ArtSpring: Shaping Hardened Prisoners into a Caring Community of Women

After waiting outside for nearly an hour, the guests, permitted to carry only a car key and driver’s license, were buzzed in four at a time.  They removed watches and bracelets, walked through a metal detector, passed through the searching rooms and came into the visitors’ room of the Homestead Correctional Center.  The occasion: ArtSpring’s graduation presentation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

With just paper and paint, and whatever found objects the inmates could scrounge up, this gray, dismal space had been turned into Ancient Athens and a nearby forest. Wearing costumes fashioned out of  paper and disposable table cloths, women incarcerated for crimes ranging from drug possession to embezzlement to murder became the very believable Duke of Athens, Bottom, Puck, and other characters of Shakespeare’s well-known comedy. Just as this play transformed prison inmates into Shakespearean characters, so the ArtSpring program transforms hardened, defensive offenders into caring, feeling members of a community. 

The principal vehicle is the ArtSpring Inside Out program, a three to four month program for women offenders that incorporates dance,  creative writing, visual arts and, the core component, movement.  The program, which operates in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Broward and Ocala as well as in Miami-Dade and which reaches 600 women in prison and girls in juvenile detention each year, is based on the belief that the arts can transform individuals and strengthen communities.
“Movement is key especially in the beginning,” says Leslie Neal, a former dancer who developed the program in 1994 and still directs it.  The women, almost all of whom have suffered physical or sexual abuse, come into the program self-conscious.  Their self-expression has been stifled. They have locked away their feelings as a way of surviving, and movement helps them to open up.

Early on, Leslie has the women walking around the room.  Initially they are cautious, often walking in a circle like cattle.   She encourages them to take individual pathways, to slow down or speed up. Gradually they begin to loosen up. Sometimes they start to skip and play, almost as though recapturing the freedom of childhood. They notice their breath and their heart beat. They begin to open up. They become more vulnerable. They become more aware of who they are.
Leslie has them examine their walk very carefully. What is unique about your individual walk, she asks. What happens to your body if you walk on your heels? On the sides of your feet?   

Reflection is an important companion component. At the end of each exercise, the women explore how they felt during it, what they learned from it. From this early walking exercise, the women discover that if they change their walk a little bit, the rest of the body adjusts in response.  As they continue to walk and talk and explore, walking becomes a metaphor:  If you make one big mistake in life, others are likely to follow.  From this observation comes a homework assignment: How has this metaphor operated in your life?  Perhaps you hung out with the wrong guy. He got you into drugs, and that’s how you became engaged in crime.

 “There is always one class that is epiphanous,” Leslie says.  Sometimes it’s something that a participant has written or a story she has told that strikes a chord with the others, and they realize they are not alone.  Perhaps one woman says, “In this exercise I was reminded of my childhood. My mother was never there for me.”  And all of a sudden, other participants’ experiences begin to emerge.

The approach is therapeutic. When a participant shares her work, only positive feedback is allowed.  The women are protected from the kind of criticism that rips people and their work apart.  As a result, trust and safety are reinforced, self-esteem grows. At the same time, ArtSpring teaches its participants to look honestly at themselves and recognize how they have to change their behavior to succeed in society. It teaches them that they are deserving, that they have a sense of self, that they are cared for, that they are valuable human beings who have something valuable to give to the world. So when they are hit with a lot of stress, they can hold on to these concepts.

Marsha Frasier, sentenced to 12 years for kidnapping and robbery but free now for 5, credits ArtSpring with giving her the insight, tenacity and mental skills she has needed to cope with a life outside prison she has found surprisingly difficult. As she looked forward to her release, she had envisioned putting her past behind her and getting on with her life.   But she has found that her past follows her everywhere, and she feels very isolated. Although she has a good job as an accounts manager, she feels she will never fit into society because of the changes that occurred while she was away and because she can never regain what she lost.  Yet, she says, “ArtSpring allowed me to look at issues that are difficult for me to not only acknowledge but accept them, and then the courage to get through tough days.”

In addition,  ArtSpring teaches personal responsibility.  The program is voluntary, but women who sign up are required to commit to the class. They must attend, do the work of self exploration, look within and discover their dark places, and then share those with others.  For many of the women, this is the first time they’ve committed to anything. 

The program also promotes respect, cooperation, and cultural understanding. The class brings together a mix of people who probably would not choose each other as friends.  In class, everyone has to work together, even if they don’t like each other. In the process, inmates who have had issues or confrontations with other inmates learn to let their animosities go during class and build group trust.  One of the women observed, “We come from all different walks of life.  We put all that aside.  We have a union and an understanding of each other.”

By providing individuality and humanity in the prison environment, which seeks to obliterate those qualities, ArtSpring is a lifeline to the inmates.   As another offender put it, ArtSpring enables them to feel free even though they are in prison. Understandably, once they have experienced the program, they don’t want to quit.  So over the years, the faculty has devised several follow-up courses in specific disciplines.   A singer songwriter teaches a music class. There are classes in visual arts and creative writing. A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the culmination of the advanced theater course – two hours a week for 25 weeks.

