Art from Ashes
The Ascent :: the Art from Ashes newsletter :: October 2013
Greetings!
This month Art from Ashes commemorates 10 years of working in our community with more than 7,000 youth. We're gonna rock a really cool party on the 24th (details below), and the entire year of 2014 will be a celebration honoring the past and imagining the future of youth creativity in the Mile High City and surrounds.

A huge part of our success has been the partnerships with almost 100 youth organizations and schools, as well as private and public funders. Because we're recognized by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities as one of the top 50 youth arts organizations in the country, and because SAMHSA provided funding for evidence-based statistics that show the incredible affect our program has on the youth we serve, we can show that your support has really made a difference.

Thank you for 10 years of visionary giving. Come celebrate with us!
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PS. Just a quick update that next weekend, we'll be unleashing a bevy of volunteers to post youth poems all over town. We're calling it "Spread the Word." Right?? I know!!
In this (and every) issue
EVENTS: 10 Years! Let's Celebrate!
YOUTH WORKSHOPS :: Jessica Fitzgerald
NEWS: Social Media EVERYWHERE!
ADULT WORKSHOPS: Final 3 for 2013
STATS: Proof. Pudding.
FUNDEVELOPMENT: Everybody gives. All the Time.
VOLUNTEER!
CELEBRATE 10 YEARS OF POETRY!
or...It's Time To Get Our Party On!
Between now and the year's end, AfA will be hosting two more parties, including a 10th anniversary soir�e, our annual holiday party, and our ongoing First Friday youth poetry+art performances in the Santa Fe Arts District. 

eventsThese events connect the community with our agency and with the youth and are a great opportunity to meet other arts aficionados.

If you're on Facebook, sign up to attend our 10th Anniversary Soir�e here. 
OR JUST SHOW UP! Thursday, Oct. 24th from 6 to 8 pm at the 910Arts Skylight Station (9th and Santa Fe)
Jessica Fitzgerald, Phoenix Rising Program Director
Bless This Mess...An Update From Jess
If anyone's seen my working space, you'll know how messy so much activity in a small space can be. Despite the chaos this work can engender, we are blessed with some beautiful helpers. One of our youth poets, Wolf Girl, is volunteering in the AfA office 3 to 5 days a week. She not only has proven invaluable as a diligent and committed volunteer, she has helped train another youth intern, Solomon, to help the office function smoothly and efficiently. Because of her outgoing nature, it is Wolf Girl's voice people first hear when calling AfA.

An accomplished artist (as donors who have received his handmade cards will attest), Solomon Muhammod, 18, came to us in the spring through the Flagship program. He is learning Photoshop and Illustrator to design collateral for upcoming AfA programs and events. Since his internship ended two weeks ago, Solomon has also been volunteering his time three days a week. AfA will continue to seek donations to offer both Wolf Girl and Solomon much-needed stipends for their service to the community.

Another youth intern we're blessed to have with us is Shiloh Michels, 17, from the CEC internship program. Shiloh has been working with our volunteer social media consultant Rick Strandlof, to create and manage the youth curated Tumblr blog.

Across the Denver metro area, we are encouraging, engaging and empowering youth both in and out of the classroom. Our list of partners has includes long-time contracts and new ones, including the Douglas County School District, Compassion Road Academy and Aurora Central High School. Although our workshops at The Spot, have ended after nine years due to Urban Peak funding restrictions, AfA will be holding 1-hour workshops at our offices for youth up to the age of 25 from 6 to 7 pm every Tuesday night. Special thanks to our dedicated facilitators Cameron Shaw and Sydney Oelerich, who will be helping me run these workshops! This is the first step toward our dream of a youth drop-in center for creative transformation. Until we generate more funding to provide empowering creative workshops for the thousands of homeless youth in Denver, we'll use the space at 853 Inca St to continue providing Phoenix Rising workshops. (See a 2-minute interview about the importance of the Phoenix Rising workshops by a youth poet from The Spot, Kevin Person.)

Thanks to SCFD for funding workshops at Excelsior Youth Center, among several other youth centers and schools in Adams and Arapahoe Counties! And we've just been approved to receive funding from all three counties, Adams, Arapahoe and Denver, for 2014. THIS is your tax dollars at work. Thank you!

We'll also soon be partnering with Mapleton Expeditionary School for the Arts where young people experience the transformative power of their innate creativity. We'll also be starting workshops for the youth in our own neighborhood at ACE Community Challenge Charter School, right around the corner on Santa Fe!

If you know of an organization or a location that could benefit from the programs offered by AfA, please contact me. And thanks, it takes all of us to make this incredible work happen. 
Solomon social media
Solomon, one of our three youth interns
We Will Follow You...but not in that creepy, stalky way
Social media: Some call it a blessing, some call it a curse. We call it what it is: here to stay. 

10 years ago when AfA began offering transformative creative services to struggling youth, no one could have predicted what would come to pass technologically with our iPhones and tablets and Twitter, and Instagramming pictures of our food and pets, and checking in on Foursquare, and tagging people on Facebook..........and etc.

This fundamental reworking of the way we engage our technology, each other, and the greater community allows AfA to extend our reach to youth where they live and express themselves: online throughout the world. 

AfA has just launched into this creative milieu with a youth curated Tumblr that will showcase poetry authored by young people paired with striking, often provocative imagery. We are launching into other social media services like Vine--6 second video loops--on which we will feature youth poets and poems. 

Along with our active Facebook page, growing Twitter presence and, our Youtube revision, AfA is well positioned to fully engage new technologies that will allow greater contact with struggling youth.

And you can follow us...

