FACE Kids working on a mural

Since 1991, FACE has offered inner city youth in Tallahassee, FL a safe and positive environment to study the visual, literary, and performing arts as well as other academic and health-related subjects during non-school hours. FACE draws most of its participants from the Frenchtown area of Tallahassee, which has a high population of children and youth who are considered “at-risk” of academic, social, and vocational failure. This area consistently has the highest crime rate in Leon County, much of it drug-related, a high percentage of low-income households (median family income between $7,493 and $9,715), and a significant number of children residing with single female heads of households.

FACE uses three effective strategies to reach its target population:

  1. Most of FACE’s activities are within walking distance in the Frenchtown community (or transportation is arranged for students to attend activities and events at other sites);
  2. FACE provides children and youth with free classes, materials, transportation, nutritious snacks, and health care counseling;
  3. FACE provides a safe haven to learn in and through the arts and actively engage with peers and caring adults.

Because FACE’s programming provides a free and positive social outlet for at-risk children and youth, our numbers have grown dramatically. Add to that the loss of many other formerly funded community activities for non-school hours, and the need for FACE is even greater. We currently teach arts classes to 40 students at least twice a week, with another 40 or more students attending at least one class per week, and with another 20 who are now in high school or beyond acting as mentors and occasional class members as well.

We provide regularly scheduled after-school classes in art, music, dance, life skills, poetry, and theatre as well as many activities on weekends. FACE also offers community mural painting, dance and musical performances, academic tutoring, and health related seminars and activities throughout the year. Each year, FACE students participate in numerous cultural outings to museums, concerts, and performances, create community art, plant and care for a community garden, and participate in community education workshops. For example, our steel drum band, the United Steel Orchestra, and our dance troupes in African dance, ballet, and modern dance perform throughout the city and area, and FACE murals dot the city in more than 20 locations.

FACE’s students and parents express extremely high levels of satisfaction with our programming. Data from surveys of participants indicate increased feelings of self-worth, self-discipline, and community appreciation, which echo the findings of national research projects that non-school arts programs are more successful than any other category (academic, athletic, community volunteers, etc.) in improving the lives of at-risk populations (See “Champions of Change”, which shows that although youth in the arts programs studied were actually at greater risk than those in other types of programs studied, characteristics particular to the arts made those programs more effective. Researchers now believe that a combination of “roles, risks, and rules” offered in the arts programs have a greater impact on these young lives.)