BuildaBridge International Annual Report 2011
Annual Report 2011
BuildaBridge International 205 West Tulpehocken Street Philadelphia, PA 19144 215.842.0428 www.buildabridge.org
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Annual Report 2011
Table of Contents About BuildaBridge
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Goals and Core Philosophy
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International Programs
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Story of Hope
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Community Programs
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Institute
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Alliances & Goals for 2012
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New Strategic Plan
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Financial Report
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Staff and Board Members
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Annual Report 2011
Organizational Review BuildaBridge was founded in 1997 out of the community work of Drs. J. Nathan Corbitt and Vivian Nix-Early. It was incorporated in 2001 as a 501 (c) (3) arts education and intervention organization. BuildaBridge Community provides direct service to vulnerable children and families in Philadelphia. BuildaBridge Institute is a research and training academy for community leaders, youth workers, ministers, teachers, and artists who want to integrate the arts effectively in community-based service. BuildaBridge International organizes, leads, and provides overseas service opportunities for sustainable arts relief and restoration, training, and cross-cultural discovery. BuildaBridge maintains its service with the help of 2 full-time staff, 7 part-time staff and 10 regular volunteers. An 11 member professional and diverse board oversees the work of BuildaBridge. An independent financial audit is conducted each year, providing transparency.
Mission BuildaBridge is a nonprofit arts education and intervention organization that engages the transformative power of the arts to bring hope and healing to children, families and communities in the tough places of the world. BuildaBridge spans barriers of race, class, faith and culture to promote holistic personal, family and community development. Committed to principles of love, compassion, justice, reconciliation and service to others, BuildaBridge motivates, enlists, trains and connects those with artistic gifts to those in greatest need. BuildaBridge offers unique programs featuring cross-cultural perspectives and arts-integrated approaches that are child-centered, trauma-informed and hope-infused.
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Annual Report 2011
Goals The primary goals for our programs are to provide children and youth with the following through creative arts experiences:
Healing from trauma due to violence and abuse in order to break the cycle of violence; Healthy development and hope for their future; Improved academic, social, artistic-expressive skills and spiritual and character development; Opportunity for rehearsal of skills for living as responsible, contributing and empathetic citizens; Artists, youth workers, educators and congregational youth leaders trained in effective arts-based methods for community, family and child transformation and who use art as metaphors
Motto Our motto is Speaking a Blessing into the Life of Every Child Everyday through the Arts. We define a blessing (a universal principle of good will) as affirming and recognizing a child’s gifts, potential and resilience through picturing a special future, words of truth, encouragement as well as appropriate touch and commitment to the relationship.
Core Philosophy Since its founding in 1997, BuildaBridge has intentionally developed a personal and social change model that is implemented in all activities and programs. Our work is:
Arts-integrated Relational and child-centered Holistic and collaborative Purposeful and intentional Engages the arts for restorative purposes Contextual Focused on holistic restorative transformation (organic)
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Annual Report 2011
From left to right: Artist on Call, Julia Crawford leads a movement exercise with women in the Democratic Republic of Congo; top: Art as a Metaphor training in Nicaragua; Artist on Call and Master Teacher Magira Ross in Haiti.
International BuildaBridge International travels the world to restore hope and healing to communities affected by cultural and religious conflict, environmental catastrophe, poverty, illness, and social injustice. Through its specialized team service projects and arts intervention programs, BuildaBridge International promotes dialogue, understanding, healing, reconciliation, and community development with partners throughout the world. We do this in the following ways:
Arts Relief and Development
Diaspora of Hope
A volunteer program comprised of art therapy professionals, artists, and community service workers trained in emergency relief though artistic intervention. The Arts Relief and Development program focuses on Education, Healing and the Environment. Since 1997, our services have included creative arts camps, extended internships, special arts-based projects in all art forms, creative arts therapy, consulting, and training in education methods, therapeutic art and psychological first aid, and arts-based community development.
Diaspora of Hope began as a one-week camp in 2008 that engaged local and global artists collaboratively to bring hope and healing to children through therapeutic art-making in the toughest places of the world. This included children’s programs in refugee camps, informal settlements, and other places where children are suffering from trauma as a result of extreme poverty, violence, or catastrophe. BuildaBridge began forming alliances with local organizations by providing them with the necessary training to serve the most vulnerable children in a crosscultural context.
