Stage Actor Foundation Grant Application
Date of Application: November 23, 2009__
Legal name of organization applying: ______Affirmations______
(Should be same as on IRS determination letter and as supplied on IRS Form 990.)
Year Founded: ____ 1989 ______Current Operating Budget: _1.43 Million (Attachment 1)
Executive Director: __ Leslie Thompson______Phone number____ (248) 398-7105 _____
Contact person/title/phone number (if different from executive director) _____N/A______
Address (principal/administrative office): ___ 290 West 9 Mile Road ______
City/State/Zip: _____ Ferndale/Michigan/48220______
Fax Number: __ (248) 541-1943______E-mail Address: _ ___
List any previous support from this funder in the last 5 years: ______
______
Project Name: _____ JustDrama ______
Purpose of Grant (one sentence): ___To use an After-School Theatre Program to encourage positive social identity and relationships and to promote social justice education in LGBTQA identified youth participants and local schools.
Dates of the Project: _ September 2010-June 2011 _ Amount Requested: $__ 97,136.75__
Total Project Cost: $______114,672.69 ______
Geographic Area Served: ___ Oakland County, Michigan______
__George Westerman______11/23/2009 _____
Signature, Chairperson, Board of Directors Date
__ George Westerman ______
Typed Name and Title
__ Leslie Thompson ______11/23/2009_____
Signature, Executive Director Date
__ Leslie Thompson ______
Typed Name and Title
Affirmations Community Center
290 West 9 Mile Rd
Ferndale, MI 48220
(248) 398-7105
Lulu Ailsa
Director
Stage Actor Foundation
3569 Broadway Blvd.
Lansing, MI
Dear Ms. Ailsa,
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) community center, Affirmations, is in need of financial assistance to incorporate a program to address outreach to community members concerning issues of social justice. The JustDrama program we are hoping to implement in Ferndale, MI to serve the LGBTQ youth population and their allies of Oakland County Michigan will require support in the amount of $97,136.75. The program will incorporate goals including increasing social respect and support from caring adults and peers, increase in confidence and self-esteem for the participating youth, a focus on social justice education and awareness of privilege and oppression while maintaining or strengthening academic performance.
Our goals will be accomplished through partnerships and collaborations with community members including volunteers and local schools. In order to achieve our objective we will be hiring two (2) new staff to oversee and run the program. The Ferndale community is one that is uniquely fit for this program as it is home to a large LGBTQ population and its politics are progressive which creates the space for open discussion around these and other discussions surrounding discrimination and marginalization. The LGBTQ population is one that is often targeted and we feel the JustDrama program will provide the youth an opportunity to build bonds and strengthen their ability to embrace their own identity. We are hoping this will empower these youth to realize their own strengths and use those to affect change within their community.
With the help of the Stage Actor Foundation we will be able to implement this program in a community that will support it and ensure its success. These youth have something wonderful to share and the JustDrama program will give them the avenue from which to uncover their talents. Thank you for considering our proposal and for giving our youth a chance.
Best Regards,
Affirmations Staff
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Table of Contents:
Executive Summary
Statement of Need
Project Goals and Objectives
Implementation Plan/Project Narrative
Evaluation Plan/Timeline
JustDrama Budget
JustDrama Budget Narrative
Organizational Information
JustDrama Logic Model
References
Attachments
Page 4
Page 5-8
Page 8
Page 9-12
Page 13-14
Page 15
Page 15-19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23-33
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Executive Summary:
The JustDrama program for LGBTQ identified youth and their allies aged 14-18 in Oakland County, MI aims to increase social respect and support from caring adults and peers, increase in confidence and self-esteem for participating youth, focus on social justice education and awareness of privilege and oppression while maintaining or strengthening academic performance. Goals will be accomplished through partnerships and collaborations with community members including volunteers and local schools. The youth will create their own monologues and skits surrounding ideas of identity, oppression and privilege and perform them at local schools to educate their peers in a unique and fun way. The Ferndale, MI community, housing Affirmations community center – the program’s base - is one that is uniquely fit for this program as it is home to a large LGBTQ population and its politics are progressive which creates the space for open discussion around these and other topics surrounding discrimination and marginalization. The LGBTQ population is one that is often targeted and we feel the JustDrama program will provide the youth an opportunity to build bonds and strengthen their ability to embrace their own identity. We are hoping this will empower these youth to realize their own strengths and use those to affect change within their community.
