Mission Statement
Free Arts Minnesota works with youth in challenging circumstances to support artistic and personal development through a unique combination of mentorship and arts learning. We strengthen communities by:
* Partnering with social service agencies, community organizations, and local artists.
* Engaging underserved youth with the arts allowing creativity to drive learning.
* Building positive mentoring relationships.
* Expanding arts programming to under-resourced neighborhoods.
Impact and Programs
Accomplishments
Reached 2,000 youth across all programs and added three new partner sites
Increased Teaching Artists at all partner sites
Revised Logic Model to better explain our programming and measure impact
Implemented pre- and post-survey with youth served through Weekly Mentorship which are demonstrating significant impact for our youth
Created more flexible volunteer opportunities to engage more individuals/organizations with Free Arts; added CREATE Workshop, Art Cart (pending) and Art Stuff
Strengthened our brand by improving marketing and PR materials (printed, web-based, social media) - redid all collateral marketing pieces and created identities for our fundraising events
Current Goals
Reach 2,000+ youth
Increase partners sites from 23 to 26+
Evaluate statistical significance of youth pre- and post-survey results
Increase foundation and corporate support through grants and sponsorship
Achieve a balanced budget and improve cash reserves
Improve fundraising events contribution to the bottom line
Increase diversity of the board
Community or Constituency Served
Free Arts Minnesota works with 20+ partner sites that serve youth who are facing challenging circumstances such as chronic poverty, homelessness, abuse, and/or mental illness. Organizations include homeless shelters, family violence agencies, mental health treatment centers (day services & residential), and culturally focused organizations. Free Arts works with partner organizations that either do not have consistent arts learning programs or do not have consistent caring adult mentors and volunteers interacting with youth.
Geographic Area Served
We work with partner sites in the Twin Cities 7-county metro area.