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Annual Report 2011
International Trips The following are locations of BuildaBridge’s work for Arts Relief and Development and Diaspora of Hope: Congo – BuildaBridge was invited by Women in War Zones (USA) to provide arts-based psycho-social intervention with their WAMU Project in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo in November. The focus of the project was to train social workers related to WAMU and Panzi Hospital in arts-based trauma intervention; and provide arts-based therapeutic experiences to women with HIV/AIDS and to those recovering from fistula surgery and from sexual violence and rape. Classes were offered in visual arts-mural making, dance, and photography.
Students in Thailand at the site of their prayer garden
Children in Haiti show off their artwork
Haiti – Magira Ross, Community Programs Director, and Camille Edwards, Creative Teaching Artist conducted a training for artists and teachers at the Louis Pierrot School in Ponte Sonde through our alliance with Practical Compassion. Following the training, which focused on improved classroom training techniques through storytelling and dance, the teachers conducted an afterschool arts camp for 30 children, demonstrating their learning. Thailand – In June, Jamaine Smith, Bethany Reiff, Julia Crawford, Ginene Szczepanski and Dominique Padgett traveled to Bangkok, Thailand to work with NightLight, an organization that works with women and children exploited in the sex industry. All five are Artists on Call with BuildaBridge and are also students in the Masters of Urban Studies at Eastern University. During their week-long stay, the students completed the design, painted the mural and constructed stations for a creative prayer and reflection garden on the sixth floor of NightLight's recently purchased ministry center in the red light district.
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Annual Report 2011 Nicaragua – At the invitation of The Nehemiah Center, Dr. Vivian Nix-Early (Co-Founder and COO) and Nancy Perez, Co-Director of Sonrisas and newly appointed BuildaBridge Advisory Council Member, led training on Art as Metaphor. This was the fourth training in Nicaragua on aspects of community arts and arts for education. Previous trainings have been led by Jill Osielski and Dr. J. Nathan Corbitt. The result has been the establishment of an arts camp and on-going arts-assisted services to children in Nicaragua living in poverty.
Children listen attentively at the Arts for Hope Camp in Mathare.
Group shot of the participants in Nicaragua Art as Metaphor training
Kenya – Artist-on-Call Kaylie Sauter conducted the 4th Annual Arts for Hope camp with kids from the Mathare Valley in late November. Partnering with The Inspiration Centre, a para-church organization located in Nairobi, the camp took place over 5 days and provided 68 kids with various art classes including drama, mural arts and poetry. Atlanta –In July, BuildaBridge kicked off its Diaspora of Hope training for teachers at Refugee Family Services (RFS) in Stone Mountain, Georgia just outside of Atlanta. The objective of the training was to prepare RFS teachers to use the BuildaBridge classroom model in the coming week of their summer camp to foster hope and holistic development in their students.
Statistics People served: 480 People trained: 101 Locations: 6 US Artists/Volunteers: 21 Number of people served since 2001: 5,202
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Annual Report 2011
Story of Hope – Haiti (Excerpt taken from an article written by Magi Ross, Community Programs Director) “We danced to celebrate our common humanity, we, from a land of plenty…they from a country torn by poverty and fear wrought by the devastating earthquake of January 2010. We rejoiced to have spent a week understanding and admiring each other’s gifts. We danced to celebrate our success at having bridged gaps in language, culture and opportunity to find ourselves in a moment of shared commonality. We sorted through English, French and Haitian Kreyole like letters on a scrabble board. Through the days we found the right words to bring light to the BuildaBridge mission of bringing hope and healing to a community that understood its importance and received it with open hearts. Our first training on Sunday convened in a large classroom of the school with 10 teachers eager to learn all that we had prepared for them. We modeled the BuildaBridge classroom as we taught the transformative power of telling our personal stories as means of teaching empathy, expanding imagination and giving voice to our triumphs, losses and moments of personal growth. We were asked to bring art, new dances, songs and visual art practices to enhance the academic offerings of Louis Pierrot School. Our curriculum would bring that and much more for the teachers who would later use our methods in an after-school arts camp throughout the week. Over the next two days we taught the BB classroom, curriculum development, lesson planning, creating and using metaphors drawn from the natural surroundings, Canadian folk songs and a funky cheer from the urban files of Philadelphia. All that we taught was received with gratitude, and all that we learned still dances in our memories as we go about our day to day lives stateside. “Papot” or the process of establishing threshold, a portal through which each student would enter to access the sacred, “chanti” or the use of songs to open hearts and minds to the lessons taught, “principe`” or guiding principles or mottos to shape behaviors and expectations and “des arte” or the actual artmaking that took place (dans, chanti, arte, musique), and finally the act of speaking a blessing to empower the lives of the children of Haiti were but a few of the important components (gifts) shared between BuildaBridge and Louis Pierrot. The week was filled with learning and the celebration of that learning. The arts camp that followed was like nothing I have experienced in Philadelphia. A drum and music class developed a rousing composition that drew everyone into a booming parade of sound and movement. A museum of art developed and grew into expressions of the career dreams of the children and a dance class showcased the latest moves to a reggae beat. The close of our trip came much too soon. We ended with the children speaking blessings. They shared their appreciation for what they learned and copious hugs with Camille and I. We knew that we had done exactly what we came here to do. To teach, to bless…and to be blessed.”
