What is Creative Youth Development?
Creative Youth Development is deep arts learning centered in long-term multi-generational relationships with artist mentors.
CYD organizations create safe, relationship-centered spaces of belonging where young people build strong peer and adult relationships, engage in artistic skill building and creative practice, and receive a variety of support services and resources (mental health counseling, academic support, workforce experience, and more) both directly during programming hours and expansively through ongoing engagement in the caring community of a CYD organization.
CYD programs and classes are culturally relevant, responsive to youth’s wants and needs, and are co-designed with the young people who participate in them. CYD is not created or taught by adults FOR young people, but rather engages intergenerational partnership and learning so that youth voice is centered in program design and adults are accountable to the young people they serve.
CYD outcomes are anchored in Positive Youth Development, not just artistic development.
CYD is based in the community, rather than schools, primarily happens during after school hours and on weekends, tends to be culturally reflective of the young people involved, and serves them through the age of 24.
In addition to arts learning, CYD organizations provide young people with holistic services such as mental health counseling, academic support, college & career readiness, civic engagement, and workforce development.
Youth Voice, Cultural Equity & Social Justice, and Collective Action are core principles of CYD work.
CYD organizations are using the arts as a platform for personal, community, and social change to create a more just society.
