ArtTEK for TEENS

ArtTEK for TEENS

an after school solution that helps to eliminate the gap between technology and creatives  (ArtTEK for TEENS website page)

Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, is located in the Appalachian Mountain range. Close to Pittsburgh, yet far enough away that high school technology education is not being addressed through the same financial support that our neighboring county receives. That is why ArtTEK for TEENS has been created.

Interviewing our local businesses, CAD or any vector program usage is much needed, but not strongly supported in the public school system. ArtTEK for TEENS developed an after school set of workshops that are trendy, encourages creativity, are hands on action, and have a wow factor. 

Workshops: Holography Basics, 3D Print, Videography and Drone Art, Animatronics.

Interviews with a wide range of local manufacturing and production companies indicated that a widely used program format is vector (example: CAD). Westmoreland County has named 3D Print as the target industry to revitalize the County.

Autodesk is so impressed with River Art Works' goal to introduce and expand knowledge of their products they donated over $240,000 worth of services and product usage. We are looking at further development of this program so that it can be mimicked anywhere technology crossover is lacking. In fact we would like this program to be an organization sustainable training program.

Founder Jane Altman has a lifelong entrepreneurial background. There are three musts in further development of the program:

1. Basic business must be taught including introduction to supporting services such as the SBDC and SCORE.

2. Creative Technology must be the focus. creative technology that can lead to a stronger, more sustainable income.

3. These remain hands on train method. The goal here is to help the students understand those not successful inside a traditional classroom can achieve success other ways.

Students with learning disabilities are highlighted above. 

Westmoreland County is interesting in the way underserved education pops out. The dividing line between Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) and Westmoreland County is fairly well served with migration of technology education. Once the border towns are crossed, leading into the Appalachian Mountains, communities that have had enough funding and resources to compete in the technology realm are non-existent. It is this sector and other sectors with similar statistics that could greatly benefit from technology education outside the public school system, home school system, and the small private schools.

Much time was devoted to extensive interviews of Votech and main stream public schools with both Department Leaders and school Principles. To gauge interest, we invited students to attend interactive demonstrations.

There has been interest in the Junior High Schools, but the ArtTEK for TEENS Pilot Program will focus on the high school level student and recent graduates. Reasoning: equipment is sometimes fragile and expensive. The more mature, the better.

River Art Works works with:

Derry School District 67.9% White, 5.7% Black, 14.3% Asian, 8% Hispanic, economically disadvantaged 31.6%

Ligonier School Districts: 96% White, 2% two or more races, 1% Hispanic, and 1% Black, economically disadvantaged 59.7%

Latrobe School District: 93% White, 3% Two or more races, 2% Hispanic, 1% Asian, and 1% Black, economically disadvantaged 55%

Greensburg: 82.7% White, 5.9% Black, 0.2% Asian or Asian, 2.5% Hispanic, economically disadvantaged 32.1%

Hempfield School Districts:  minority enrollment is 30%. economically disadvantaged 25.1%

Mt Pleasant School District: 95.3% White, 0.7% Black, 0.2% Asian 0.8% Hispanic, economically disadvantaged 30.8%

Scottdale School District: 94.4% White, 0.9% Black, 0.4% Asian, 0.9% Hispanic, economically disadvantaged 57%

Yough School District: 93.6% White, 1.3% Black, 0.1% Asian or Asian, 0.9, Hispanic,  economically disadvantaged 35.3%

Employee advancement:

All industries we are addressing are categories that are in rapid growth.

Interviews with manufacturers in general categories and interviews specifically with 3D Print Manufacturers indicate the lack of knowledge of vector program usage is dramatically lowering the wages of their employees. Even basic understanding of these programs increases wages somewhat and gives the applicant advantage over other applicants.

River Art Works students are given basic financial understanding as well. We have guest speakers from local business support groups such as SCORE and SBDC so that students are introduced to solid entrepreneurial skillsets should they pursue that route.

AUTODESK is so impressed with our goals they have donated over $240,000 in goods and services that include CAD and Photoshop.