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Annual Report 2011
Left to right: Students in the Discovery program have fun with visual arts and culinary arts; a student draws outdoors in Artology.
Community Programs BuildaBridge Community provides arts-integrated intervention and education to children and families in under-served communities in Philadelphia. In collaboration with local schools, community centers, transitional homes, and religious congregations, BuildaBridge Community delivers creative arts educational experiences, and therapeutic intervention through art-making as a metaphor to teach life, social, character and academic skills. Committed to principles of love, compassion, justice, reconciliation and service to others, BuildaBridge offers unique programs featuring cross-cultural perspectives and arts-integrated approaches that are child-centered, trauma-informed and hope-infused. There are three Community Programs: Artology, Discovery and Healing. BuildaBridge is excited to now add the Philadelphia Refugee Mental Health Collaborative as part of its Community Programs
Goals for Community Programs Provide children and youth with: the critical elements needed for healing from trauma due to violence and abuse in order to break the cycle violence; experiences that foster healthy development and hope for their future; experiences that develop academic, social, artistic-expressive skills and that foster character development; experiences that allow development and rehearsal of skills for living as responsible, contributing and empathetic citizens.
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Annual Report 2011
Discovery BuildaBridge's Discovery program offers after-school and evening arts-integrated education programs to children and youth living in emergency homeless shelters and transitional homes in Philadelphia. Discovery connects compassionate, talented Statistics & Demographics teaching artists with interested, creative children in need. For 2011, BuildaBridge partnered with the following eight sites: St. Barnabas, Dignity Housing, Project Rainbow, People’s Emergency Center, Women Against Abuse, Oxford Circle Christian Community Development Association, Jane Addams and Woodstock.
Children Served: 169 Female: 68% Male: 32% African American: 91% Hispanic: 6% Caucasian: 3%
Ages 6-9: 58% Ages 10-12: 32% Ages 13-15: 10%
A total of 14 teaching artists along with 24 teaching assistants served a total of 169 children. Children participated in classes using visual arts, culinary arts, spoken word, creative writing, photography, dance and drumming.
Healing Creative Arts Therapy provides safe avenues for youth to express their authentic feelings and enable them to cope with and recover from traumatic or tough experiences. BuildaBridge provides creative arts therapy in local transitional homes and service sites in the Philadelphia region. 2011 was an exciting year for the Healing program. The Philadelphia A creative arts therapist works with Refugee Mental Health children as part of the Refugee Project. Collaboration (PRMHC) was drafted in January and began in June with support from the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services (DBH). In this collaborative, BuildaBridge partnered with 5 other agencies to provide art therapy for the refugee community in Philadelphia. The collaborative has successfully completed its first year having served a total of seventy-six refugees through art therapy groups from the Bhutanese, Burmese and Iraqi communities. In addition to the collaborative, Co-founder and licensed music therapist, Dr. Vivan Nix-Early, led music and art therapy sessions at our partner site, Women Against Abuse (WAA). Sessions for mothers and their babies and for pre-school children attending the WAA learning center were led weekly for 60 minutes. Mission of PRMHC To connect newly arrived refugees to culturally and linguistically appropriate mental health care, including support groups, therapy, and communitybuilding arts and education projects.
