YouthReach Grant

Creative youth development (CYD) is an intentional practice that fosters active creative expression through the arts, humanities, and sciences, while developing core social, emotional, and life skills, for youth of all ages. Creative youth development programs approach young people as active agents of their own change, with inherent strengths and skills to be developed and nurtured. The overall goal is that culture plays a major role in supporting the growth of creative, productive, and independent minded citizens and thriving communities.
YouthReach Program Description
The goal of YouthReach is to promote integration of substantive out-of-school arts, humanities, and science opportunities into a collaborative response to the needs of young people and communities. The program aims to develop and deepen opportunities for young people to create a more just and equitable society through their art-making and to position creative youth development programs as key leaders in discovering and developing opportunities to improve the livability and economic vitality of their communities. To this end, YouthReach works to foster dynamic cross-sector collaborations to ensure young people’s academic, professional, and personal success.
YouthReach supports innovative programs that:
Provide safe and healthy youth spacesAre assets-basedAre youth drivenFoster the development of positive relationships and social skillsSet high expectations for growth and learningAddress the broader, cross-sector context in which creative youth development exists

Eligibility

The primary applicant for a YouthReach grant must be:A cultural organization with a strong programming history in the proposed project’s primary discipline (arts, humanities, or interpretive sciences);Incorporated in Massachusetts as a non-profit organization; andCurrent in its tax-exempt status under IRS Section 501(c)(3).All YouthReach grants must be matched based on the criteria here.