Outreach Programs Culmination Event – Aug. 11, 6pm

Mill Street Loft’s Summer Outreach Programs, Project ABLE (job skills training and career exploration program); and PASWORD & Project AWARE (Girls Empowerment Alumnae Programs) will present a culmination event on Wednesday evening, August 11 at Gallery 45, 45 Pershing Avenue in Poughkeepsie.  The event opens with a visual arts exhibit at 6:00pm and at 6:30pm the “Sharing” will include: drumming, song and poetry performances as well as examples of job interviews, illustrating skills learned during the six week summer training program. The event is free and welcomes family and friends to view work on a major public art mural being installed around the Pershing Avenue playground, and hand-crafted journals, drawings, paintings, prints and fabric arts created by girls from Beacon and Poughkeepsie middle and high schools interpreting their summer workshop experiences including:  Earth Arts, Fine Arts, Music Arts & Fabric Arts.

Project ABLE Program Directors, Danica Ankele and Luciana Brady-Henderson (who is an alumna of the program), have guided 13 Poughkeepsie students through intensive arts-based job skills training experiences and site visits to area businesses including the GAP, Solar Generation, the Culinary Institute, Vassar College and Norrie Point Ecology Center. Youth attended computer technology sessions at Marist College and participated regularly in the public mural project directed by artist Nestor Madalengoitia. The drumming, led by Beacon-based percussionist and educator, Jeff Haynes, accompanies original poetry and spoken word writings created by the students.

Joan Henry, Director of Mill Street Loft’s Outreach Programs, along with artists Christina DiMarco and Bree Angela Thompson and naturalist Jon Delson, have shared their expertise in a wide variety of fine and earth arts and life skills with 15 PASWORD and Project AWARE alumnae girls from the cities of Beacon and Poughkeepsie. For further information about Mill Street Loft and its Outreach Programs email info@millstreetloft.org, call 845.471.7477, or visit www.millstreetloft.org.

Project ABLE (Arts, Basic Education, Life Skills, Entrepreneurship) is an innovative arts-based job skills training and prevention program initiated in 1994 for at-risk urban teens ages 14-19 in the City of Poughkeepsie who face multiple barriers to employment. Youth visit and learn about local businesses, cultural and historic sites and “earn while they learn.”  This program has received national, regional and local recognition for its innovative arts-based entrepreneurship approach to job-skills training, including the 1997 BRAVO Arts for Change Award. Project ABLE youth designed one of the six posters selected by the USDA for its National Team Nutrition Program, and were recognized by the White House. Since its inception nearly one thousand City of Poughkeepsie youth have benefited from this program.

PASWORD (Program for Adolescent Student Women Of Real Direction – in Poughkeepsie) and Project AWARE (Adolescent Women Are Realizing Empowerment – in Beacon) use the arts to address gender specific issues for adolescent urban girls challenged by teen pregnancy, domestic violence, negative peer pressure and substance abuse, and helps them to develop self-esteem and life skills as they realize their individual voices and discover their expressive selves. The summer alumnae programs offer deeper explorations using, performances, artworks & peer mentoring to raise community awareness and develop leadership and communications skills.  ####