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 Making Exact Change |
Making Exact Change
Part Two: Case Studies CityKids
Basic Facts
Snapshot What evolved wasn’t just a theater piece. It was a brilliant format which combined hard-core information and a dramatic presentation by the kids about their own experiences. At one point a teenager is reporting, not saying, but reporting in a very depersonalized manner, about how his mother locked him up in a closet, when the action freezes and the spotlight focuses on an adult who says, “I am a nationally prominent psychiatrist and I want to tell you about the long-term effects of emotional abuse.” We didn’t just talk; we had them experience the subject. We even built songs into it. They finished up with recommendations which eventually affected the way they do business in Albany [New York’s state capital]. They said, “You are the Commissioners of Youth, of all the social-service agencies. You work hard and try your best, but please, ask us! Let us advise you. We will tell you what works and what doesn’t work. So, listen. Don’t separate your efforts. All you agencies should work together. We are an integrated person, we need integrated services.” The kids blew the commissioners away. —Laurie Meadoff, founder and President Emeritus of CityKids
Description History In 1985, cultural activist Laurie Meadoff founded CityKids as a nonprofit, multicultural youth organization located in New York City. She began by working with a group of ten young people from across the city. The approach developed into a clear and consistent strategy: to solve the challenges facing young people, first ask questions; help them explore the perceptions, feelings and facts about issues; teach them the skills to make their voices heard; and finally, partner with them to create change. This program design resulted in youth producing solutions — improving their own educational status; taking action in community service projects; producing new artistic works that market positive messages to their peers; and performing these works locally and throughout the country. For the past 20 years, The CityKids Foundation has engaged young people to positively change their own lives, their communities and the world. CityKids accomplishes its mission through a variety of free, after-school, weekend and summer educational and artistic leadership development programs. Over the years, the organization has developed unique expertise in youth-to-youth communication. CityKids uses that expertise to teach young people problem-solving and decision-making processes that include themselves as part of the solution. They have proved that the impact is substantial when kids listen to kids. Through programs focusing on self-esteem, health and education, CityKids learn to communicate positive values to their peers.[2] CityKids now operates programs for urban teens from its TriBeCa headquarters, its New Haven program site and ten New York City public high schools. More than 700 youth between the ages of 12 and 20 participate directly in CityKids programs, and CityKids performances, workshops and mass-media productions touch the lives of additional tens of thousands of young people each year. The majority of participants are African-American and Latino, and live at or below the poverty level. Specific Programs
Mission/Values Mission: To develop the leadership potential of youth by engaging them in an education and artistic development process that is grounded in the grassroots philosophy of Safe Space, Youth-to-Youth Communication, Multi-Cultural Bridge-Building and Leadership Development. The organization’s vision is to create a future in which young people effect positive change in their lives, their communities and the world.[3]
Success and Change Goals
Defining Success
Critical to Success
Outcomes
Each CityKids program has specific outcomes by which the program measures success. For 2005 they include the following:
Nuts and Bolts Environment New York City is unique and fascinating demographically. Racially the population within the city’s five boroughs breaks down in the following way: 34.1 percent white; 24.6 percent black/African American; 0.2 percent American Indian/Alaska Native; 11.2 percent Asian; 0.0 percent Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander; 0.4 percent other race; 1.0 percent two or more races; 28.3 percent Hispanic/Latino. Recently, the city has had large numbers of foreign immigrants arriving, many long-standing residents leaving, an increase in the gap between the rich and the poor, and a rise in the black middle class. New York City’s under-21 population, over two million in 2000, is greater than the total population of all but three American cities. About one half of these are between the ages of 13 and 21. This is nearly one-eighth of the city’s population. Over 21 percent of these young people are living below the poverty line. A significant majority of them are attending or have attended the city’s public school system.[5] Leadership CityKids came into the world through the efforts of a charismatic, visionary and driven young theater artist named Laurie Meadoff. In its early days, the organization was run much like a theater collective with a strong artistic director. Then director, Meadoff’s great insight was her understanding that young people could not learn to take responsibility for the things they cared about without some degree of ownership. As such, CityKids was designed to support creative problem solving and leadership development by and for young people. Many of the program’s current staff and supporters cut their teeth with CityKids. In 1999, CityKids made a successful leadership transition with the hiring of Liz Sak as its second director. Sak’s background combines business training and work experience in youth development and the arts. Resources The organization’s current (2005) annual budget is $1.16 million. Over the last few years CityKids has deliberately reduced administrative expenses in order to reduce its overall budget and pay more attention to programs. This has translated as fewer resources for marketing and development. Most of the program’s funding comes from private foundations and individuals. Recently it has significantly increased its income from foundations while reducing its reliance on earned income, which it felt was drawing attention from program outcomes. When asked what support strategies have been critical to the program’s positive community impact and sustainability Executive Director Liz Sak points to “the inclusive representation on all levels of the organization and having a very accessible and open board whose culture genuinely reflects the culture of the organization.” Governance CityKids has a 19-member board of directors that meets quarterly. In addition, the Chair meets with the ED on a weekly basis and the Executive Committee acts as liaison to the full board on all organizational issues. The board’s roles are to provide macro-level guidance and oversight, provide financial oversight and fundraising. Sak feels the board has “very positively contributed to our impact and sustainability. Across all levels of the organization, everyone is always prepared to lead and to follow and understands the real value of both.” Partnerships The organization has a full-time director of support services whose job is garnering nonfinancial support in the form of corporate partners for in-kind resources and trainings as well as nurturing and developing a pool of volunteers to provide tutoring, mentoring and administrative support to the organization. Training CityKids conducts a ten-week training program that prepares youth as workshop facilitators on a variety of youth issues including prejudice, violence, self-esteem, relationships, teen-pregnancy prevention and other relevant issues.
Constraints Liz Sak sees fundraising as the major challenge facing CityKids. “As with most nonprofits, fundraising remains our biggest priority and biggest challenge. The market has changed a great deal in the past ten years and foundations are increasingly looking for more measurable outcomes. The challenge is to create outcome chains which are organic to programs rather than simply responsive to foundation requests.”
Advice to Funders Liz Sak: “I have long felt that funders can do more to bring together groups to foster collective learning and growth. Our best funders are the ones who do not shy away from the partnership which a funding relationship creates. They are unafraid to ask us to do better or examine things differently and this type of dialogue makes us better. We, as a field, can not grow without some sort of external, anecdotal pressure and assessments of progress which goes beyond reported numbers.” [Next: Case Study: GRACE] [Table of Contents] Notes 1. Cleveland, William, "Art in Other Places: Artists at Work in Americas Community and Social Institutions" (Praeger, 1992) |
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