The value of the ArtSpring experience quickly became apparent during a talkback after the performance. The cast recounted how the prisoner playing Puck was put in lock-up just days before the performance, and the cast worried she would not be released.  How would they cover this key role?  They decided to divide her part among all of them and make a Puck mask that each substitute would wear so that the audience could keep track.  This kind of teamwork would ordinarily be unheard of.

One cast member said, “I can’t tell you how much ArtSpring has changed me.  I don’t get into trouble anymore.”

Another, a woman sentenced to life for murdering her husband, said, “I’m not getting out of here.  But whenever new girls come in, I encourage them to take the program because I know it will make life better for them on the outside.  And it makes me feel good to know that I can help them.”

To illustrate the enormity of what ArtSpring accomplishes, Leslie tells of a former offender who appeared so developmentally delayed that she would not be able to manage the class.  To everyone’s surprise, she blossomed as she gained confidence in class.  Now living in New England, this young woman is happy and gainfully employed.  She insists she would not have been able to achieve this success without the class.

The women who participate in ArtSpring use what they learn in class when they talk with their children and other loved ones, and so the program has a positive impact the participants’ families and communities. And when the staff sees the change in the women, especially in the context of their theater performance, the warden and guards alter the way they relate to the women.  Thus, ArtSpring, in a very small way, is changing the system.

Most impressive is the recidivism rate among those who have participated in ArtSpring classes for at least a year.  Whereas the typical rate of recidivism is 60% after 2 years, among ArtSpring participants it is zero.

ArtSpring operates with an administrative staff of three:  a full time executive director and an administrative assistant, who is an ex-offender, in addition to Leslie. The Miami-Dade program also includes seven artist teachers.  The $250,000 annual budget is derived from public funding, private foundation grants, corporate and private donations, and support of the Seminole Indians. Finding additional resources is their biggest challenge. With more money and more teachers, they could provide additional classes and reach more women.

ArtSpring
P.O. Box 343432
Florida City, FL 33034
Phone: 305-278-1601
Fax: 305-278-1602
www.artspring.org

Urgent, Inc.: Turning At-Risk Youth into Community Leaders

On a Friday afternoon early in February, the Reproductive Justice Committee of the adolescent girls’ Rites of Passage program at Urgent, Inc. was preparing to address the Miami-Dade County School Board.   The issue was teen dating violence, the group’s community service theme for this year.  In 2010 the Florida state legislature passed a law prohibiting dating abuse and mandating that local school districts provide procedures to deal with infractions. But by early 2012 Miami-Dade County had yet to comply. In their address to the school board, the girls would argue why the issue is important both to students and to the board, and then they would make specific requests for action.

Saliha Nelson, director of Rites of Passage, stood at front of the computer lab preparing the girls to get to work.  To be credible, she said, they would have to be precise and accurate in naming the law and citing its provisions. To be convincing, they would have to support their argument for compliance with statistics. With this guidance, she set them loose to find the information they needed.

Saliha is working to convert at risk adolescents from Overtown, Little Haiti and other impoverished urban areas of Miami into neighborhood leaders who will transform their communities.

The presumption, she says, is that when young people are effectively educated, motivated and channeled, they will work to better their communities. And, she notes, historically young people have been the drivers of change.   

First, though, they must gain the insight, motivation and skills integral to developing their personal potential and world views. To that end, 60 girls ages 12-17 come together at least once a week at one of three sites across the City of Miami for a minimum of 60 hours during the school year for a varied but focused and integrated   program of discussion, arts activities, outings, and community service projects. Conflict resolution, computer literacy, academic assistance and achievement, health and fitness, civic responsibility, and summer internships are also part of the program. 

In activities designed to help the girls develop positive core values and understand their individual strengths, they set personal goals and define strategies to achieve them.  In discussions aimed at creating positive relationships, they talk about the nature of friendship and meaning of various kinds friends.  What qualities do you want in a girl friend and what qualities of friendship do you offer? How about a friendship with a boy? What constitutes a healthy dating relationship?

Through a partnership with the Sierra Club, the girls go snorkeling, kayaking and camping. They participate in beach clean-ups and visit the national parks.  In the process, they discover a world quite different from the urban core they call home, develop a love of nature, and learn about stewardship of the environment.

Through paid summer internships, the girls receive mentoring and hands-on experience exploring the career opportunities they first learned about in a series of career development workshops.  Some of the girls discover a line of work they love straight away and pursue the same internship every summer they are in high school.  Others discover that a career they thought would be for them was, in fact, not, and they go on to investigate other options.  Either way, they come through the program with valuable experience, personal connections, and fodder for college applications and work resumes.

Through arts and culture activities, which culminate in an annual performance of dance, spoken word and drama, the girls learn about women artists, explore their cultural and ethnic heritage, develop poise and self-esteem, and find an expressive outlet for ideas they have explored throughout the year.  This year the girls have written stories of empowerment, self discovery and acceptance on the theme of teen dating violence.  The presentation, “She Kept Her Bra On Too – Girls Giving Voice to their Power and Taking Action” will be showcased on May 12[1].

It was the arts program that attracted Magalie Gabriel, a 17-year-old high school senior who lives in Little Haiti.  Involved with Urgent, Inc., since third grade, when she followed a friend into the organization’s  elementary school program, Magalie appreciates the way the program emboldens kids to be themselves through the arts. 

 “I can’t live without singing, dancing and acting,” she said.

