Nonprofit Innovation Lab Public Voting

Description: Riverzedge Arts uses innovative applied and work-based learning strategies to teach art, design, and critical thinking to the youth of northern RI, providing its participants as well as its community with a path to economic and cultural sustainability. Since 2002, Riverzedge has been enrolling youth ages 14-19 in paid, industry-standard training in its Arts Education and Training (AET) program. Youth may choose Graphic Design, Media Arts (photography and videography), Screen Printing, or Public Art (3D fabrication, sculpture, and large-scale painting), and they work alongside both peers and professional artists to complete commissioned projects. Acknowledged by the Wallace Foundation, the Obama Administration, and the National Afterschool Alliance as a leader in youth development and applied learning, Riverzedge Arts is working with DCYF and probation officers in Woonsocket, RI, to expand its current Arts Education and Training (AET) program. This program will enroll adjudicated youth in evening programming as a means of reducing recidivism and diverting youth from RI’s residential youth development .