Reports

In 2023-24, teaching artists provided Creative Wellbeing for youth and adults through in-person and virtual direct services, professional development sessions, and arts-based workshops. Youth and adults receiving direct services and participating at some special events were surveyed about their experiences. These end-of-year reports summarize the data from those surveys and elaborate on learnings about Creative Wellbeing affecting their mental health and protective factors including social-emotional competencies and social support.

In its second evaluation of the Creative Wellbeing approach, Harder+Company Community Research found that young people who participated experienced positive social-emotional benefits while also exploring their interests, building technical art skills, and increasing their access to the arts. Adults who participated in the program are experiencing and embodying Creative Wellbeing values and healing themselves through this work. They further found that

The 2023 Arts Education End of Year Report summarizes the Arts Ed Collective’s activities and events from the July 2022 through June 2023 fiscal year.

In celebration of 20 years of service to the young people of LA County, we acknowledge the hundreds of new and longstanding partners who have come together to accomplish more than any of us could have achieved alone. As we reflect on our progress to date, we also look to what’s ahead—and invite you to join us in this effort. Together we can ensure our next generation has access to personally meaningful arts education, in schools and in communities, that allows every young person to develop the skills and self-awareness to reach their full potential.

This report, summarizing activities and events from the 2021-22 fiscal year, attests to the enduring importance and longevity of the Arts Ed Collective. Read more about how culturally sustaining and healing-centered approaches to arts education are working to transform public education and County systems.

Creative Wellbeing is an approach for fostering communities of wellness, especially for systems-impacted youth, those who are vulnerable to becoming systems- impacted, and the adults who support them. This approach provides culturally relevant, healing-centered, arts-based workshops for young people under 25 and professional development coaching for youth-serving adults—educators, service providers, and community based organizations.

The 2020-21 End of Year Report provides an overview of how the Arts Ed Collective now formally extends beyond public education and aims to change the social conditions and broader public systems that impact where and how young people access learning in and through the arts.

To learn more about the emerging field of Healing Centered Engagement, especially as it relates to arts based youth development, please download our zine Healing-Centered Engagement—Reflections and Insights from the Field.

An evaluation of the initial implementation of Creative Wellbeing was conducted by Harder+Company Community Research. 

The 2019-20 End of Year Report provides an overview of how the Arts Ed Collective has adapted our work to support partners, youth, and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. This summative report on activities between January and June 2020 addresses the ways in which County agencies, school districts, and community-based organizations are pivoting to remote programs and services to ensure that youth across the region engage in quality arts education.