For 11^th grader Tanisha Fleming, the magnet holding her to the program has been her internship in film making.  But she also values the self-discovery, self-esteem and self-confidence the program has brought her.

As for Magalie, the atmosphere of candor and honesty has been especially precious. She feels she can talk to the staff about anything, including sex. Magalie says her mother was not comfortable talking about sex, and she was happy to get her questions answered at Urgent, Inc. 

Learning about sex and reproductive justice is central to Rites of Passage, and preventing pregnancy is high among the program’s objectives.

“There’s a lot of contradictions that are right in front of young people,” noted Saliha.  By way of example, she pointed to one of the high schools that Urgent, Inc. works with.  This school has a daycare center and a school clinic, but the clinic will not dispense condoms.

“So how do we all on one side say you have to be responsible for your reproductive health and the choices that you make?  We know you’re having sex, because we have daycare here on campus. But yet we’re not going to give you the tools necessary to protect yourself.”

To understand the impact of such contradictions, the girls receive comprehensive sex education, relationship education, and an understanding of anatomy.  They also discuss how poverty and access to reproductive health care and contraception can limit people’s choices.  To manage the contradictions, they explore how to make good choices for themselves and how activism and civil engagement can change prevailing practice in the community.

Which brings us back to teen dating violence and the Reproductive Justice Committee’s appearance before the Miami-Dade County School Board.   With the self assurance needed to stand before this intimidating body and a carefully crafted argument, the girls made their presentation on February 15.  In the weeks following they met with the Director of Student Services and lead staff from the Offices of Curriculum Development, Life Skills and HIV/AIDS. They issued six specific policy recommendations, among them the development of a resource handbook for teens and parents.  Their next step is to do additional research on policies adopted by other Florida school boards and identify how to insert their recommendations into the Florida Department of Education model policy.

While transforming at-risk youth into community leaders is the ultimate goal of Rites of Passage, a more immediate objective is to open the girls’ eyes to the prospects for their personal lives. In this regard, Urgent, Inc. has had unbridled success. The vast majority of those participating improved school attendance and performance.  They also demonstrated increased self-esteem, employability skills and knowledge of health risks.  While Urgent, Inc. does not have the capacity to track girls who drop out of this voluntary program, 100% of those who have stayed with it through 12^th grade have graduated from high school, and they have applied to and been accepted at a community or four-year college. 

“Most of these young people did not consider that an option after high school for them,” said Saliha, noting that 80% of the girls demonstrated at least three risk factors for trouble as defined by the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Urgent, Inc, a 501 (c) (3) not for profit organization, was founded in 1994 to empower and revitalize urban communities.  The Rites of Passage initiative is one of several programs including an after school and summer program for boys and girls in elementary school;  an intergenerational project, which offers emotional support and parenting skills to grandparents raising grandchildren; and an affordable housing project, which aims to increase home ownership in urban areas and thereby  revitalize neighborhoods. 

Urgent, Inc. operates on a $500,000 annual budget.  Rites of Passage consumes 37%, all of which comes from grants.

Urgent, Inc.

1000 NW 1st Ave. Suite 100
Miami, FL 33136
Phone: 786-439-1544
www.urgentinc.org

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[1] The performance will take place 11 a.m. -1 p.m. at The Playground Theater, 9806 NE 2^nd Avenue, Miami Shores, FL 33138. Tickets (Adults, $10; Students, $5) can be purchased at http://conta.cc/18708q .  Further information: Shedia Nelson, shedia@urgentinc.org or 305-586-6694

The Sandy B. Muller Breast Cancer Foundation: Taking Some of the Worry out of Breast Cancer

Sandy Muller counts the blessings that saw her through her personal journey with breast cancer: She and her family were financially secure, so she could give up her accounting practice when she became too sick to work.  She had a devoted husband who took on the cooking and the shopping, walked the dog, did all the other household chores, and stayed with her through every doctor’s appointment and chemotherapy treatment.  A close circle of friends shopped for the clothes she needed after her mastectomy, brought in food to last a full weekend, and took her to physical therapy. Grateful for her recovery and for the enormous support that carried her through the most difficult experience of her life, Sandy vowed somehow to give back.

The direction her largesse would take became apparent when she heard about a 29-year-old woman diagnosed with breast cancer and fired from her job.    Sandy met many other women less fortunate than she as well.  “They were not only struggling with their diagnosis but worried: how am I going to pay my rent?  How am I going to work if I’m sick?  

“This is where the need was,” Sandy explained.  La Liga Contra el Cancer underwrites treatment for women in need.  The Cancer Support Community provides emotional support, exercise, and seminars on all types of cancer.  But no one was paying the rent for a single mom too sick to work.

The need for this assistance is enormous. Even if people can cover their expenses under ordinary circumstances, cancer changes the equation. The $50 copayment for a test or $100 copayment for a medication can deplete a family’s resources.  According to 2006 research by USA Today, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health, 25% of families affected by cancer spent at least some of their savings on costs imposed by their illness.  One in eight had to borrow money. 

