Benefit to Youth
Destiny Arts Center functions as a forum for youth to explore, express and reshape daily challenges through physical, emotional and creative growth. Offered during critical after-school hours when youth are habitually exposed to destructive lifestyle choices, we document many instances of young participants who, though initially skeptical, used our violence prevention strategies in real-life situations. We also document ways that involvement in our movement arts programs, especially the performance companies, increases a sense of self efficacy and esteem. In intertwining concrete strategies with programs that steadily build youths’ positive self-concept. Destiny Arts Center prevents or stops students from being either victims or perpetrators of violence. Additionally, youths’ feelings of safety and self worth add to their cognitive, social, emotional and physical development, inspiring them toward long-term, effective participation in school and community.
Destiny Arts Center impacts over 4,000 youth each year through our Arts Center and in our Artists in Schools program.
MAP SHOWS WHERE WE HAVE ARTISTS IN SCHOOLS PROGRAM (and also indicates our Center)
Young people from all over the Bay Area travel to our center for classes that engage students artistically and teach lifelong skills.
True to our culture of welcome and our mission to end prejudice– a leading cause of violence in our communities– Destiny serves low-income youth and youth of color in their own neighborhoods while also attracting and then consciously integrating a broad spectrum of families from diverse social, ethnic and economic backgrounds.
Destiny students experience less isolation, prejudice and violence in their lives by learning to manage their emotions, resolve conflicts nonviolently, practice their discipline, and effectively communicate and collaborate with instructors, peers, their families, and with people different than themselves.
Through the creation of original work that is relevant to themselves and their communities, Destiny students use productions to provoke discussion, increase awareness about these issues, and thus promote social change.
Destiny students are more likely to pursue higher education degrees and/or careers in the performing arts and/or engage in socially responsible work.