The ASTEP Experience New York City
Artists Striving To End Poverty (ASTEP) uses the arts as a tool to empower young people with creativity, knowledge, and a strong sense of self-esteem, factors which help them advance their lives and communities. At ASTEP, we provide artists with opportunities to connect with global youths, allowing them to use their gifts to create meaningful and effective change for young people in need.
About You
Section 1: You
First Name
Beth
Last Name
Konopka
Website URL
Organization
Artists Striving To End Poverty
Country
United States, NY
Section 2: Your Organization
Organization Name
Artists Striving To End Poverty
Organization Website
Organization Phone
2129211227
Organization Address
165 West 46th Street Suite 1303, New York, NY 10036
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Organization Country
United States, NY
Your idea
Name Your Project
The ASTEP Experience New York City
Country and state your work focuses on
United States, NY
Describe Your Idea
Artists Striving To End Poverty (ASTEP) uses the arts as a tool to empower young people with creativity, knowledge, and a strong sense of self-esteem, factors which help them advance their lives and communities. At ASTEP, we provide artists with opportunities to connect with global youths, allowing them to use their gifts to create meaningful and effective change for young people in need.
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
In continued pursuit to use art as a catalyst for change, ASTEP provides children around the world with vital living arts education programming designed to promote belief in a future beyond poverty. This past year alone, ASTEP’s community of actively engaged volunteer artists have touched the lives of over 700 children across India, Africa, Florida and New York City. In the summer of 2009 ASTEP partnered with two new organizations to further our reach and affect change in the lives of additional New York City children. The first partnership, inspired by ASTEP's relationship with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS was with the Incarnation Children's Center, the nations' only pediatric HIV/AIDS facility dealing with children who not only have the virus but also have other special needs. The second was the International Rescue Committee, which supports newly arrived refugee children by providing them with immediate aid including food, shelter access to housing, job placement, employment skills, clothing, medical attention and education. With both groups ASTEP's aim is to help these children transition; culturally and through lifestyle changes, via communal arts projects and classes.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
ASTEP believes and demonstrates that collaborative, relational, artistic experiences provide a solid foundation for long term change. Through the arts, ASTEP volunteers challenge students to think outside the box; thinking in terms of possibilities rather than probabilities and creating a practical palette of choices that make happiness attainable and failures productive.
ASTEP is currently providing services to four communities in three countries; Homestead, FL, New York, NY, Johannesburg, South Africa and Bangalore, India. At each location ASTEP collaborates with local social service and education organizations to define and help solve the problems that particular group of children face.
ASTEP has developed and refined a curriculum model that positively impacts the lives of young participants beyond their time in the program. By incorporating learning standards drawn from the National Endowment for The Arts, The Kennedy Center and other accredited establishments, ASTEP trains its volunteers to deliver programming grounded in arts education that scaffolds and integrates other relevant learning objectives like academics, life skills and HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness. Using art as a catalyst for change, ASTEP has provided these children with a voice, awakened their dreams and given them the essential life skills, dedication to teamwork, self expression, communication and confidence to believe in a future beyond poverty.
Problem
14 million American children live in poverty. 3.5 of these children are at risk for hunger. Currently, child poverty in New York State is a whopping 26.3%, ranking it the highest in the industrialized world. 1 in every 4 children (approximately 527,085) in New York City come from families with an annual income of $16,600.00 or less for a family of three.
Having immigrant parents also increases a child's chances of living in a low-income family. New York's 1.5 million poor people are as diverse in race, culture and tradition as the City itself. What they share in common is the lack of skills, education, and capital necessary to achieve a better future. Children living in poverty face a disproportionate number of risk factors that jeopardize their well-being and life outcomes. Children in poverty are 2 times more likely to repeat a grade and 3.5 times more likely to drop out of school than children who live above the poverty line. In short, high rates of child poverty and income inequality in the U.S. can be reduced, but effective, widespread, and long-lasting change will require shifts in both national policy and the economy.
Actions
The children from the ICC represent all five boroughs of New York and a growing number have recently emigrated from Africa. One challenge the ICC faces is the transitioning and reintegration of the oldest patients into active members of society. At 21 these young adults are required to leave the center and pursue lives independent from the sheltered upbringing of the ICC. ASTEP was invited to provide the 18-21 year olds at the ICC six weeks of interactive experiences that focused on developing individual living skills and action plans through artistic explorations of everyday life, personal circumstance and the power of community.