OTHER   Community Drug Use Reduction: Increasing Employable Workforce Numbers

If we address the needs of a greatly overlooked and under valuated (ADD and ADHD, Dyslexia) we are addressing 1/3 the student body. Times that thought by three times the drug addiction rate. Some of the towns we are working with have as high as 50% drug addiction, leaving slim pickings for employment candidates. If we can redirect potential addicts into focusing on skills that add to society, we will be very happy. This writer closed a restaurant after having to revive a dead cook from an overdose. This is personal, too.

STEPS:

• 1.Impact usually takes a few years to happen so difficult to measure.
  1. Reach out to employees and employers with targeted survey
• 2.Outcomes unintended and intended changes that students experience. One could be increased Baseline Results                    Midline Results                                         End Line results
• 3.Outputs immediate results from the workshops
  1. Number of students completing sessions
  2. Student confidence entering the job market
  3. A better understanding that the job market is a very, very broad market
• 4.Activities What activities need to happen to achieve outputs?
  1. Provide high quality, hands on focused, training sessions
  2. Skill building training with a mix of computer time and activity.
  3. Include business training and relationships
• 5.Inputs resources or investment needed to make sure the activities happen
  1. Quality course materials
  2. Quality trainers
  3. Physical location
  4. Volunteer staffing
  5. Investors
• 6.TOC needs to align with stated program and mission statement The most important components to monitor are the outputs and the outcomes. 

The overall assumption here is that the people who complete the sessions will have a greater chance of attaining a sustainable income. Gathering data of general pop vs our grads will help solidify assumptions.

2

30

415

The businesses we serve is defined as regional businesses that are in need of CAD designers, drone/videography operators, 3D print companies, and companies that will benefit from cutting edge hologram usage.

Westmoreland County is next door neighbor to Pittsburgh's county. It boasts companies that are highly respected around the world. Westmoreland announced last year it has targeted 3D Print as it's fastest growing industry. 

Traditionally, Westmoreland attracts businesses looking for lower cost locations that are close to Pittsburgh's metropolitan area. From company interviews, tech companies located here thinking the population was better trained in technology than they actually are trained. Now the struggle is how to keep up with demand with less employees. We need to address this issue.

Our board includes a County Commissioner, eight universities on committee, advisors and educators include local business leaders.

A friend began a small program called To Know Me Is To Love Me. It was developed as an after school program that addressed racial fighting in school. It has gone nationwide. My takeaway is this, investing even small amounts of time to get to know someone is very valuable, no matter the age.

OPENING DOORS: Attending community meetings, stepping into the workplace, conversations as one leader to another opens many doors, socially attending events

ESTABLISHING RELATIONSHIPS: open houses, students touring potential employer facilities, community leaders speaking in workshops, dinner and goofy golf with the boss night

Our five year goal is to successfully place 415 students, minimum, per ArtTEK facility. Our goal is to plant four facilities within the county.

Each year 

graduate at minimum 55 students per facility

small teacher/student ratio workshops = 13 per workshop x 2 groups per year =26 x 4 topics = 104 student graduates per year potential

MINUS: 20% attrition = 83 average student graduates per year

83 x 5 years = 415

Truist Foundation along with the MIT team offer an incredible opportunity to have mature early stage of development. As Founder of River Art Works, the host of ArtTEK for TEENS, I am new to leading a nonprofit. But, I have been an entrepreneur for decades. The assumption was the transition would be fairly simple. NOT AT ALL! Some days I hold my head thinking I will never understand how nonprofit leaders think.

I have recently been blessed with a mentor that is helping me with Board building. We have revamped the ByLaws and the Board Member application. We have gotten to the point we feel we can confidently reach out to the community to build a better board.

If I could get the same grasp on other aspects of nonprofit leadership in these early stages, there would be peace of mind... confidence in leading this program.

Help Needed: 

1. Raising capitol. Our expenses are about to get higher than before. We were blessed with a great space for free. Even utilities were paid by the donor. I would like to start a building fund.

2. Stronger support team, including a paid assistant / grant writer

3. market analysis and marketing 

4. fundraising strategy

These are the top four concerns I have right this moment. I would be thrilled to have help solving these issues. 

I recently found a great mentor to help with Board matters. He has taught me the ByLaws importance and we rewrote them, how to approach onboarding members. I am really seeing why my Board is weak. The tenured Board Members of other organizations were expecting something completely different than what I had offered.

I am hoping This alliance can offer the same in other areas. This project needs to move forward.