Purpose of Grant:
Statement of Need
Affirmations Community Center is housed in downtown Ferndale, MI and serves the population of Oakland County in Michigan’s greater metropolitan area of Detroit. Oakland County is made up of 62 cities, villages and townships and ranges from blue-collar suburbs like Ferndale and Hazel Park to more wealthy areas like Birmingham, Rochester, and Bloomfield Hills (Wikipedia, retrieved 11/29/2009). As the figures below portray, Oakland County has a relatively high median income ($75,540), in comparison to many urban areas in Michigan. The largest percentage of people in the area (32.4%) is between the ages of 25 and 44 with considerable percentage (25.2%) between 0 and 17. These numbers allow Affirmations a better gauge on who this program could potentially serve as well as those who may be willing to give some of their time to volunteer with the youth.
Oakland County is home to Ferndale, MI and Affirmations’ LGBTQ Community Center. Ferndale is known for its progressive politics with the election of Michigan’s first openly gay mayor elected in 2007(Wikipedia, retrieved 11/29/2009). Affirmations will be the point of action for the JustDrama program and will be the contact space for the Oakland County Public Schools in terms of recruitment and performances. The program will incorporate aspects of Social Justice Education, theatre performance and skit/monologue writing, and homework/educational assistance within an after-school Youth Development Model. “Social Justice Youth Development is strengthened by youth and adult allies working together with a common vision of social justice. This requires that adults take seriously their own development and that youth workers shift how they conceptualize youth development (Ginwright & James, 2002).” The students in the area are primarily white (82.75%; Wikipedia, retrieved 11/29/2009) and may not be as exposed to the realities of Social Justice Issues of privilege and oppression, which is why the JustDrama program should prove successful in Oakland County.
The population that will be targeted for participation in the JustDrama Program will be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) identified youth and their allies. Affirmations provides support specifically to this population to work towards empowering these youth to positively embrace their own identity and the diversity within their community. The LGBTQ population is one that is often ignored, oppressed and continually discriminated against and marginalized. “The trauma of persistent oppression coupled with isolation and the inability to confront and change these oppressive conditions has led scholars to believe that the presence of both can be lethal (Brooks-Gunn et al., 1997).” This community of LGBTQA youth will have the space to express themselves through performing arts and creative writing while building positive relationships with peers and adults who understand and accept them for their whole selves. “A sense of belonging is also important during adolescence. Thus, membership in different groups and subcultures can provide an environment of social connectedness and acceptance (Gutiérrez & Spencer, 2007).”
As Ryan, Miller-Loessi & Nieri (2007) note, “good relationships with teachers and other adults are major protectors against negative environmental pressures.” The youth serviced through Affirmations are in need of these positive role models who promote positivity about their identity and have the ability to speak with them about their marginalization and the intersection of identities that can contribute to their oppression or privilege. The Youth Development Model promotes three (3) main objectives.
First, the lives of urban youth are conceptualized within the terrain of the changing political, economic, and social landscape where they and their families struggle for economic survival, sustainability, and mobility. Second, we recognize how urban youth define, negotiate, and struggle for their identities in oppressive environments. Third, we explore how they, with an awareness of social justice, respond to forces that deem them powerless, develop a sophisticated knowledge of the root causes of social problems, and generate unique ways to contend with the larger political forces (Ginwright & Cammarota, 2002).
Although Ferndale and Oakland County Michigan may not be considered urban in relation to neighboring Detroit, the ideas of oppression are the same for the LGBTQ youth community.