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Annual Report 2011
Artology Artology, an art and biology summer camp, sparks students’ curiosity through a curriculum that integrates natural sciences and the arts and utilizes Philadelphia's vast natural splendor as a vibrant and evolving classroom. This year’s theme for Artology was the Earth. Art projects, science lessons and field trips all reflected this theme. A total of 22 staff including full time, part time, Bridging the Gap (BTG) interns and volunteers served a total of 55 children in grades 4-8. Students went on three field trips per week to various parks, gardens and museums around the Philadelphia region. Some favorites included: East Falls Glass Studio, The National Liberty Museum, Mill Creek Urban Farm and the Philadelphia Museum of Art Sculpture Garden. For 2011, Artology students had the unique opportunity to display their art at three public art installations, one at the historic Cliveden House in Germantown, the other at the Awbury Arboretum and the last at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Artology Pre and Post test results revealed that 93% of students demonstrated overall positive change with an average positive change of 19%. The highest and most significant increases were in science and art knowledge.
Statistics & Demographics Staff: 14 Volunteers: 8 Children Served: 55 Number of weeks: 7 Female: 56% Male: 44% African American: 81% Students with families below Federal Poverty Level: 82% Number served since 2007: 231
Furthermore, 4th and 5thth graders showed significant change in 5 out of 7 “Internal Locus of Control” Likert scale questions.
Top to bottom: a student learns to blow glass; plants ready for the outdoor art installation; Artology group; drawing out in the park.
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Annual Report 2011
Top left, participants drum in the drum circle; bottom left, masks created during a skills workshop; right, students draw during a group activity.
Institute for Arts and Transformation The BuildaBridge Institute is a training and applied research academy designed to prepare artists,
youth workers, community and congregational leaders, teachers, social service professionals, and nonprofit organization personnel to integrate the arts effectively in education, social services and community development. “The instructors grasp of the subject matter, the passion & commitment that The Annual Institute is a 5 day residency that occurs the they displayed imbued the words with first week in June each year. It includes two simultaneous life and reality.� tracks: a Foundations track for first-time participants and -2011 Participant an intermediate track for second time participants. First track courses include Foundations for Arts in Transformation; Arts, Creativity and Human Development; Arts in Education; Art and Spiritual Development; Organizing for Community Arts including collaborative work and fund-raising. Second track courses include Arts in Healing, Arts in Social Services, and Leadership Practicum.
Institute Quick Facts
This year, the Annual Institute celebrated its 10th Anniversary Celebration. As part of the celebration, a formal Alumni Symposium and Exhibit was added to showcase the work of past alumni. Participants took part in group drum circles and chose from four Skills Development Workshops (drumming, mask making, transformational drama and writing) to enhance their knowledge of a particular art medium. Methods Lab Practicums took participants out of the classroom to observe master teachers in direct arts service with youth and seniors in local shelters and retirement homes. Participants: 29 Faculty: 22 Location: Philadelphia, PA States represented: 8 Countries represented: 2
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Annual Report 2011
Alliances & Volunteers BuildaBridge is proud to have alliances with the following: Bridging the Gaps, Community Health Internship Program (BTG CHIP) Eastern University Second Baptist Church, Germantown Inspiration Center (Kenya) Northwest Philadelphia Interfaith Hospitality Network Lutheran Children Family Services ECS St. Barnabas Mission Project Rainbow Germantown Friends School People’s Emergency Center Nehemiah Center (Nicaragua) Art-Reach Dignity Housing Practical Compassion (Haiti) NightLight (Thailand)
Women in War Zones (Democratic Republic of Congo) School District of Philadelphia Philadelphia Museum of Art Refugee Family Services (Atlanta) Oxford Circle Christian Community Development Association Lutheran Settlement House/ Jane Addams Place Woodstock Family Center Women Against Abuse Philadelphia Refugee Mental Health Collaborative Nemours Pediatrics Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Council Nationalities Service Center Belmont Behavioral Health Clinic
Volunteer Statistics Total Number of Volunteers: 80 Total Number of hours: 8,918 Total Number of hours 1997 to date: 86, 609 Dollar Value of volunteered services: $1,212,526.00
Goals for 2012 In preparation for the exciting years to come, BuildaBridge drafted a new strategic plan to guide the organization for the next 3 years. The strategic plan (2012-2015) emerged after extensive staff interviews, research of past Annual Reports and analysis of current and future trends. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis was also conducted to better understand BuildaBridge’s positioning and to help determine goals for achieving new objectives. Among the changes were a more streamlined mission, outlined visions for programs and the organization, and specific strategic emphases with corresponding initiatives.
