RiverzEdge Takes National Stage

Monday, September 27, 2010

ARTS by GoLocalProv Features Team

No wonder the White House is paying attention.

RiverzEdge Arts Project, Woonsocket's pioneering youth development program, is on the short list for this year's National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, and with very good reason. In one of Rhode Island's poorest cities with one of the worst graduation records in the state, this innovative organization has harnessed hundreds of teenagers into a graduating - and college-bound - machine. To put it bluntly, RiverzEdge can boast a 100% high school graduation or GED acquisition, among its participating teens.

All with arts.

Harnessing the capitalist model

Sound miraculous? Not in the RiverzEdge model, which has unlocked the key to youth participation and buy-in: the capitalist model. In other words, if you want teenagers to commit to success, growth, and perseverance in a climate of economic, educational, and often family challenge, you need to create incentives that make daily sense.

In other words, you need to pay them to work.

This may sound at first as a cynical short-cut, but it's anything but. At RiverzEdge, kids who commit to studio programs (and show up, meet milestones both in work as well as in school), receive stipends for their work - artistic projects that fuel murals, print-shops, graphic design, and other artistic micro-enterprises.

Paid employment in the arts

"Our mission is paid employment in the arts, and a voice in the community," says Rebekah Greenwald, Executive Director. "We pay our kids, and they relate to it like it's a job. Which is incredible in this economy, where there's no youth employment."

At RiverzEdge, teens work closely with older mentors (often 'graduates' of the program) and artist educators, creating a supportive environment on many fronts. It's not wonder there's a waiting list as long as the number of slots in the program, and Greenwald says she has pre-teens asking now to apply. It's a happy problem for the group whose works are increasingly visible throughout the state, and are becoming a national model for smart solutions to youth challenges.

Greenwald shares that RiverzEdge is now in this year's pool of 50 finalists out of 462 applications nationwide for the honor bestowed by the President's Council on Arts and Humanities. "We'll hear in October," she says, "whether we've won. We're very excited."

To learn more about RiverzEdge, including details for their Industrial Ball fundraiser this weekend, go to the Web site, here.