This idea to use “positive youth development recognizes young people as active social agents and shifts the attention from youth as ‘problems to solve’ to a perception of youth as individuals with abilities and positive traits who can succeed if provided with adequate resources and opportunities, relationships with caring adults, activities that build marketable skills, safe places, healthy living, and opportunities to help others (Checkoway & Gutierrez, 2006; Ginwright & James, 2002; Rhodes, Grossman, & Resch, 2000).” This is exactly the reason for implementing the JustDrama program within the Affirmations paradigm. As explained in the program implementation plan and narrative below, the youth will be provided the opportunity to gain skills to become ‘active social agents’ through this comprehensive program. This will be maintained through a physically and psychologically supportive environment, which was deemed imperative by the Committee on Community-level Programs for Youth (Eccles & Gootman, 2002). “Physically supportive environments include health-promoting facilities and practices that increase safe peer interactions. Psychologically supportive environments involve those setting where caring, loving, and competent adults provide secure attachments, are good mentors and managers, and provide scaffolding for learning (Gutiérrez & Spencer, 2007).”
The importance of including members of the community and forming partnerships with community organizations and coalitions has been a huge facet in developing the JustDrama program. Through focus groups and work with the Michigan After-School Partnership we have garnered much community support for the JustDrama program. Sixteen year-old Jamesha shared, “I just don’t fit in with the groups at my school. I am looking for a place where I can be myself without being made fun of. I love theatre, but my school’s program just doesn’t feel right. I wish there was a place where I could talk about my oppression as a Black, Lesbian young adult in a creative and welcoming space (See Attachment 11).” The JustDrama program will be perfect for the many youth in Oakland County struggling with issues similar to what Jamesha disclosed. Tyler, age 17, expressed, “it is a fact that high school students face a tremendous amount of peer pressure and temptation every day. It is much easier to resist these temptations when productive and fun alternatives are available.” This is one of the main reasons the JustDrama program will run almost entirely after-school five (5) days a week during the hours of 3:00-6:00pm which are often the hours where youth are most likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors (Dryfoos, 1999; Snyder & Sickmund, 1999).
“Young people with nothing to do during out-of-school hours miss valuable chances for growth and development. The odds are high that youth with nothing positive to do and nowhere to go will find things to do and places to go that negatively influence their development and futures (National Institute for Out-of-School Time, 2003).” With the Positive Youth Development Model high expectations are set for each and every youth to contribute to the group in a productive and positive manner while working to better themselves personally and academically. “High expectations reflect a deep belief in young people’s innate resilience and capacity to learn. It involves “seeing the possibility” and holding a vision for youth that they could not see themselves (Gutiérrez & Spencer, 2007).” The JustDrama program will work to empower youth to recognize their own areas of strength and push them to advance themselves in a variety of areas. “Research demonstrates that high school ‘high achievers’ exhibit patterns of 1) developing a strong belief in self, 2) having supportive adults around them, 3) having a network of other high achieving peers, 4) being involved in extracurricular activities, 5) challenging their learning experiences, 6) having personal characteristics of strong motivation and appreciation of their cultural background and having a strong sense of will power, 7) being highly resilient and 8) having strong family support (Hebert & Reis, 1999).” The JustDrama Staff and volunteer base will work with each participating youth to ensure these ‘patterns’ are encouraged and improved.
“Young people need continuous exposure to positive experiences, settings, and people, as well as abundant opportunities to refine their life skills so that they have the means to move into productive jobs and other roles that build fulfilling relationships (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2002).” The focus of the program is to look at systemic oppression through dialogue around personal experiences and then for youth to use their original abilities to find a way to share their learning with their peers. This will provide them with confidence, awareness of social justice, creative expression, and strong, supportive relationships with their peers and invested adults. We hope the program will have results similar to the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit (detailed below) in facilitating youth to develop that sense of belonging as well as awareness of oppressive systems. A member of the Mosaic Youth Theatre troupe expressed her satisfaction: “By being in an environment of all ethnicities and people of different sexual orientations, I was able to learn and appreciate people for who they are. When I came into Mosaic, I was a very judgmental teen. To this day, some of my best friends are of opposite races or gay or lesbian. Now I am able to educate my friends and family. The biggest attribute I gained from Mosaic, was of a more personal growth (Gutiérrez & Spencer, 2007).”