Cirque de la Juenesse

Cirque de la Juenesse (CIrcus of Youth) HDA 210 Final Group Project Cearley, Fluhr, Greenwood, Thompson Prof. O’Leary, Fall 2013

Cirque de la Juenesse Social Circus is a program that brings the circus arts to homeless youth. Through short and long-term workshops, Social Circus teaches young people how to perform various circus arts, including: juggling, tightrope, aerial arts, clowning, and behind the scenes work.

In the process of working with trainers and their peers, youth learn valuable life skills.

Youth participants are challenged to reach beyond their comfort zones in meeting physical and mental challenges. They learn how to work as a team as well as build personal discipline.

Social Circus will be comprised of social circus instructors, trainers, administrators, and community workers.

The community workers will come from a local partnership with the Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development, which is a non-profit organization that provides services for homeless youth in the Phoenix and Tempe areas. The community workers have the knowledge and experience of working with homeless youth and will help guide the instructors and administrators in providing the best possible opportunities. The social circus instructors are experts in teaching the technical skills of circus acts and ensuring participants’ safety. The certified trainers help to facilitate the conjoined work of instructors and community workers and ensure that everyone is working toward the same goal. The administrators of Social Circus operate the nonprofit organization and work directly with the community partners.

ELEVATOR PITCH

Cirque de la Juenesse Social Circus teaches young people how to perform various circus arts, including: juggling, tightrope, aerial arts, clowning, and behind the scenes work. In the process of working with trainers and their peers, youth learn valuable life skills.

Cirque de la Juenesse The mission of Social Circus is to engage homeless youth in creative collaboration and problem solving The end goal is not to prepare them for a future career in the circus, but instead to prepare them for life.

In addition to practicing inner discipline, youth learn to work collaboratively and creatively with their peers.

Social Circus values the process of collaborative work, rather than competition and final product.

Cirque de la Juenesse Objectives: ● ● ● ● ●

Collaboration, effective communication, interpersonal skills Decision-making, Goal-setting Discipline, self-management, resilience Coordination, balance, strength, and concentration Sense of accomplishment, positive learning experiences

Cirque de la Juenesse Partnerships:

Social Circus could partner with a local circus school, such as Circus School of Arizona, Circus Farm, or Altitude. The circus school would provide the facilities and equipment necessary for a comprehensive social circus experience.

Tumbleweed Center for Homeless Youth

Cirque de la Juenesse Similar Programs: Cirque du Monde is a social circus program under the company Cirque du Soleil. Created in 1995, Cirque du Monde partners with local community organizations in bringing the circus arts to at-risk youth. The goal of the program is to teach young people, ages 8-25, valuable life skills and to empower them to make positive changes in their personal lives and in their communities.

Cirque du Monde travels to communities all over the globe. In South Africa, the social circus works with kids who are HIV positive. In Mongolia, they work with incarcerated youth and in Australia they work with women survivors of sexual abuse.

Cirque de la Juenesse Evaluation

Social Circus will measure its outcomes through the use of a two-part survey. Separate surveys will be administered to the youth participants, the social circus instructors and trainers, and the community workers involved with the Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development. Each type of survey will have two-parts; the first part will be given out before the workshops begin and the second part will be completed at the end of the sessions.

Cirque de la Juenesse GOALS: Goals of workshops depend on the participants and the number of workshops. Short term 1-3 workshops one workshop- beginning circle time, warming up, stretching exercises, circus discipline training, eventual cooling-down relaxation and ending circle time basic: juggling with balls, rola roll, and solo floor acrobatics complex: trampoline, unicycle and air, pair and pyramid acrobatics practice clubs, balls, poi movements, diabolo, and rings.

Have participants decide if they want to put on a final performance.

Cirque de la Juenesse Budget: Cirque de la Jeunesse is a non-profit organization and therefore will require a home base for communication and operations. A small office space, including a separate telephone line, copy/fax machine, and computer will be necessary for organizational and communication purposes. A home computer will be donated from one of the owners. The fax and copy machine will be leased, instead of purchased.

The equipment insurance will be included in the overall insurance.

Our social circus instructors will be paid $20/hour. We hold both two-day workshops and longer 8-12 week workshop sessions. A single workshop session is approximately 1-2 hours long. The annual personnel costs for the two instructors will be dependent on the number of short term and long term workshop sessions executed in one year.

THANK YOU! :)