Those with health insurance felt the pinch as they incurred heavy copayments, discovered their insurance companies refused pay for some aspects of treatment, and lost income because their illness forced them to cut back on hours or take leaves of absence. In the 2006 study, 20% of those with health insurance used up all or most of their savings, 10% borrowed money from family, and 9% were contacted by a collection agency.  For those without insurance the numbers were higher.   Fifty percent used all or most of their savings, 40% were unable to pay rent or buy food, 6% filed for bankruptcy.  Compared to those with insurance, those without were five times more likely to miss or delay treatment because of their inability to pay.

Thus in 2008 Sandy Muller created the Sandy B. Muller Breast Cancer Foundation to help patients undergoing treatment meet critical expenses such as rent, electricity, transportation to and from medical appointments, and childcare.  She spent the first nine months setting up the foundation – obtaining  501 (c) (3) status; filing with the State of Florida; getting a logo, website and brochure designed; having brochure, cards and stationary printed; putting together a board of directors and advisory board.  She spent the next year fundraising.  As money began to come in, she developed the application process and sought referrals from physicians and organizations that work with breast cancer patients. The Foundation made its first client grant in November 2009.
Applicants for help from the Foundation must be residents of Miami-Dade County. They must currently be undergoing breast cancer treatment and living at or below the $37,148 median income for the County.   To verify financial need, applicants submit tax returns and other documents.  To verify medical credibility, they submit a physician’s letter stating diagnosis, treatment plan, and dates of treatment.  Board vice-president, Linda Marraccini, M.D., reviews all medical documents.  Sandy, with her accounting background, reviews the financial documentation and interviews the applicants.  Much of the assessment, she says, is subjective and drawn from the interview.

The grants are given after all government and other community resources have been exhausted.  While the size and duration of grants vary, they average $400 for three and a half months.  The Foundation always pays the bill directly to the payee to ensure that the grant goes where it is intended.

“She [Sandy] really saved me,” said Kimberly, the single mother of two children, 11 and 15. Unable to work since May 2011, when she was first diagnosed, Kimberly obtained Section Eight subsidized housing, food stamps, and Medicaid.  Still, she couldn’t cover her phone bill. The Foundation paid for that, permitting Kimberly to stay in touch with her daughters during a lengthy hospital stay and run her household from a hospital bed.

The emotional support she got from Sandy was equally precious.  “Once they find out you have cancer, a lot of so-called friends don’t call.  They can’t handle it,” Kimberly said. She called the Foundation her “sisterhood,” always there when she was “down and out.” 
Other recipients of Foundation assistance agree.  “Sandy’s help was more than money. She called me often, asked how am I doing.  She helped me a lot,” said Carol, whose husband, Martin, acknowledges that although Carol is a strong woman, the cancer beat her up.

Carol is a homemaker with two young children.  Martin designs commercial irrigation systems for a landscape architect.  In the face of the recession, his work was cut to 25 hours a week, and he was forced to drop the family’s health insurance. Then Carol was diagnosed with cancer.   Her treatment was underwritten, but expenses piled up. While Carol underwent chemotherapy, she was in bed for days and had to hire an after-school caregiver for the children.   Costly medications for the side effects of treatment further depleted resources.  The family moved to a smaller apartment but still could not afford the rent.  The Foundation helped, paying $650 a month for two months.
“I am more than grateful,” said Martin. “It gave me a little peace of mind, room to think.”  

Asked what he would have done if the Foundation had not helped him, Martin replied, “Ask for a loan from a friend. I don’t know. Sell water at the intersection.
“Thank God she helped me,” he said, relief palpable in his voice.

Since funding began in November 2009, the Foundation has assisted 60 women with a combined $78,000. The Foundation began fundraising with a launch event at Bloomingdales, which raised $10,000. The Board subsequently established sponsorship relationships other stores, restaurants, and organizations, and they hold frequent fundraising events.  In 2011, they were the recipients of a $53,000 gift from the Elekta Corporation. The Foundation budget – comprised 13% from grants, 16% from events, and 71% from individual and corporate donations during the fiscal year the Elekta gift was received -- increases every year. To date they have been able to say yes to every qualified applicant.

A true grassroots venture, the Foundation has a working board, no paid staff, and miniscule overhead. In setting up the organization, Sandy’s husband, an attorney, took care of all legal work.  A friend donated graphic artwork. Another friend discounted printing.  Sponsors underwrite the special events. Sandy, who does all the administrative work, operates out of a home office. The Board secretary, a CPA, files the organization’s tax return.  Other directors donate services as needed. 

Sandy B. Muller Breast Cancer Foundation
P.O. Box 565371
Miami, FL 33256
Phone: 305-255-1385
Fax: 305-255-5304
www.sandybmullerbreastcancerfoundation.org

Casa Valentina: Living, Learning, Growing

Casa Valentina resident Stacia[*] states forthrightly, “I’m a striver.”  A senior in high school, she works summers and during Christmas break.  She does sign language, is interested in fashion, and feels passionate about Navy ROTC.  After graduation, she plans to  attend community college, complete a degree in criminology at FSU,  go into the military and then work for the FBI.  Articulate and eager to take on any challenge, Stacia readily admits her attitude was not always so positive.   She used to have low self esteem, did not understand why people wanted to help her, did not trust that help, and openly rebelled.  From age 12, Stacia  had lived in a foster care shelter home.   

