Deep Center Incorporated

The Youth Leadership Team engaged 45 youth across 3 cohorts of advanced high school students who graduated from the beginner and intermediate programs make up the Youth Leadership Team. Members were recruited to 1)provide ongoing feedback to staff on programming, 2)to write on critical community issues, 3)to co-facilitate community conversations, and 4)to participate in leadership teams involved in engagement with national peers and adult leaders FEATURING SPOKEN WORD, DANCE,AND VISUAL ART CREATED BY YOUTH participants.

Deep Center's healing schools program worked in partner schools in the district to build supportive relationships with teachers and administrators toward the goal shifting school culture toward more restorative practices and policies for both students and educators. In the summer of 2022 Deep held the 2nd Annual Deep Writing Project, with 10 local teachers, as the only national writing project (NWP) site based in a community organization. The mission of NWP is to focus on knowledge, expertise, and leadership of our nation's educators on a sustained effort to improve writing and learning for teachers and students.

Deep Center's introductory creative writing literacy program served 264 youth with workshops held in 14 public middle schools and 2 public high schools. In 2022, 25 skilled adult volunteer writers mentored youth and allowed them the chance to write, revise, illustrate and publish their writing in 8 anthologies. The books were launched at a public event where 16 youth read their work to an audience representing the diversity of savannah.

Other Youth Programming Deep Center high school participants, including court-involved youth, engaged in various sessions to impact policy on federal, state, and local levels regarding juvenile criminal justice reform. Families were offered resources to aid their children in this undertaking and improve their quality of life.