Stories and quotes give us an in-depth look into the out of school programs BuildaBridge conducts in the emergency and transitional housing shelters of Philadelphia.  They also provide evidence  that the BuildaBridge Classroom model is effective in not only bringing hope and healing to children, but also in building leadership, resilience, protective factors and self-confidence.  Two weeks in the Discovery Fall term 2011, BuildaBridge teaching artists comment on their experiences, children and classes:

N. arrived first and was visibly reserved. She stayed at the door asking "what this was" and muttering about Mr. K. I engaged the young lady in conversation and found out that she was into rock music--some stuff Katie the assistant recognized--and vampire novels--at which I got very excited and she finally came into the room. During class we found out that she is from Minnesota and used to being the "odd black girl". By end of class she was smiling and laughing with the other girls; she was not shy about creating, performing, or critically listening with her peers. - Miss Camille, Spoken Word

One student was isolating herself from the rest of the group and did not want to join or come closer, although she was admittedly having trouble seeing and understanding steps for book-making.  She was getting frustrated and making a few discouraged comments.  She was starting her project, but not in a way that really worked with the directions.  I sat down with her and recapped the process and she followed my lead.  She ended up coming out with a great story about her siblings--which I asked her to share with the class.  After a while, she was able to suggest some things for students who may have been struggling with developing a story.  I was also able to use her book as a successful example for the class, which seemed to make her feel good and helped her to engage more with other students in the second half of class.  - Mr. Robert, Visual & Photo Arts

The special moments in this class session involved allowing the other students to talk about each others work. Students who looked at their creations as "stupid" were able to see the work in a different light and perspective, hopefully building confidence in their growing abilities. - Mr. Tyler, Visual Arts

N. was not able to attend the first class and did not know how to do the Doug E. Fresh (Dougie) dance.  He verbally expressed that he could not do the dance.  I told him that  we do not use “I can’t” in the class and that I would break the dance down for him along with his classmates.  I stood in front of him and slowly broke down the dance and encouraged his classmates to join in, which they did.  He did not say, “I can’t” for the remainder of class and was able to embody the Doug E. Fresh (Dougie) dance.  His resiliency was key to him embodying the dance.  - Miss Martiza, Hip-hop & African Dance

K. gets to a point of each project and eventually scrawls over what she has done.  In a previous class, I told her that she could not have more materials to work with, but that she would have to work to change the piece she scrawled over.  (this was expensive aluminum, limited supply and I thought she needed to work through this tendency).  She cried quite a bit about this, but stayed in the class.  Eventually, I talked to her about what her actions meant and what my hope was for her in terms of honoring her work, sticking with it, finding help if she was frustrated and respecting supplies.  She listened really well and I gave her another piece of aluminum.

She slowed down and took great care with this.

She had a good attitude and was happy to have been given another chance to make better decisions.

A was very resistant at the beginning of the term.  During the first class, A refused to dance and sat against the wall with her arms folded around her legs.  A few weeks passed and A returned to class.  Her attitude had changed drastically. She was focused,  fully participated in each aspect of class and was enthusiastic about the learning experience. I am not certain about what she was going through at the beginning of this term because I did not get a chance to speak with her. I did let her know that I am proud of her progress and the way she is approached the material in class.

As one of the oldest students in the class, she began to take on a "lead-by-actions" leadership position in the class. It is often harder for the younger students to stand still and grasp some dances in the combination.  A and her younger sister, An, were more than willing to take the younger students to the side to help them with the movements. They also helped to keep them motivated through the class. A consistently came to class during the middle and last weeks of the term and fully expressed her leadership skills. She has completely transformed during the course of this term.

By Maritza Ogarro

Maritza is BuildaBridge's hip hop and African dance teaching artist. Her story is from the fall 2011 semester.

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3:30 is a question: What is your 3:30 story and what role will you play in contributing to the development of children in your city and your world?

BuildaBridge answers with our own stories of transformation from the children we serve.

3:30 is a challenge: What will you do about 3:30?

BuildaBridge responds with the continuation of after school programming for children in need.

