Co-creating Our Future
Reflections and Insights from ARTS Fall Retreat
August is always an exciting time for us at the ARTS Center! This year, with an exceptional team of over 40 individuals, our collective input is more crucial than ever. Together, we have the opportunity to co-create the impact we want to make in South Bay. We are proud of our shared commitment to the community and the strong connections we foster through our work.
"Each of us brings our unique voice and vision to this space, and when we stand alongside our young people and our South Bay community, we can work together to write the story we want to see for our future."
Lucy Eagleson
ARTS Executive Director
One of our main goals for the upcoming year is to delve deeper into the frameworks that guide our programs, such as Creative Youth Development (CYD), Healing-Centered Engagement, and the National Core Arts Standards. We explored how we currently use these frameworks and how to incorporate them further to increase our impact. Using a design thinking approach, by visualizing the positive changes our work can and already is making in our community, we can set goals and think of the specific actions we need to take to achieve them.
"I'm especially excited about today's conversations because we will all hear from each other and hopefully start drawing a picture of our work together, find similarities and core differences between our programs, learn about each other's specialties and secret sauces, and find even more ways to articulate and celebrate our impact."
Olimpia Vázquez Ojeda
ARTS Programs Manager
It takes a committed team to sustain all the growth we have already achieved and build a solid foundation for our goals to flourish. Our operations team has been working hard to create a sustainable infrastructure to keep us moving forward! We presented a newly remixed volunteer and internship program, which we will launch within the next few months (stay tuned for more opportunities to get involved!)
Throughout the day, our new Master of Social Work Intern, Amanda Castro from the University of Southern California, taught and facilitated grounding techniques and exercises for our programs team to use in their work with youth. These breaks and check-in activities focused on using somatic practices to help keep us in touch with our physical and mental well-being, aligning with our commitment to our Community of Care ethos.
We ended the day with a creative self-reflective activity called 'Mountains of Memories,' created by ARTS on Campus Teaching Artist Zadé Helena and Program Coordinator Katie Carrion. They made this activity to help us reflect on the ups and downs we've experienced in the past year, representing them as peaks and valleys. Then, we combined our artwork to create a beautiful mountain range using watercolor, revealing our memories written in white crayons. It was a lovely way to come together and share our experiences as a team!
Giving space for discussion and providing learning opportunities is essential in co-designing our programs and, in turn, our impact on the community. We are excited to bring more voices and perspectives into our organizational planning, and that doesn't stop after this retreat. Each month, we will host an All Team Meeting, which will serve as a mini-retreat to review organizational systems and updates and dive deeper into our programmatic frameworks. Later this month, we will also be hosting a 'Curriculum Share-Out' where teaching artists from each program will share more detailed plans on how and what they plan to do with the youth in their programs this session, including specific lessons, learning objectives, and hopeful outcomes.