The children involved in the IRC program come from countries all over the world including Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Tibet, Iraq, Guinea, Congo, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Cuba, Togo and China. ASTEP volunteers in collaboration with the IRC hope to inspire the children of these very different communities, by way of artistic projects and classes, to look toward each other for inspiration and support and help build bridges between their communities to create a commonality where all of their talents can flourish and equal opportunities explored.
Results
Several weeks after the end of the ICC program, Lillie McCatty, the ICC’s therapeutic specialist, affirmed the impact ASTEP left on the ICC community commenting that the staff and students of the ICC frequently reminisced about their positive experiences with ASTEP. More significantly, she referred to the ASTEP volunteers as ‘more than mentors’ noting that ASTEP had created a community that recognized these youths for everything they had to offer as opposed to only seeing them as children living with a devastating disease. This sense of belonging inspired some of these young adults to confidently audition for their school performances and established in others a sense of responsibility that has positively affected their daily routines and bolstered responsible independent behaviors. The program was such a success that ASTEP has been invited back for two sessions in 2010.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
Year One: ASTEP needs to pursue a strategic marketing/recruitment campaign to enlist more volunteers into service.
Year Two: ASTEP will need to research multi-year funding opportunities specifically geared towards volunteerism efforts.
Year Three: ASTEP will need to expand opportunities/ partnerships to accommodate an increase in volunteers.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Today's tough economic climate makes it increasingly difficult to ensure the longevity and expansion of our programs. Donations are the lifeblood of our organization. Without them, the youths of Homestead and Port Elizabeth, and the children of Shanti Bhavan would be unable to participate in our programs, our artists would be unable to ply their talents and inspiration, our office would stumble to a halt. Financial support allows ASTEP to function in all of its capacities, providing us with the means to enrich the lives and communities of young people in need across the globe.
As ASTEP is approached by other potential partnerships we aim to enter into a growth stage as strategic and organized as humanly possible. The challenge at this stage is to create a volunteerism distribution model that keeps ASTEP's core methodology intact without watering down the integrity of our mission and programming.
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for less than a year
In what country?
United States, NY
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
Artists Striving To End Poverty
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
No
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
No
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
As with all ASTEP initiatives ASTEP collaborates with local social service and education organizations to define and help solve the problems a particular group of children face. Together, these partnerships create safe spaces where the children and/or artists work; inviting a deeper investment in the communities' connection to its children and/or commitment to the arts. Understanding the need for sustainable change, our local partners also assist in maintaining relationships and continuing the work with when ASTEP is not on site.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
In line with ASTEP’s strategic plan, the next 3 years will be focused on increasing our pool of volunteer artists and further developing/formalizing/copyrighting ASTEP Curriculum to ensure we are bring both quality and quantity to our current partnering organizations. Moving forward into ASTEP’s 5 year goals; it is our priority to have criteria for successful partnerships mapped out so as to be able to pursue new partnerships that align closely with ASTEP’s mission as well as identify and fill additional core staff positions needed for this type of growth. By 10 years, it is our hope to be an organization strong, sustainable and sought after enough to pursue globalization of our operations and mission.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
ASTEP was conceived by Mary-Mitchell Campbell who, while volunteering at Mother Teresa's missionary in India, was motivated to effect change in the lives of children in the developing world. After returning to NYC, Mary-Mitchell began work on forming an arts-based non-profit designed specifically to help combat worldwide childhood poverty.
Simultaneously, a group of enthusiastic Julliard students had formed who, post-9/11, were looking for an effective way to give back to the community using the most significant tool they had -- their art. Mary-Mitchell, then a faculty member at Juilliard, was moved by the group's energy and became their advisory mentor.
Collaboratively, they decided on a goal: to demonstrate the power of the Arts as a universal tool for engendering a greater sense of social understanding and acceptance in spite of any socially-recognized differences.
Lead by now Chief Program Director Mauricio Salgado and Chief Operations Officer Beth Konopka the very first ASTEP initiative occurred in Homestead, Florida and this became the prototype program upon which all of the ASTEP camps are formulated.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
Mauricio Salgado, Beth Konopka and Mary-Mitchell Campbell are all integral parts to the creation and continuation of ASTEP. As an actor, dancer and musician all three artists have striven and keep striving to emulate and deliver ASTEP's core philosophies that encompass the artist as a citizen by continuing to balance performing while simultaneously implementing valuable services to children in poverty around the world. Please visit the ASTEP website for further details on each individual http://www.asteponline.org/staff.html
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Email from Changemakers
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
50 words or fewer
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