“The State is a terrible parent,” said Chelsea Wilkerson, former executive director of Casa Valentina.  While some foster parents are nurturing and caring, most are not.    Children can be moved abruptly from placement to placement and school to school several times a year.  Commonly, they grow through adolescence feeling unloved and insecure.  Rarely does anyone guide their education or help them develop a viable path to a career.  Most do not learn how to express dissatisfaction effectively or resolve conflicts effectively peaceably.  They do not know how to budget money, cook a meal, make a doctor’s appointment, or read a help wanted ad.   And at age 18, they’re on their own.

For girls, the problem is especially severe because of their vulnerability to violence and sexual abuse.  Girls, more than boys, tend to feel deeply, need to feel appreciated, are nurturers.  Not surprisingly, many become mothers when they are still children themselves. But if a vulnerable 18-year-old girl is educated and persuaded to delay childbearing, she will be better able to protect herself and her family. 

And so Casa Valentina opened in 2005 to provide quasi-supervised independent living for girls aging out of foster care. Twelve young women living in two buildings (in five furnished two-bedroom apartments and two studios) interact with three warm, fun-loving professional staff on a daily basis and gradually gather the skills, insights and emotional maturity that eluded them previously.

While some girls decide to move into Casa Valentina 6 months, a year or more after aging out of foster care, many arrive on their 18^th birthday. A staff member picks up the new resident, throws her belongings, often tied up in garbage bags, into the car and drops them off at the two-bedroom apartment she will share with another Casa Valentina  girl.  Then it’s off to Target to pick out bedding and other basic necessities.  For many, this is the first time they have ever been able to select their own sheets and make other choices about what they’d like in their rooms.  For many it’s also the first time they’ve had a room to call their own.  The day culminates at TG Fridays or Chiles for birthday dinner.  The staff is great, but they are strangers, and the girls tend to be tearful and scared.

The girls who choose to live at Casa Valentina must be in school full-time.  Some, especially if they are already in college, also hold part time jobs.  In addition, they must meet individually with staff once a week for mentoring, and they must attend weekly life skills sessions. So there is imposed structure to their day and their week.   But the life skills programming, which touches on nutrition, financial literacy, self-defense, skincare, and more, is the least of what they derive from the Tuesday meetings.  More valuable are having supper together before the presentation, building friendships, sharing experiences.

In every facet of life at Casa Valentina it’s personal interaction that makes the biggest impact on the girls’ development and maturation.  As a consequence of their frequent moves, the girls are, on average, two years behind in school when they move in. The majority are reading and doing math at elementary school levels.  Because of the constant moves and the case workers’ excessive case loads, the girls don’t communicate well, and they lack basic everyday abilities --  how to address an envelope, look for a job in the newspaper,  read a unit price card in the supermarket,  make a doctor’s appointment. They have needs in every area: activating their Medicaid cards, filling prescriptions, doing the laundry, registering for school, getting a money order or writing a check.  Many have not seen a physician or a dentist in a year or more and have untreated STDs.  Although Casa Valentina will not accept anyone who uses drugs or alcohol  or who has acute psychiatric needs, many also have mental health issues.

And so, the problems are tackled one by one, one on one. To overcome their academic deficits, the girls have tutors – private school teachers, university graduate students, and other professionals who understand basic adult remedial education.  They also attend weekly study halls, where volunteers help the girls complete assignments, write papers, and study for tests.

As for life skills, staff takes each girl to the grocery store and the bank, helps her with the laundry, cooking and cleaning.    The girl listens as a staff member calls to make her a doctor’s appointment so she will know how to do it next time.  When she was in foster care and needed to see a doctor, a case manager made the appointment and a transporter delivered her alone to the office.  Now, the same staff person who made the appointment accompanies her to the doctor’s office and advocates on her behalf with the physician and office staff.  If the wait is long, the girl might be inclined to have a tantrum or leave.  But the Casa Valentina staff models better behavior; she approaches the receptionist to say, “Excuse me. We’ve been here for an hour and a half. How much longer is the wait?”  With the staff serving as role model, mentor and instructor, the girls gradually learn how to stand their ground and defend their rights without offending others, navigate difficult situations,  express their thoughts and feelings,   and deal with the practical elements of everyday life.

It takes about a year for each girl to get stabilized – to do her own shopping, get herself up and to school consistently and on time, make her stipend checks last the full month.    After  one year, some of the girls move from their two bedroom shared apartment into one of the studios, where they live alone.  Almost all move on after two years.

Two year resident Kalisha*, now 24, is ready to move out.  In foster care from age 11, she dropped out of high school at 17.  “Moving around affects us in school,” She said. “We’re scared. We don’t know anyone and we become a loner.  It made staying in school too difficult.” 

At 18, when Kalisha aged out, she lived with a cousin for six months.  When that didn’t work out, she took a place of her own.  But she quickly recognized she needed guidance and support. Since moving into Casa Valentina, Kalisha has graduated from high school and is now studying at Miami-Dade College.  Although math is difficult for her, she aspires to a degree in accounting.  “Math helps you do things in a smarter way,” she maintains.

Outcomes for Casa Valentina residents are well above those for other former Miami-Dade County foster youth.  Sixty-eight percent earned high school diplomas, compared to 39%[†].  Ninety two percent  delayed childbearing, compared to 66%.  Fifty-four percent were employed while attending school full time, compared to 31%.