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Annual Report 2011
Strategic Plan 2012-2015
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Annual Report 2011
Financial Report Note: Financial information taken from 2011 Audit
Income = $378,774
Expenses = $424,860
Contributions
Grant Income
Program Expenses
Program Income
Registration/Rentals
Fund Raising
Intl. Trip Income
Misc.
General & Admin.
In-Kind Contributions 7% 6%
14%
27%
24%
1%
87%
21%
7% 6%
Grants and Giving Total Number of Individual Donors: 302 Total Amount Given: $71,088
Grants Received Lincoln Financial Foundation: Lindback Foundation: The Seybert Foundation: Peter J. Haller Family Foundation: The Northwest Fund: School District of Philadelphia: Philadelphia Baptist Association, 2nd Baptist Church of Germantown: Wayne Presbyterian:
$5,000 $3,000 $4,000 $8,000 $12,000 $50,000 $550 $5,000
The Douty Foundation: Allen Hilles Fund: Philadelphia Foundation: Department of Behavioral Health: PA Department of Education: Philadelphia Cultural Fund: Support Community Outreach Program(SCOP):
$2,000 $4,000 $3,000 $17,206 $2,552.04 $10,102 $3,917
TOTAL Amount Received: $130,327.04
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Annual Report 2011
BuildaBridge Staff Dr. J. Nathan Corbitt
President and CEO, Co-founder (Volunteer)
Dr. Vivian Nix-Early
COO, Co-founder (Volunteer)
Magira Ross Danielle Dembrosky
Community Programs Director/Shelter Liaison & Master Teacher Programs Administrator
Sarah Rohrer Rachel Schaffran
Development Associate Artology Fiscal, Marketing & Reporting Co-Director (Seasonal)
Alysia Williams
Artology General Operations Co-Director
Kent Kissinger Ripley Robinson
Accountant Webmaster
Teaching Artists Julie Rosen
Visual Arts
Maeva Renaud Danielle Boyer-Graves Camille Edwards
Spoken Word, Dance Culinary Arts Creative Writing, Spoken Word
Sarah Thompson Maritza Ogarro Tyler Kline
Photography Hip Hop Visual Arts
Rachel Schaffran Robert Kelleher Natalie Hoffman
Culinary Arts Photography Creative Arts Therapist
Board Members Ronald W. Hevey, Sr. (2007-2014) Board Chair Artist, Retired DEC Executive
Lisa Jordan (2010-2013) Secretary Attorney, Berner Klaw & Watson LLP
Cheryl Wade (2006-2013) Director for Philanthropy The Kendal Corporation Bill Davis (2008-2011) Logistics Specializing in Public Health Doctors Without Borders
Henry Holcomb (2008-2011) Journalist & Strategist Retired staff writer and editor The Philadelphia Inquirer Retired President Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia
Charles Holmes, CPA (2009-2012) Managing Partner Holmes & Company, LLC
Saman Khan (2010-2014) Eighth Grade English Teacher World Communication Charter School
Karen Vaccaro (2011- 2013) Friends Council on Education
Elaine Ballengee (2011-2013) Teacher Frankford Friends
James Ballengee (2011- 2013) Director of Service Learning William Penn Charter School
David Knipel (2007-2013) Legal Council American Baptist Churches Interim Ministry Specialists American Baptist Churches Principals Dr. J. Nathan Corbitt (2000-Present) President/CEO and Co-Founder BuildaBridge International Professor of Urban Studies Eastern University Dr. Vivian Nix-Early (2000-Present) COO/CFO and Co-Founder BuildaBridge International Former Dean of Students School for Social Change at Eastern University
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