By: Jeff M. Poulin
In 2019, the Creative Youth Development National Partnership engaged in a project to better understand the funding landscape of their field. To illustrate their findings, researchers connected with funders and program leaders in four settings to better understand the dynamics of their partnerships.
Creative Youth Development (CYD) is a recent term for a longstanding theory of practice that integrates creative skill-building, inquiry, and expression with positive youth development principles, fueling young people’s imaginations and building critical learning and life skills.
The research that has been conducted involves an analysis of current and potential CYD funders, the experience and attitudes of those funders through a developed Skill/Will Map, and a deep-dive set of case stories illuminating partnerships between funders and CYD programs.
Mapping Skill to Will: Approaches to Funding Creative Youth Development in the United States
Reflection tool for funders to assess their Skill/Will
Overall, the data suggests several interwoven trends in behavior of funders in relation to their CYD program counterparts across the four categories of skill and will. Regardless of the skill or will, individuals operating within the CYD and philanthropic sectors can improve their own abilities and successfully navigate the structures that govern their work. We recognize that funding is a complex system that only moves at the speed of the individuals within it. Thus, we applaud the funders and program officers who seek to learn, understand, and grow by reading reports like this one.
We have developed a short critically reflective assessment (shown above) for funders and program officers to complete provide guidance as to which category they may currently fit.
Download the publication here.
Building Pathways to Funding: A Strategy Towards Expanding Funding for the CYD Field
Matrix of Skill and Will attributes for funding CYD
The funding landscape can be broken down using a Skill/Will Map.
Skill: experience with a task, training, knowledge, and natural talents
Will: desire to achieve, confidence in abilities, and attitude towards a task
Using this model to examine the four categories of funder behavior (Field Builders, Potential Stars, Reluctant Allies, Potential Funders) provides insight into funders and organizations experiences and attitudes about funding CYD. Remember, no category is more positive or negative than any other, but rather these categories were designed to help funders (and their CYD program partners) better understand how to navigate the funding world. As CYD practitioners, you can also find actions to take in order to best position CYD for the future: collaborating, advocating, educating, and introducing.
Download the publication here.
The following case stories showcase four partnerships between a funder and a local CYD program, demonstrating the “funding skill” and “funding will” traits of the funder.
YMCA Lighthouse Project & The Heinz Endowments: A Case Story
The Lighthouse Project began organically, working with teenage students in media arts and music, originally in a local high school. Eventually, the program found its way to the YMCA and began to grow. As part of the YMCA, the program was eligible for funding through the Heinz Endowments, a large, regional funder – in fact, they were the only request to the arts/culture portfolio of the foundation from the Y. Not only that, but this was a very rare request focused on the intersection of the arts and youth development.
Download the publication here.
San Diego Creative Youth Development Network & The Clare Rose Foundation: A Case Story
Across San Diego County, as the network formalized and expanded, the once-unprogrammed group now had an infrastructure to support specific collective needs like self care, thematic shared learning, advocacy to local officials, and engagement across the state and nation. With a new name – the San Diego Creative Youth Development Network – members now feel a legitimacy and a broad, far-reaching impact of their work together. The ecosystem of CYD in San Diego Country feels united, connected, and supported.
Download the publication here.
Memphis Music Initiative & ELMA Philanthropies: A Case Story
When two colleagues met years before working together, they knew they had a penchant for collaboration. When it came time for that collaboration, the ELMA Philanthropies program officer and founding executive director worked together to answer the question, “How do we best support leaders of color to transform their communities through music in the most underinvested communities in the country?”
Download the publication here.
BAYCAT & The Golden State Warriors: A Case Story
BAYCAT is a hybrid, social enterprise organization. They believe that, by placing more storytellers into the community from under-represented backgrounds in the field, the stories will more accurately reflect the community. “Change the storytellers, change the world,” says BAYCAT founder, Villy Wang. Over years, they built a long-standing relationship with the Golden State Warriors to support emerging storytellers.
Download the publication here.
We believe that by working together, funders and CYD programs and practitioners can build funding pathways to expand the field of CYD. This research provides basic principles and ideas for action, however, true partnerships moves at the speed of the individuals within them.
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Poulin, J. M. (2020, August 18). Skill and Will Mapping: New Research on Funding Creative Youth Development in the United States. Creative Generation Blog. Creative Generation. Retrieved from https://www.creative-generation.org/blogs/skill-and-will-mapping-new-research-on-funding-creative-youth-development-in-the-united-states