Casa Valentina’s statistics have steadily improved, and Chelsea Wilkerson, the former ED, believes the trajectory will continue. She readily acknowledges that Casa Valentina has suffered its growing pains, in part because the staff had little research to build upon when planning the venture.  Just 25 years old, the field of independent living offers no evidence-based best practices.  So the first five years were marked by trial and error.   The board initially thought they could partner with Charlee, which provides care for youngsters up to age 23 who are in or have aged out of foster care, to provide the support services residents needed. But they quickly learned that Casa Valentina residents needed much more intensive care than Charlee could offer.  Another problem: The girls were having trouble coming to terms emotionally with the enormous change taking place in their lives.  Their adjustment improved dramatically when the staff adopted the Andrus Foundation’s Transitions Framework, which  helps people distinguish characteristics of their former situation from those of their new situation and adapt their feelings and behavior accordingly.

So successful has Casa Valentina been that, in partnership with the Camillus House and Our Kids, it opened its first residence for boys in April 2011.  The eight-apartment building houses a program modeled on Casa Valentina’s.  In addition, although girls may not be pregnant when they move into Casa Valentina or stay on there if they become pregnant, Casa Valentina recently expanded its program to accommodate young mothers.  The first family, an 18-year-old and her eight-month-old daughter, moved into Casa Valentina in December.    Also, Casa Valentine is working with the University of Miami to study the long-term impact of their program. 

Budget for Casa Valentina is approximately $500,000, 80% of which comes from grants.

Casa Valentina

2990 Southwest 35th Avenue
Miami, FL 33133-3410
(305) 444-0740
www.casavalentina.org  

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[*] Not her real name

[†] Miami-Dade County data on high school graduation and delayed childbearing from Our Kids, Inc. Data on employment while in school from The Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy, FIU (2008)

Thelma Gibson Health Initiative Youth Violence Prevention Program: Protecting Vulnerable Youngsters from the Perils of their Community

“You’re supposed to smile,” said one of the girls.

“Be respectful,” said another

“Stay in the kitchen,” said a third, to which a fourth replied, “That’s passé.”

The older girls were talking about where their values come from – parents, elders, media – and  what it means to be a lady: Be respectful, sweet and quiet, sexy, be weak, mature and nurturing.  But don’t be loud, dirty, nasty, or act like the ghetto, because people will pass judgment. 

It was a lively discussion, this afternoon session of the older girls’ summer program.  Like the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative’s (TGHI) year-round Youth Violence Prevention Program for Miami’s West Coconut Grove neighborhood, the summer program is designed to mix counseling and emotional support with engaging activities.  There are sports, art projects, and field trips to places as diverse as Fairchild Tropical Gardens and City Hall.  But whether the kids are making mosaics or taking their first ever Metro ride to visit the main library downtown, the goals of the program are always in sight: to help them build healthy self esteem; develop strong, positive values and resist negative peer pressure; learn constructive strategies for solving problems and resolving disputes; and experience the world beyond their community.  In this way, the TGHI insulates their young people against the destructive forces in the neighborhood and helps them formulate their hopes and plans for the future.

West Coconut Grove is built largely of African American families where the cycle of poverty has been perpetuated for generations. Unemployment is especially severe, and decent, affordable housing scarce.  An estimated 70% of households are headed by single women living with income at or below federal poverty line.  A majority of these women come from a line of young, single mothers three, four or five generations long.  Like their mothers and grandmothers before them, they had their first child in their teens, never finished high school, did not have access to appropriate role models or mentors while growing up, and have a history of being abused and/or abusing their own children. Although one of the smaller minority communities in Miami-Dade County, West Grove bears a disproportional concentration of social ills: teen pregnancy, flagrant drug abuse and trafficking, untreated mental illness, HIV/AIDS, domestic abuse, and violence of other kinds.  The negative influences are so pronounced that, even among the professional families of this community, one offspring could be a prominent attorney and another could be strung out on the street.   TGHI emerged from the needs inherent in this environment, which, in turn, dictated its evolution.

Merline Barton, who co-founded TGHI and serves as its executive director, had been working on economic development in this community for 24 years. She knew the families. They trusted her, and she attempted to intervene.  Knocking on doors, she was shocked by the problems she encountered. Young mothers couldn’t buy milk or Pampers for their babies. Young men had been arrested. Aged men and women suffered abuse.  Some had their social security checks stolen by their children or grandchildren, who used the money for drugs. Others complained that they were taking multiple medications and couldn’t understand why the doctor was prescribing more.   

Working with Cherry Smart, a social worker, Merline tackled the problems one by one. Word spread.  Thelma Gibson, retired nurse, community matriarch and founder of the Theodore R. Gibson Memorial Fund, gave Merline her blessing, lent her name, and offered her grandmother’s house for an office.  Merline and Cherry, together with interns from four local universities, worked out of this tiny Grand Avenue house.  Friends donated a computer and $1,000 for office supplies.  It was 2001.  Merline and Cherry began a formal program of outreach, education and testing for HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. The Thelma Gibson Health Initiative was born.

Clients coming for services would often bring along their children, most of whom were girls. They needed to be cared for while the adults were receiving help. So Merline cleaned out a store room and assigned a couple of interns to work with them. 

