Teens in Business through the Arts
TEENBIZ: Teens in Business through the Arts take place during the summer months of each year.The Center for Community Building and Civic Engagement, located under the Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Communities (ISCFC), andthe Washtenaw County MICHIGAN WORKS! work in partnership with the Ypsilanti High School and other local high schools in Washtenaw County in the development and implementation of this program. Eligibility for participation in this program is limited to youth who qualify for the Washtenaw County MICHIGAN WORKS! Employment Program, and it targets youth ages 14-18. The sources of funding for this program include the Washtenaw County Workforce Development Board, the U.S. Department of Justice, Pfizer, Borders, Reinhart Realtors, and Surovell Realtors.
Goal :
The goal of this program is to explore and embrace the mindset of inventive entrepreneurs, where teens will learn first hand the joy of creating, marketing, and distributing artistic products and performances. Teens will be at the heart of this project by engaging in a variety of activities that will develop employable skills such as organizational, leadership, time management, and life skills, team work, the ability to take risks, and increase their capacity to engage in authentic responsibility by learning in a caring and trusting environment.
Objectives:
- To provide 3960 hours of training (6 weeks x 20 hours per week x 33 youth), on the acquisition of business entrepreneurship and job skills
- To recruit 33 youth ages 14-18, from low-income, at-risk populations in Ypsilanti, Willow Run and other areas of Washtenaw County
- To design a curriculum for the above training, where business entrepreneurship, artistic and job skills will be developed through creating and designing a musical/dance production that can be marketed to generate revenue. Job skills include business planning, financing a business, marketing products, financial management, costume and stage design, and others. Artistic skills include generating a visual and performing production that is both marketable and expressive while building competence and confidence
- To conduct a process and outcome evaluation of the program
- To teach teens how to produce and deliver an original musical production in locations such as the Riverside Arts Center in Ypsilanti
- To teach teens to promote and publicize their original production and sell their art work, keeping the proceeds of their individual sales as incentive/motivational bonuses
Eastern Michigan University and Washtenaw County MICHIGAN WORKS! work together to plan, develop, and implement this program. Although several locations are utilized, the home base for the program is Eastern Michigan University campus. This site provides an opportunity to demystify university culture for students from at-risk populations by helping them become familiar with a campus, as well as to experience and become comfortable with university life on a first-hand basis.
Youth attend the program from Monday through Thursday, five hours per day, including lunch provided by ETCS. A formal curriculum for the program has been developed where knowledge and skills attained are tested in the classroom and applied in the field through hands-on experiences. At the end of the summer program, youth will a “Certificate of Achievement” to recognize their acquisition of competences and skills in business entrepreneurship.
To facilitate the program, ETCS provides participating teens with daily lunch and transportation to campus via bus tokens or monthly passes. Additionally, ETCS provides each participant with a needs-based payment of $20 per day for a total of $80 per week for their participation in the program. In addition, EMU and the other funding sources provide $100 to each of the 33 youth at the end of the project as an incentive for their participation.
Outcomes: At the completion of each six-week participation in the TEENBIZ: Teens in Business through the Arts, teens must demonstrate competencies in their ability to create, market, and sell an art project in the form of a musical production. Their competencies, through new knowledge and skills, must be demonstrated by their ability to:
- Write a job resume
- Complete a college application
- Participate in a job interview
- Develop a plan to organize and create a business product, and develop the tools to market, promote, and deliver the business product
- Create a personal plan to produce and complete their business product
- Develop a budget for the summer business product
- Create a spreadsheet to manage the budget of their business product
- Deliver a business product (i.e. Musical/Dance production)
Evaluation: A process/formative evaluation is conducted throughout the project to track and document the extent to which the program is being implemented as it was designed and to acquire periodic feedback on program assessment. The project evaluator compiles logs to document participation data as well as designs and administers periodic participant satisfaction surveys. These data provide important information to ensure that the project is being implemented as it was designed and provide a mechanism for making mid-course corrections as gaps are identified. Results of the ongoing formative evaluation are presented monthly to project stakeholders.
In addition, an outcome evaluation is conducted for both short- and longer-term impact. Competencies in each of the skills listed above are assessed by the end of the six-week program. Surveys measuring satisfaction, skill development and program assessment are administered to participants, a parent or adult in the life of each participant, and a teacher, counselor or employer of each participant at the end of the program. In six-month and one-year follow ups, each participant, their parent and a teacher, counselor or employer are contacted to assess the longer-term impact of the program.
TeenBiz Report-2006
