hART of the City Mission Statement:
Increase Haven Academy’s impact in urban, low income communities by creating multiple Summer Theatre Camp sites targeted to meet the needs of at risk youth throughout the heart of Los Angeles County.

Our hART of the City Summer Theare Camps:
 
Our hART of the City program offers tuition free Summer Theatre Camps with instruction in acting, music, and dance, designed to develop character and life skills in at risk youth. Camps are explicitly designed to make use of the performing arts’ powerful ability to develop the inner assets that help children succeed academically, personally, and ultimately professionally, in order to become productive members of society.  All camp sites partner with a church, school, or community group already invested in a low-income district of Los Angeles County, targeting at risk youth grades K-8

Short Term Goals
 

• Bring performing arts education programing to arts desert communities that don’t have the funding, training, or support to build a program on their own.
• Provide at risk youth with a positive and safe summer activity, creating an alternative to gang participation or other negative behaviors.
• Build academic skills through participation in the arts, improving success in school.
• Encourage at risk youth to discover how their talents and gifts can take them beyond their current circumstances.
• Increase the number of at risk, low income youth that Haven reaches each year.

Long Term Goals

• Use hART Summer Theatre Camp sites to assess viability of another inner-city, year-round program.
• Develop future arts educators through the hART alumni intern program
• Join other community programs in addressing the barriers to academic and career success faced by low income, at risk youth in Los Angeles County
• Track student growth at camp sites over multiple years using the DAP (Developmental Assets Profile) in order to study the effect of arts education on at risk youth and compare how different communities benefit from the program.

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