“What do you want us to do for you?” Merline asked the children.  After months of caring, of listening, of understanding, the girls very slowly began to open up:

 “I go home and mommy’s strung out on drugs.  I don’t have any food, Miss,” said one.

“My grandmother is looking after me because my mamma’s in jail. I don’t have any clothes, Miss.  I can’t do my school work because I go to school and I’m hungry,” said a second.

“My hair is not done.”

“My hair is not washed.”

“I need underclothes.”

As it became apparent that abuse and neglect were rampant, Merline built a program of counseling. In partnership with social workers and mental health interns from University of Miami, Florida International University, Barry University, and NOVA Southeastern University, TGHI began to provide counseling for the children and gentle intervention with their families.  By 2010, the program had grown to include case management, individual and group counseling, and family counseling. prevocational and vocational skills training, Life Skills, and more.

Today, 45 girls, ages 8-18, participate in three groups divided by age.  They meet twice a week.  With  intriguing speakers – a hip attorney talking about the rights of youth and how to talk to authority, a nurse talking about developmental and sexual issues,  a nutritionist addressing healthy eating – the kids are empowered to protect themselves.  With programs in African drumming and other facets of their African American heritage and culture, their self-esteem is lifted which, in turn, helps them develop constructive relationships with their peers.  On field trips to places they aspire to go – local colleges and universities, for example – and to places they aspire to avoid – like the criminal courthouse and county jail – the youngsters focus on their dreams and aspirations.  In addition to the group meetings and counseling, they receive, as needed, mentoring, tutoring, GED referrals, resume writing, and help with college and financial aid applications.

When a child enters the program, her entire family undergoes an assessment.  If the home life is secure and nurturing, then perhaps the child is just interested in the activities.  But like as not, the assessment together with future revelations by the child, highlight family problems that could benefit from intervention.    If mom is single and unemployed, she might be interested in help developing a resume or receiving notice of job postings.   Perhaps she needs proper clothes to wear to an interview (in which case Suited for Success comes to the rescue). Perhaps she needs treatment for addiction and is amenable to a referral.  Perhaps a frail elder is living in the household and could benefit from services. Developing programs of its own, working with volunteers, and partnering with other community organizations, TGHI attempts to uplift everyone in the household.  Although TGHI tries to involve parents in the Youth Violence Prevention Program and offers two parenting trainings a years, staff admits engaging the parents is a challenge.

Not so the kids.  Word of mouth brings many to TGHI. Others come as the result of outreach activities at parent and community meetings, in the local library, and at the park.  In addition, TGHI reaches out to the neighborhood schools seeking partnership.  At a student’s first sign of trouble of any kind, TGHI wants to be contacted so that they can work with the child and the parents to solve the problem and help the child succeed in school.

The kids keep coming because the staff creates an environment of mutual respect. They know the staff cares about them.  They trust the staff and they feel safe because they know the staff will help them solve their problems without judging them. They appreciate the consistency and having a place to discuss their frustrations.

And on some level, they probably know that TGHI is their ticket to a successful future.  To date, the great majority of youngsters involved with TGHI have graduated from high school and gone on to college.  This in a county where the graduation rate for Black, non–Hispanic students is just 57% -- the lowest of all demographic groups.[1]  Pregnancy prevention is a central goal of the program as well, and since its inception only one girl has become pregnant.

The Youth Violence Prevention Program began in 2002 with 12 little girls and $5,000 in seed money from the Women’s Fund of Miami-Dade County.  A boys’ group was added in 2010.  Between the girls’ groups, the boys’ groups and youngsters not in the groups but receiving counseling, tutoring and other services, 135 children are presently involved at TGHI, funded by The Children’s Trust. In addition to the Youth program and the HIV/AIDS/Hepatitus intervention, TGHI also provides social services and case management to at-risk seniors. 

In 2005, TGHI moved out of the tiny house in which it began and into larger store-front quarters across the street.  Much of the programming takes place at nearby Elizabeth Virrick Park. Staff has grown to seven plus interns, who come from Carlos Albizu University  as well as the original four schools, and program partnerships of other kinds. Operating budget for the entire TGHI, raised principally through grants, is $425,000, for Youth Violence Prevention, $350,000.

Thelma Gibson Health Initiative

3634 Grand Avenue
Coconut Grove, FL 33133

305 446 1543

http://www.thelmagibsonhealthinitiative.org/contact.html

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[1] Source: Miami Dade County Public Schools Dropout and Graduation Rates, May 2004, May 2005, February 2006, March 2007, February 2008. Office of Assessment, Research and Data Analysis.

The Scholarship Program of the Thomas Armour Youth Ballet: Offering Children from Miami’s Poorest Communities the Gift of Dance

The dance studio at Elizabeth Varrick Park in West Coconut Grove, one of Miami’s poorest communities, looks like it was once a storage room. But it has been retrofitted with a mirrored wall, suspended wooden floor, and ballet barre. There is also a cubby stocked with dance shoes in every conceivable size.  The little girls who dance here often can’t afford their own, and the Thomas Armour Youth Ballet believes the cost of shoes or clothes or transportation should not stand between children in the scholarship program and their love of dance.

