Create CA

Other programs: Create CA is in its fifth year of implementing a statewide public will campaign to influence decision-makers and increase access and participation in the arts. In 2023, Create CA reached over 250,000 Californians, informing them about the benefits of a culturally responsive arts education. The outreach mechanisms for the campaign include three areas: a ground game (posters, branded collateral), in-person and virtual events (conferences and webinars), and a digital media strategy (newsletter, social media). The public will campaign continues to gain followers and supporters, with our newsletter list now reaching over 19,000 individuals and social media followers topping 18,000. Create CA collaborated with WestEd, Association of California School Administrators, California County Superintendents Arts Initiative, California Latino School Boards Association, and Small School Districts' Association to create a Proposition 28 Toolkit for school district leaders and staff. This toolkit includes sample budgets, a community feedback template, and six Local Education Agency (LEA) profiles to highlight promising practices for school districts as they expand their curriculum to provide increased arts access for students. Top Five Program Accomplishments: 1. In 2023, Create CA was a field leader in disseminating information about Proposition 28, the Arts and Music In Schools (AMS) Act. Create CA organized educators, parents, artists, and policymakers to ensure the effective implementation of the landmark legislation. 2. Create CA's virtual and in-person events - training sessions, workshops, meetups, and conferences - served 2,740 advocates and provided tools and strategies to increase access to and participation in arts education. 3. Create CA's public will campaign continued to gain followers and supporters, reaching over 250,000 Californians in 2023. The campaign educates the public about the benefits of a well-rounded education, including the visual and performing arts. 4. Continuing to center students in our work, we reached 1,492 students, including 18 youth activists through our intensive Student Voices Leaders leadership program, 508 students at Student Arts Advocacy Day, 300 students through our partnership with the GRID, and multiple other events around the state. 5. Create CA partnered with the Arts Education Alliance of the Bay Area, Friends of Sacramento Arts, California State PTA, and Arts for LA to create a toolkit of advocacy and information-sharing resources about Proposition 28 for use by parents, students, and community members. All resources are available in English and Spanish. The partners collaborated on two virtual events that offered training to 197 advocates around the state.

Arts Now: Create CA's Arts Now program offers professional development and coalition building to arts advocates across California. The program has grown to serve 50 local coalitions of advocates in 29 counties across California. Create CA offers synchronous and asynchronous training for Arts Now participants, allowing them the flexibility to fit the program into their schedules. This year's Leadership Institute featured sessions about building relationships with school leaders, how to center young people in advocacy, and using communications tools to build public support for arts education. Our program team provides one-on-one technical assistance to participants outside of these group sessions. Create CA continues to host monthly Arts Now Meetups - hour-long, informal meetings for Arts Now Leaders, Arts Now Ambassadors, and any other local advocates looking to join the conversation. These meetings are a space for advocates to connect, problem-solve, share successes, and brainstorm strategies. Since opening these meetings up to the public, we have had consistently high attendance each month, and topics of discussion have been wide-ranging - including Proposition 28 implementation, building partnerships with community arts organizations, challenges and opportunities for rural school districts, and sharing strategic planning tools with school leaders, among many others. In 2023, Create CA expanded the Arts Now program to support nonprofit organizations in building their organizational capacity to advocate for further arts education programs in their community and schools. As a part of this program, organizations received technical assistance, leadership training, professional development, and access to a statewide network. The pilot cohort consisted of six arts nonprofits that worked on creating Advocacy Action Plans to support arts education in California schools.

Student Voices: Create CA served 18 Student Voices Leaders, all current 7-12th grade students in public schools around the state, providing in-depth leadership and advocacy training, facilitating collaborative learning and networking, and supporting each student in advocating to their school board members for increased arts offerings in their district. Each Student Voices Leader receives a stipend for their participation. Our Student Voices program hosted the second annual Student Arts Advocacy Day at CalArts on July 15, 2023. This event served over 500 current high school students from across California, making it the largest arts advocacy training event for students in the state. We offered numerous workshops, including Activism in Animation and Drumming for Change. Create CA expanded its youth programming to offer the annual Designing Advocacy course in partnership with ArtCenter College of Design. This program has served youth between the ages of 16 and 26 by providing a tuition-free graphic design and arts advocacy course. This course served Create CA's mission to expand access to arts education while training new arts advocates directly impacted by the lack of arts education access in California schools.