptions about supports needed at the practitioner level and hone a process that can be used at multiple sites in school, community-based organizations, or in health-care organizations. By weaving SEL, CRP, TIC, into arts education for maximum impact, we can increase access and participation through use of these innovative strategies. This will allow deepening of their practice, provide space for reflection, deeper and expanded trauma understanding, further interaction with facilitators and their expertise, and guided implementation support. The overall objective is to generate teams who will create more trauma and artistically informed healing centered spaces throughout Newark and share lessons learned in and beyond Newark.

Arts Ed Newark is a strategic alliance of art education stakeholders committed to collaborating to ensure comprehensive, high-quality arts education for all Newark youth. Arts Ed Newark is made possible, in part, by the generosity of the Prudential Foundation, Victoria Foundation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The Turrell Fund, NJ Arts and Culture Pandemic Relief Fund, the Toy Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Arts Ed Newark has collectively represented over 100+ arts, arts education, and community organizations and has advocated on behalf of all Newark children for over ten years to gain access and increase participation in arts education both in and out of school.

If you, or someone you know, would like to be a part of what makes Arts Ed Newark possible, visit https://www.artsednewark.org/donate.

For more information on the projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

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