It is this love of dance and Thomas Armour’s unique capacity to use this love to catapult children out of poverty that makes the program stand out.  Like many schools of dance, it offers second and third grade children ballet and tap in after-school classes one or two days a week.  For the more advanced, the curriculum becomes more rigorous; the oldest students study 4 ½ - 10 hours a week, including the history and vocabulary of dance. The young artists revel in the dance classes, in part for the predictable routine that they provide; for a population where chaos at home and in the neighborhood is common, this constancy is reassuring.  But dance is the least of it.

Director Ruth Wiesen has created a warm, nurturing environment that, for many students, is a second home. At the school’s headquarters in South Miami, the students come early and stay late to do homework, receive tutoring, work on computers, read in the library.  The youngsters and their families turn to the school administration to resolve myriad problems unrelated to dance. Immigration question? Ask Ruth.  Health problem? Ruth can solve it.  Need help with a college application?  Ruth will help – and the school will underwrite the costs to apply.  And so, the Thomas Armour Youth Ballet becomes a mainstay in its students’ lives. In a summer camp for scholarship students, academic tutoring combines with dance classes and creativity of other sorts. One year, the students made their own costumes. The girls made tutus and the boys made sashes, which they wore for performance and then took home to keep.

For 17-25 of the most advanced students, there are summer intensives at the best companies in New York. The school rents two apartments, one for girls and one for boys, and places a chaperone in each.  The kids, many of whom have never been out of Miami before, take their first plane ride, experience some of the responsibilities of adulthood – managing the apartment budget, creating menus, shopping for groceries,  cooking, and cleaning – and have their horizons broadened.  More important, as the faculty and directors of the companies where they are studying come to know and appreciate them, those who aspire to become professional dancers acquire an advantage in the competition for coveted spots in the troupe.

Many Thomas Armour graduates go on to become professional dancers on Broadway and with such companies as Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, and American Ballet Theater.  But the real triumph is this: Of those who stay with the program through high school, 100% either dance professionally or go on to college.  Most go on to college, which, in fact, is the goal. 

“Dance is a vehicle,” Ruth explains.  Through dance the children learn a discipline, acquire a focus, come to understand delayed gratification.  These translate into all arenas of life and enable the children to succeed in whatever they do.

In order to enhance their chances of getting into and going to college, Ruth aims to get her students into the best high schools in the county.  The specialty schools and magnet programs devoted to the arts are especially coveted because they offer some of the county’s best secondary education and are thus the surest ticket for success later on.  So Ruth does everything she can to optimize her students’ chances for getting in. When kids stop showing up for class, she calls to find out why. Sometimes they can’t afford a bus pass, and the school pays for transportation.

As Ruth surveyed student rosters in the secondary school arts programs, she discovered that although poor children were in elementary- and middle-school dance magnet programs throughout the county, those who lived far from Thomas Armour  were not gaining admission to the most coveted schools. The problem, she realized, was that they did not have access to after-school classes and could not compete with kids who had did. Solution?  Bring after-school classes to the children.  Thus satellite locations sprang up in low-income neighborhoods throughout Miami-Dade County: Morningside/Little Haiti in 2001, Homestead in 2002, West Grove and Redlands in 2004, Miami Gardens in 2011.   As the satellites emerged, the rate of acceptance of poor children into the best arts programs began to climb.

Georgette Fogel, who grew up in the South Miami projects, credits the New World School of the Arts with giving her the gift of a promising future.  Georgette was invited into the Thomas Armour scholarship program from a third grade dance magnet class at South Miami Elementary School.  She was a bright child and a talented dancer, and Ruth pushed her toward New World.  But at age 13, Georgette also developed a love of basketball and decided instead to attend her local high school, known for a tough student population and weak academics. 

“New World was scary,” Georgette says. The prospect of an audition was terrifying and the required summer classes distasteful.  But Ruth was adamant. She helped Georgette prepare for her audition and offered her support and encouragement throughout. Georgette graduated with straight A’s from New World School in June 2011.  The first in her family to attend college, she is now on full scholarship at Florida State University majoring in exercise physiology and planning to become a dentist.

“It [the New World School] was phenomenal academically,” Georgette  gushes.  She credits small classes and individual attention for fostering her love of writing and poetry and with her overall academic success.  “If I had gone to my local high school, I would not have been as successful there.  I would have been around the wrong people.  Half of them got pregnant or didn’t graduate. And the half that did graduate aren’t going to college.”

Founded in 1951, the Thomas Armour Youth Ballet did not have a scholarship program until 1988.  The program was born when an African American child told Ruth she’d love to be a ballet dancer, but that ballet was for white girls.  Ruth set out to change that perception.   The school began its scholarship program by filling vacancies with children recruited from a nearby elementary school dance magnet program.  Students qualified if they received free or reduced-cost lunch and were not taking after-school classes elsewhere.  In the beginning, there were 20 on scholarship.   Today there are 585, half the student body. The $592,000 annual scholarship budget, raised principally through grants and donations, covers instruction, clothing, equipment, summer intensives (exclusive of tuition, which comes from other scholarships), students’ ancillary needs, and the one-time costs of remodeling/equipping new satellite locations.

Thomas Armour Youth Ballet at the Miami Conservatory
5818 SW 73rd St.
South Miami, FL 33143
Tel: 305 667 5543
www.thomasarmouryouthballet.org