3:30 is a promise.

BuildaBridge promises to uphold this commitment both in Philadelphia and abroad.

Will you respond?  Will you commit?  Will you advocate?  Will you give?

BuildaBridge's Discovery Program served on average 50 children per week through eight classes in five transitional housing sites during the Fall of 2011.  In total, BuildaBridge's 5 teaching artists and 11 volunteer classroom assistants taught 87 children, 90% of whom were between the ages of 6 and 12.  Classes included hip-hop/African dance, visual arts, photography and spoken word.  Student participants of the spoken word class learned about the legacy of Langston Hughes, the similarities and differences between poetry, spoken word and rap music and practiced the art of writing their own poems.  Students in the visual arts/photography class practiced book-making and created journals using photos they took, paintings, and written entries about their life.  Other Visual art students focused on a journal of their life using calligraphy, written stories and artistic influences from the medieval time period while another class created a collaborative, group quilt consisting of their artwork.  Dancers learned the origins of hip-hop dance and the roots to African culture coupled with modern dances such as 'The running man', 'The Jerk,' and Doug E. Fresh (Dougie).

See photos from the Fall term here.

The Discovery Program will resume February 27th and end May 11.

BuildaBridge's Community Discovery Program begins Monday February 27th.  Five teaching artists will teach a total of eight classes in five transitional housing sites across the city of Philadelphia.  In the video below, teaching Artists introduce who they are and what they are doing with the students in the their classes.

Where are they now?

Artist on Call Stevie French volunteered in Philadelphia for the 2010-11 Discovery program. She published her much-anticipated debut picture book Lizzie Fox-Top in 2010. This year, she followed up with providing new design and illustrations for the historic Cousin Ann's Stories for Children. This collection of short stories and poems was first printed in 1848 by the Quaker doctor and abolitionist Ann Preston. Visit Ogopogo Books to learn more, and explore Stevie's personal website, steviefrench.com.

I danced 5 days a week from the time I was 11 to age 18. 

Dance is what kept me going.  Dance kept me out of trouble; it provided hope for my future and stability during the rocky teenage years.  Dancing provided an outlet for stress.  Dancing was a skill I learned to master with rigorous practice and continued encouragement from my teachers.  The combination of sharpening my own skills in an art form while learning in the context of community of other like minded dancers gave me a renewed perspective on everything else in my life.

Artist on Call Amy Freeman volunteered with BuildaBridge back in the beginning of its Discovery programming. Amy has an MFA in theater.

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If you tell someone you have to stay after school, they usually think you did something bad, got
detention. There are times when staying after school is a good, no a great, thing, though. As an
elementary school student in first, second and third grade, staying after school one day a week meant
Brownies. And Brownies meant arts and crafts, snacks and an awesome uniform. While the details of
what we actually did at each Brownies meeting are spotty nearly 20 years later, I do remember enough
to see how being a Girl Scout at such as young age shaped me throughout the rest of my life.

Brownies receive small patches or badges for each award completed. Excited to show off the badges
I'd worked hard for, I hand-sewed each to my sash. Years,later, I'm still sewing, although the projects
have admittedly gotten more complicated. The same holds true for theater, which I got one of my first
tastes of during Brownies. As an adult, I have a MFA in theater. And finally, my love of crafts. Does
that stem from the one Brownie meeting I remember clearly, during which we made potato stamps?
Probably.

Another key part of Brownies and Girl Scouts is camping. During troop camping trips and visits to
Girl Scouts camps in the summer, I learned to respect nature, even though the method used didn't jive
with me at the time (we couldn't kill the icky bugs in the tent, since they were there first), but makes
perfect sense to me now.

I haven't stopped to think about my experience as a Brownie for years now. But looking back on it, I'm
amazed at how much one day after school each week shaped my personality, interests, and values for
the rest of my life.

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3:30 is a question: What is your 3:30 story and what role will you play in contributing to the development of children in your city and your world?

BuildaBridge answers with our own stories of transformation from the children we serve.

3:30 is a challenge: What will you do about 3:30?

