Hart of the City

hART of the City Mission Statement:
Increase Haven Academy’s impact in communities with barriers to quality arts education by creating multiple Summer Theatre Camp sites 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 our students. 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 area of Los Angeles County, targeting youth grades K-8 who are vulnerable to the negative impacts of their environments.  ​
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 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 youth affected by challenging living environments to discover how their talents and gifts can take them beyond their current circumstances.  
  • Increase the number of youth that Haven reaches each year who are affected by poverty and at risk for negative impact behaviors. ​
Long Term Goals
  • Use hART Summer Theatre Camp sites to assess viability of another LA 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 youth who have experienced poverty 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 disenfranchised youth and compare how different communities benefit from the program.  ​