2017 Grantee
CASA is an independent, nonprofit creative arts afterschool program located in San Francisco. They are dedicated to guiding youth toward open expression, expansive hearts and questioning minds. By providing a safe and inspiring environment, children receive visual and performing arts instruction infused with social justice themes.
How the program contributes to peace and social consciousness:
CASA has a fulltime wellness counselor who conducts individual and group therapy using expressive arts. At CASA, children are free to be themselves within a structured arts curriculum and in turn graduate with a love for the arts, but more importantly they leave with a drive to be a better human. Their program has produced original musicals created in partnership with their 250 students and a diverse team of artist/educators.
How we collaborated
In 2017, Leslie Einhorn, Executive Director at CASA co-facilitated a peaceful world conversation with Laurie Marshall from Create Peace Project on the question, “What is Fluidity?” The conversation was lively as we elaborated on defining the concept of fluidity.
We concluded our conversation with an interest in further exploring the ideas of identity, labels and the comforts and limitations that come with them. Perhaps the deeper question we are all reaching for when we consider labels and identity is, “what does it mean to be human?”
Visit their website : http://casasf.org/