BuildaBridge responds with the continuation of after school programming for children in need.

3:30 is a promise.

BuildaBridge promises to uphold this commitment both in Philadelphia and abroad.

Will you respond?  Will you commit?  Will you advocate?  Will you give?

I still remember the anticipation for school to end, when I would walk to the back of the Boys and Girls Club, pull open the heavy door, and climb to my place on the creaky choir risers. Our teacher taught us to stand ready and expectant, because we knew a secret: it was time for magic. In that room, dreams came true, good triumphed over evil, and the little, true voice was loud enough to be heard. In that room, we learned Disney songs. It sounds silly, but we believed in the magic. I still do.

How else did our many voices become one, strong voice that made the walls reverberate? Our teacher gave us the audacity to believe the magic lived inside each of us. I learned so much in that choir room: lyrics, harmonies, rhythm. Every class, our teacher challenged us with something we thought we couldn't do. And, at the beginning of every class, we couldn't. Yet she always proved to us we could do it, together, and she told us it was okay that at first we couldn't. She believed in us - and what's more - worked with us so that we believed, too. That was the magic. Now, it's my turn to share the magic, providing these same opportunities to children of the next generation. This is why I Think 3:30.

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3:30 is a question: What is your 3:30 story and what role will you play in contributing to the development of children in your city and your world?

BuildaBridge answers with our own stories of transformation from the children we serve.

3:30 is a challenge: What will you do about 3:30?

BuildaBridge responds with the continuation of after school programming for children in need.

3:30 is a promise.

BuildaBridge promises to uphold this commitment both in Philadelphia and abroad.

Will you respond?  Will you commit?  Will you advocate?  Will you give?

Michaelanne Harriman has served as an Artist-on-Call in Guatemala and attended the BuildaBridge Institute. She's spent the past few years working as the Community Arts Director at the Ayuda Community Center's Orange Korner Arts (OKA) House.

Not one of the kids's that I've met at Orange Korner Arts (OKA) love to draw more than Stefano (not his real name). When I met him, he was 9 and all of his friends told me he was an artist. Stefano was very shy and reserved. Once he knew that I was an artist and was going to have art classes at Orange Korner Arts, he began to hang out at the center, asking for scrap paper and printing "how-to-draw" pages for anything from cars to Sponge Bob. Stefano signed up for all of our drawing classes and has for the past 5 years. He has yet to ever finish any of them. Stefano has a rough life at home. Mom is always at work. Both Dad and Big Brother are locked up and have been as long as I've known him. He spends countless hours alone at his house. This is one reason he used to come over to the OKA House (which is across from his house) nearly every day. Another reason is that he knows that it's a place where he belongs and his contributions will be honored. Throughout the 10 week period of our art courses, Stefano usually gets overwhelmed with the process and stops showing up. Sometimes he will come to the show and participate; sometimes he will show up at the end of the exhibition. Before classes start again, he is back to hanging out and making spontaneous art constantly. During registration, he will sign up for one or more classes and we go through the whole process again. We have talked over the past 5 years about the fact that he has trouble finishing things.  He's working on it. Last May for our Spring Exhibition, he came right after school and helped set up the show and assisted the DJ throughout the whole process. While he didn't finish artwork for that exhibition, now as a 14 year old boy, he realizes he can help us so much with the logistics of the exhibition and loved to contribute in that way. Stefano has taught me that the success of the arts program at the OKA House has less to do with the artwork that is exhibited at the annual show and more to do with the fact that we can create a safe, consistent place for youth to know they are welcome, loved, and have space to express their ideas and creativity far beyond the bounds of classes and program.

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3:30 is a question: What is your 3:30 story and what role will you play in contributing to the development of children in your city and your world?

BuildaBridge answers with our own stories of transformation from the children we serve.

3:30 is a challenge: What will you do about 3:30?

BuildaBridge responds with the continuation of after school programming for children in need.

3:30 is a promise.

BuildaBridge promises to uphold this commitment both in Philadelphia and abroad.

Will you respond?  Will you commit?  Will you advocate?  Will you give?