The document discusses how performing arts programs benefit foster youth. It notes that schools often cut funding for arts programs first due to budget cuts. However, arts programs provide foster youth, who may experience homelessness, poverty, and incarceration at higher rates, with positive outlets and a voice. The Possibility Project in New York City runs theater programs for foster youth to help empower them and share their stories. The program serves over 150 youth annually and allows them to create and perform original musicals about issues they face. The program provides foster youth with a supportive environment to build confidence and resilience through performance.

1. University of Pennsylvania’s Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice, and Research
‘News from the Field’
Foster Youth and the Theatre Arts
by Kelsey Colburn
Public schools in the U.S. are consistently confronted w ith tough decisions regarding funding, and w hen administrators are
faced w ith budget cuts both fine and performing arts programs are usually one of the first things to go. After No Child Left
Behind passed in 2002, schools increased focus on English and math as a result of altered national testing and
accountability standards. Due to this increased focus as w ell as the recession of 2008, schools began to cut time and
funding from art, performance, history, and science.1 English and math are, of course, vital in a child’s life, but the
importance of these subjects should not conflict w ith the positive outcomes students experience w hen art programs are
included in school curricula. The importance of the arts is especially relevant for children in foster care. If not given the right
tools, research show s that young people w ho age out of the foster care system are far more likely than their peers to endure
homelessness, poverty, compromised mental and physical health, insufficient education, unemployment, incarceration, early
pregnancy, and parenthood. Positive alternatives and outlets can make a lasting impression on marginalized youth. 4
For foster kids, w ho often have little voice in the system and may ultimately experience the school to prison pipeline, the arts
go a long w ay to promoting empow erment and giving youth a voice. In California, it currently costs taxpayers approximately
$8,000 per year to educate one student based on the average daily attendance 2, w hile it costs around $90,000 per year to
incarcerate in a state corrections system.3 The arts are an alternative form of expression for youth w ho feel they are not
being heard, and w ho consequently may turn to drugs or violence as an outlet. By giving students an positive outlet through
art, w e are thus lessening both the emotional and fiscal cost of the foster care system, as w ell as promoting healthier and
more resilient youth. In New Orleans, art and performance programs have found success in diverting teens from violence,
dropping out of school, gangs, incarceration, and drugs. It has been found that through these programs, teens and pre-teens
have a positive creative outlet, rather than giving in to the lure of gangs and drug use. Performing arts program participants
are less likely to drop out of school, are more likely to attend college, and are less likely to commit crimes.5
Until they are eighteen, youth are often not given the option to speak for themselves; instead, adults do that for them. For
foster kids, this is amplified due to a lack of long-term stable adult presence and frequent placement changes. The ability to
tell their stories and a positive outlet through w hich to do so is absent in the lives of many foster kids. A solution? What
better w ay to give kids a voice than to give them a stage.
Through stage and performance, adolescents, especially those in foster care, are provided w ith a venue to express
emotions, challenges, and the unique difficulties that they face in the system – all w ith a captive audience. They are
empow ered to speak, to be heard, and to develop confidence in their ow n voice and their ability to tell a story.
One such organization has devoted tw enty years to giving teenagers an outlet through theater. The Possibility Project is a
nonprofit organization that operates three programs for youth in New York City: a Saturday program, an after school
program for teens aged 13-19, and a program specifically geared tow ard foster youth. Overall, the organization serves
approximately 150 teenagers in New York aged 13-21. Each season is a year long, and throughout the process the teams
build and perform three original musicals that combine song, dance, and acting centered around issues the students see as
critically affecting teens today.
During a visit to the Possibility Project, Artistic Director of the foster care program Kenny Phillips said that w hen it comes to
experience, no prior performance skills are needed. In fact, Mr. Phillips acknow ledged, “I w ould rather have someone w ho
has alw ays w anted to act and has never done it but is courageous enough to come to the auditions.” Diversity is also a large
part of the equation – diversity of age, background, experience, and gender make for a thriving learning environment. Final
products have included musicals based on cyber bullying, dating violence, child abuse, rape, and homelessness. Nothing is
taken off the table, because, as Mr. Phillips says, “the idea of using their literal voice on stage directly coincides w ith being
heard in the w orld.”
What appears to be unique about this type of theatrical experience for youth is the true collaborative effort betw een
students, staff, and volunteers. In many w ays, the theater answ ers to the students and their needs, and the adult’s job is to
listen. If you dig past the surface level teens truly know w hat they need, and they know w hat they w ant the w orld to hear. By
allow ing youth to steer the outcome, the end product is raw , true, and empow ering.

2. Every foster child has a story, and theirs are the stories that American culture tends to overlook. Through performance they
have the ability to unleash emotions in a safe place. Both their frustrations and joys have a place on the stage, and for many
this may be the first experience they have w here both adults and peers desire to listen. Hopefully the result is a strong,
resilient student w ith the means and attitude to take control of their future.
Ty, a nineteen year old three-year veteran of the The Possibility Project, says that the organization has changed his life. He
stresses that his friends feel a sense of family, and often this is more of a familial environment than they’ve ever experienced
at home. The organization is a safe place w here kids are free to discuss the issues that are troubling them w ith very few
limits, and they know that it w ill be an understanding environment devoid of the fear of being shut dow n. Ty elaborates,
“When I see things on the new s about kids committing suicide, or w ho are the victims of abuse, I’m happy to be w ith [the
theater], because I’m giving those kids a voice.”
In the end, getting teens to open up about their experiences is about the questions adults, directors and leaders ask, but it
also quickly becomes about the questions students ask each other. The opportunity to perform their ow n stories allow s
teens to recognize how capable they are, and how their voices and experiences sincerely matter. Through the theater
students gain resilience, leadership skills, cross cultural competencies, and the ability to resolve conflict. Projects such as
this have proven that performance can give kids hope for their future, and confidence that they are w orthy of being heard.
They have the strength to promote change.
1 “As the Majority of School Districts Spend More Time on Reading and Math, Many Cut Time in Other Areas,” Press Release, Center on Education Policy, July 25, 2007
2 California Department of Education – School Fiscal Services Divisions. 2011-2012 Current Expense Per Average Daily Attendance
3 The Cost of Confinement: Why Good Juvenile Justice Policies Make Good Fiscal Sense. The Justice Policy Institute, May 2009
4 Child Trends Data Bank, 2011
5 http://www.americansforthearts.org/NAPD/files/9209/Arts%20Programs%20for%20Youth%20At- Risk_Pamphlet.pdf