CAPACITY BUILDING
WHAT WE DO
Arts Ed Newark was founded on the principles of collective advocacy and empowerment. As such, our Evaluation work over the years has helped develop a mindset of “lifting all boats” for the greater sake of access. Since 2015, our evaluation learning community has helped more than 20 partners build capacity in order to develop a common language around evaluation and meet an important tenet of collective impact as a community serving a common mission. We set out to share the collective Newark arts education story, increase organizational evaluation capacity, demonstrate impact, and inform individual work. With support and leadership from our evaluation committee and researcher, Dr. Deborah E. Ward, the following partners have helped to create our community tools, develop best practices, and build skills in data analysis:
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Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater*
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Arts Horizons
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Arts for Kids
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Butterfly Dreamz
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Educational Arts Team
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Express Newark
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GlassRoots
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Institute of Music for Children
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Jazz House Kids
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Keys 2 Success
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Montclair Art Museum
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New Jersey Performing Arts Center
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New Jersey Symphony
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Newark Board of Education
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Newark Museum of Art
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Newark School of the Arts
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Newark Symphony Hall
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Save The Music Foundation
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Wharton Arts
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Yendor Productions
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YMCA
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Young Audiences NJ & Eastern PA
Beginning in 2016, we developed an evaluation committee, identified our partners’ unifying questions and common goals, hosted workshops and brainstorming sessions to build evaluation capacity, developed common tools to measure impact and connected data with partners’ stories. We began virtual Help Desks but changed them to Evaluation Conversations sessions open to all partners. This is all while we facilitated an iterative process – with new areas of learning added as requested.
Workshop topics include some of the following:
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Creating Logic Models
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Survey Creation
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Survey Analysis 101 & 102
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Focus Groups
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Early Childhood Evaluation Part I & II
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Telling Your Story
WHY THIS WORK MATTERS
Over 20 Arts Ed Newark partner organizations have collected evaluation data through common tools to measure the impact of their programming on students, teachers and families in our community. We have collected and analyzed data from over 30,000 surveys completed by students in our community over the last 8 years. We now hold a deeper understanding as individual organizations and as a collective of the impact our arts programming has on youth. Our partners have more organizational and staff capacity to complete evaluation work. Collectively, we have taken something that is really complex and often overwhelming and made it accessible and transparent for our community of partners.
The impact of COVID-19 has created a new learning curve, and we are continuing to build by focusing on Equity in Evaluation, where community members are once again, partners in designing the evaluation plan and in the collection of evaluation data. We are working on expanding training topics and opportunities, connecting evaluation data with programmatic data to tell a more robust story and refreshing our commitment to this work post-pandemic and establishing a database to house our collective work.
“The value this program has had in my life is unmeasurable. I met new friends and like minded peers. I gain the confidence to properly advocate for my child. I learned how to find and read a school budget, what questions to ask and who to ask them to when trying to resolve a problem that pertains to my child's education. I also was able to create a project for a cause I believe in with my peers that could really help my community.” --parent ambassador
“This program has shown me what it is to be able to speak out and be able to sit in a room full of other educated people and feel empowered.” --"parent ambassador"
“I do have a voice and can make a significant difference in advocating for my child and other students.” --parent ambassador
Class of 2023
MEET OUR EVALUATION TEAM
Kaleena Berryman (2023 & 2024)
A2 Lead Program Facilitator
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Parent Advocate
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Rooted Social Justice Organizer, Educator, Consultant
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Executive Director, Newark Youth Career Pathways
MENTORS
Richard Marshall (2023 & 2024)
A2 Mentor
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Director of Program Operations, Marketing & Community Outreach, Newark School of the Arts
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AEN Leadership Council Secretary
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Breaking For Gold USA Dance Council
Monifa Kincaid (2024)
A2 Mentor
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Program Director for the Youth Arts Ed Council and Community Engagement Activator
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Founder of Newark Dances
Alicia Pinnix Robinson (2023)
A2 Mentor
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Founder and Director of Artfikaa
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Retired Newark Public Schools Arts Educator
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Member of The National Art Educators Association
Tyneisha Gibbs (2023)
A2 Mentor
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Director of Policy and Youth Advocacy;
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Non-Profit Professional of Color Collective Co-Founder & Executive Director
Andrew Binger (2024)
A2 Mentor
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Actor, Director, Educator
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Artistic Director of Yendor Theater Company
Markeisha Ross (2023)
A2 Mentor
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Author of A Mother’s Struggle in the Public School System
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Parent Advocate for Special Education and Family Support Services
Victoria Marie 'Vicki' Fernandez (2023)
A2 Mentor
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Grunin Foundation
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Director of Thriving Communities
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Non-Profit Professional of Color Collective, Co-Founder
PANELISTS AND FACILITATORS
Rosie Grant (2023 & 2024)
A2 Facilitator
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Executive Director of the Paterson Education Fund
Dr Leah Z Owens (2024)
A2 Facilitator
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Founder & Owner of Just Writing, LLC
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Education Committee Chairperson, Newark NAACP
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Former at-Large Member of NPS Board of Education 2016-2019
AnnMarie Miller (2024)
A2 Panelist
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Former Director of Advocacy & Public Policy ArtPride New Jersey
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Chair of Arts Ed NJ
Wendy Liscow (2023 & 2024)
A2 Panelist
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Executive Director of Arts Ed New Jersey
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AEN Engagemement Committee Member
Samantha Lott-Velez (2024)
A2 Panelist
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Assistant Superintendent of Newark Public Schools
Ennis Carter (2023)
A2 Facilitator
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Founder & Director of Social Impact Studios
Thank you to our sponsors !
