Youth SWAY (Storytelling, Wellness, Art and You) is an Arts Together initiative conducted in partnership with Communities in Schools and Raleigh Housing Authority and primarily serves young people living in RHA communities. This Spring we operated programming in Heritage Park and Mayview, but this program is quickly expanding to serve young people from the surrounding neighborhoods as well. Our teaching artists spend time in each community once a week for afterschool enrichment. SWAY will also be operating week-long summer camps in both communities this summer.

SWAY is a multi-art approach to engaging young people living in marginalized communities with artmaking and the creative process. This program is designed to launch discovery, connection, and creativity to give young people a platform to explore and discover the arts.

• Story: Sharing Individual experiences with others. Turning these experiences into stories that explore and interpret these experiences into visual art and movement phrases (dance and movement).

• Wellness: The creative experiences help young people find common ground while acknowledging their joys and fears in a supportive, safe, and nurturing environment.

• Art: Taking these experiences and translating them into visual art and dance expression created by way of storytelling, sharing, and collaborating with others to tell the story.

• You: "You" is significant. Our young participants guide the process for SWAY. They determine the program projects and help create every aspect of the program in order to have ownership over the process and the objectives of the classes.

Our objective is to cultivate trust and connection in the community by providing opportunities for meaningful collaboration through a multi-art experience for our participants. Students have ownership of the program and help create the direction of their arts experience based on a variety of factors such as current events which directly affect the quality of life and personal safety of our young people. This objective aligns with our vision that "ALL members of the community should have access to transformative arts experiences."

For more information about Youth SWAY, please contact our Director of Arts Programs, Renee Boyette at renee@artstogether.org.