Traditional media 
Catherine and PJ were on 9News Colorado and Company last month. Not only can you view the 7-minute interview here, but you can check out our Media page and view/listen to numerous radio and television interviews and youth performances over the years, including the BBC, KBDI, CNTV, KUVO, KOOL105, ALICE and a plethora or other acronyms and initialisms!
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Last Adult Workshops of the year! 
OR...Poetry. It's not just for struggling youth any more. 
Art from Ashes workshops transform the lives of everyone, no matter the age. Because we serve youth, doesn't mean our programs only work for youth. More than 300 adult participants have benefited from our small group six-week workshops, and in 2014 AfA will launch our new large group afternoon workshops, for those unable to schedule a weekly commitment. Not only can adults access and demonstrate their inherent creativity, but the money invested supports our youth programs. Win/Win!
  • Intro Workshop: starts Oct 9, Wednesdays from 6 to 7.30 pm
    • Intermediate Synesthesia: starts Oct. 12, Saturdays from 11 am to 12.30 
  • Intermediate Four Agreements: starts Nov. 5, Tuesdays from 6 to 7.30 pm

Click here for more information...

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 19, 11, 12! 
Or...Even a child can get this math!!
This summer Art from Ashes had the pleasure of collaborating with the Denver Inner City Parish (DICP) and Arts Street under the 2A Grant Initiative. For nine weeks, AfA conducted twice-weekly Phoenix Rising poetry and spoken word workshops at DICP's College View recreation center on Denver's west side. Young people who participated--many of whom come to us from challenging family circumstances and unsafe neighborhoods--wrote poems and shared their personal stories of triumph over adversity.

Regarding the Art from Ashes Phoenix Rising program and facilitators, survey respondents said...
  • 91.7% affirm that they feel safe at the workshops
  • 100% affirm that the facilitators give young people lots of support
  • 100% affirm that the facilitators can be trusted
  • 100% affirm that the facilitators listen to what young people have to say
Art from Ashes truly is transforming lives--and we've got the charts and graphs to prove it!
Hands Giving We ALL give...
Thank you, all of you, for the good you do in the world--whether it's helping flood victims, giving at your place of worship, feeding the hungry, opening your home to strangers...Thank you for raising children, helping  aging parents, volunteering at schools and prisons...Thank you for reading this and caring about the youth who are growing up believing they are failures and throwaways...Thank you that many of you, with the numerous places there are to give, help us reach young people with the message of their creative genius through our poetry and art workshops. We are so grateful. And our stats prove the youth are grateful, too.

We've been around 10 years, not only because of the great need for and effectiveness of our programs, but because of our supporters. Heartfelt giving happens when you hear the stories of our youth through their poetry, but it's also fiscally responsible. It costs $30,374 a year to incarcerate each prison inmate.* So we face a stark choice as a society. We can invest in programs like Phoenix Rising, with proven results that show a reduction in violent choices and behaviors, as well as an increase in community engagement, or we can pay a much higher price later.

*VERA Institute of Justice, fiscal year 2010

 

For some provocative insight into nonprofit fundraising and its importance in supporting philanthropic work, view this Ted Talk by Dan Pallotta: The Way We Think About Charity Is Dead Wrong 

ChandrikaChandrika Prem, FunDevelopment Director
Hi, there! Time for a FunDevelopment update! Here are the three most important news items from the AfA FunDevelopment Committee:

1. In 2014, we will be initiating a series of conversations exploring AfA's decade long legacy of helping struggling youth tell their stories, connect with others, and transform their lives through poetry. Look forward to related events in 2014 as we imagine the next decade! Our Events page will keep you posted.

 

2. Colorado Gives Day is Dec. 10th. We hope you will generously choose to include Art from Ashes in your Holiday/Year-end giving: 100% of your donation will come directly to us; and when you give online on Dec. 10, the value of your donation will be increased by the FirstBank Incentive Fund.

3. The new FunDevelopment database is in the initial stages and will allow AfA to more efficiently communicate with our giving community. In addition, it will track our youth surveys, help us schedule our programs, organize our volunteers' time investment, and track our events, presentations and performance...Seeing new technologies connect our generous supporters and struggling youth, and noting just how active AfA is in the community, is both informative and humbling. Although it's maybe not as exciting as supporting a youth program, it's vital to our outreach to youth and to our ongoing financial stability. To offset the $100/month expense, please invest in a monthly donation.
Volunteer at AfA and get $$ in the Karma Bank!
OR...A shameless request for your time!
With only one full-time and two part-time staff, AfA relies on our volunteers to support the youth. These amazing people, who understand the value of "giving" in a "having" world, offer a minimum of 6 hours a month of their time and a maximum of their skills.

As of August, we have 56 volunteers who have donated a whopping total of 1,466 hours this year!

If you'd like to join the crew, please go here to apply and download more info about us, and we'll send you an ArtCurious Adventure Tour, so you can decide if this is where you want to be. And we'd love it if you decide this is where you want to be!
Brain FREE Mini-Workshop on Creativity for Adults!
Adults can try out our Phoenix Rising workshop prompts at Art from Ashes every First Friday from 6 to 7 pm. Then pop on over to I Can Jam Studios in the Colorado Arts Center on 841 Santa Fe Dr., which is just around the corner,
and watch our youth perform. Fun! And Free! (Although don't be surprised if we suggest a $10 donation to provide stipends for our wonderful young poets... just sayin'.)

Learn more about our transformational adult workshops here, and
please email that you'll be attending ahead of time: [email protected]
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Contact Information
[email protected] :: phone: 303.837.1550
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