Focus Area: Youth Development

Grant Amount: $7,500

Based in St. Paul, serves the Twin Cities area. BBBS matches youth facing adversity with positive volunteer mentors to positively impact the youths’ lives. After Free Arts MN dissolved in 2017, BBBS adopted its curriculum and hired three of its staff. Free Arts of BBBS uses arts as a tool to support social-emotional development, providing arts education and mentoring for youth facing homelessness, mental health treatment, and therapy for abuse and extreme poverty.

Grant supports a partnership with Lutheran Social Services to provide programming at 2 sites: the River of Life Church in north Minneapolis, and the Center for Changing Lives in south Minneapolis. BBBS is recruiting culturally appropriate artists to work with the youth at both of these locations. The program will recruit volunteer adult mentors, as well as provide opportunities for high school students to serve as mentors.