Arts Learning in Communities Resources

21st Century Community Learning Centers Program
This program supports the creation of community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities for children, particularly students who attend high-poverty and low-performing schools.
www.ed.gov/21stcclc

Arts Education Partnership (AEP)
AEP is a national coalition of arts, education, business, philanthropic and government organizations that demonstrate and promote the essential role of the arts in the learning and development of every child and in the improvement of America's schools. 
www.aep-arts.org

ARTSEDGE 
ARTSEDGE is a national arts and education information network that supports the place of arts education at the center of the curriculum through creative and appropriate uses of technology and helps educators to teach in, through and about the arts.  
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org

Arts4Learning
Arts4Learning is an online web library of diverse model programs for Arts Learning
www.arts4learning.org

Coming Up Taller: Arts and Humanities Programs for Children and Youth at Risk
A President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities program that gives annual awards to exemplary programs across the nation produces a report on best practice and offers other resources and links.
http://www.cominguptaller.org/

Community Arts Network (CAN)
The Community Arts Network supports the belief that the arts are an integral part of a healthy culture, providing both intellectual nourishment and social benefit, and that community-based arts provide significant value both to communities and artists.  CAN promotes information exchange, research, and critical dialogue within the field of community-based art.
www.commmunityarts.net

Connect for Kids
National non-profit with blogs, a newsletter, information about  advocacy issues and best practice of programs for youth and adolescents.
http://www.connectforkids.org/

The Creative Center - Arts for People with Cancer
The CCWC has a National Training Program for Hospital Artists-in-Residence to prepare artists across the country to work with patients in medical centers and hospitals. They exhibit the artwork of professional and non-professional artists who are cancer survivors to showcase the work.
http://thecreativecenter.org

Harvard Family Research Project
Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) strives to increase the effectiveness of public and private organizations and communities as they promote child development, student achievement, healthy family functioning, and community development. It provides information on program evaluation and offers a free newsletter.
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/index

Institute of Museum and Library Services
This federal agency supports museums’ and libraries’ ability to serve the public through grants to institutions, agencies, and professional associations.  An independent grant-making agency of the federal government, the Institute of Museum and Library Services has a defined, focused mission: to lead the effort to create and sustain a "nation of learners.”
www.imls.gov

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The Kennedy Center provides resources for students, educators, artists, and the public to experience and explore the arts.  It has issued “The Arts Beyond the School Day: Extending the Power.” Identifying essential elements of arts based after-school programs and a list of quality indicators that help describe each essential element, the report calls for submission of best practice models.
http://kennedy-cemter.org/education

KidPub
This website includes a collection of over 46,000 stories written by and for kids. KidPub provides a safe way for children to publish their original stories.
www.kidpub.org

National Afterschool Association
It is the mission of the National Afterschool Association to be the leading voice of the afterschool profession dedicated to the development, education and care of children and youth during their out-of school hours.
www.naaweb.org

National Center for Creative Aging
A national organization dedicated to promoting creative expression in later life that offers a national resource guide to creative programs for older people. The web serves professionals in the fields of aging, health care, social work, education and the arts with training, research information and a bibliography.
http://www.creativeaging.org/

National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities
They serve the nation as a central source of information on: IDEA, which is the law authorizing special education, No Child Left Behind (as it relates to children with disabilities), and research-based information on effective educational practices.
http://www.nichy.org

National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts
The National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts is the national service organization for a diverse constituency of non-profit organizations providing arts education in urban, suburban and rural communities throughout the United States. The National Guild advances high-quality, community-based arts education so that all people may participate in the arts according to their interests and abilities.  We support the creation and development of community schools of the arts by providing research and information resources, professional development and networking opportunities, advocacy, and high-profile leadership.
www.nationalguild.org

National Institute of Out-of-School Time (NIOST)
For nearly 30 years, the National Institute on Out-of-School Time at Wellesley College has moved the afterschool field forward through its research, education and training, consultation, and field-building. Much of NIOST’s work has encompassed projects of national scope and influence, several representing “firsts” for the field and many focusing on building out-of-school time systems.
www.niost.org

National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning:
Afterschool Training Toolkit for the Arts
Explore the Afterschool Training Toolkit for the Arts to learn about promising practices that work and ways to implement them in your afterschool program through sample lessons, tips, and illustrative videos.
www.sedl.org/afterschool/toolkits/art

New Horizons Music
New Horizons Music programs provide entry points to music making for adults, including those with no musical experience at all and also those who were active in school music programs but have been inactive for a long period.
http://www.newhorizonsmusic.org/opening_text.htm

Oklahoma After School Network
The Oklahoma Afterschool Network (OKAN) is a statewide coalition of private, public and nonprofit partners who care about Oklahoma's children and youth and the future of the state's economy and quality of life. 
http://www.okafterschool.org/

Oklahoma Institute of Child Advocacy
The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy creates awareness, takes action and changes policy on behalf of children and youth. The website offers facts and publications, policy and legislation issues, advocacy resources and more.
http://www.oica.org/

Oklahoma State Department of Health
Oklahoma state agency who’s website offers numerous resources including  The State of the State’s Health Reports, health statistics, information and programs for Oklahoma Rural Health, Oklahoma Child Health, and more.
http://www.health.state.ok.us/

Oklahoma Turning Point Council: Community Partners in Public Health Innovation
Turning Point is a national initiative of the W.K. Kellogg and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations to transform and strengthen public health infrastructures, founded on the idea that diverse groups working together can better identify and influence the determinants of health.
http://www.okturningpoint.org/

Promising Practices in Afterschool (PPAS) Listserv
This listserv brings together the worlds of youth development, school age care, and education
www.afterschool.org

Read Write Think
ReadWriteThink, established in April of 2002, is a partnership between the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Verizon Foundation. NCTE and IRA are working together to provide educators and students with access to the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction through free, Internet-based content.
www.readwritethink.org

SchoolGrants
Information is provided on how to write grants and where to find grant monies.
http://schoolgrants.org

Society for the Arts in Healthcare
SAH promotes the inclusion of arts in the planning and operations of Healthcare facilities, the professional development and management of arts programming for Healthcare populations, educational projects, and research initiatives. SAH has conferences, seminars, newsletters, and a database of Arts in Healthcare and grant opportunities.
http://www.theSAH.org

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) 
The mission of SEDL is to solve significant problems facing educational systems and communities to ensure a quality education for all learners.  SEDL’s primary efforts are in five program areas: improving school performance, strengthening teaching and learning in content areas, integrating technology into teaching and learning, involving family and community in student learning, and connecting disability research to practice. Work in these areas concentrates on K–16 education and on underserved students, particularly those living in poverty.
www.sedl.org

What Kids Can Do: Voices and Work from the Next Generation
What Kids Can Do, Inc. (WKCD) is a national not-for-profit organization founded in 2001 for the purpose of making public the voices and views of adolescents. On its website, WKCD documents young people's lives, learning, and work, and their partnerships with adults both in and out of school.
http://www.whatkidscando.org/