Programs
Stand Up For The Arts
Primary Target Group
At risk youth, adjudicated youth in middle school and high school youth at risk of dropping out.
Purpose:
Stand Up for the Arts (SUFTA) was first developed by IDEA to meet the artistic needs of at-risk students in the Camden School District's 
Instructional Support Programs for Alternative School settings.
Description and Methodology:
SUFTA is the mobilization of IDEA's belief that arts education can create real change - that it can enhance young people's attitudes about themselves, and provide them with the skills to change their futures and their communities. Many of these students feel left out, and are on dangerous paths to uncertain futures. They often live in fear - with hopelessness, despair, anger, blame and depression as common emotions. SUFTA helps young people recognize these emotions and through their own creativity and hard work, experience hope, contentment, joy and appreciation.
- The Program actively involves students-working in clusters-in a comprehensive, sequential arts training curriculum that includes developing, collaborating, performing and producing a tangible artistic product.
- The clusters are lead by successful artists (currently working in their field) who form bonds of trust with the teens and guide them through thought-provoking and challenging activities that tap their creative potential.
- The clusters include music, drama, modern dance, poetry, hip hop/spoken word, visual arts, audio engineering and video production.
- By producing tangible works of art - including positive rap songs, comic books, documentaries, and dance videos that are recorded and produced by the technical teams - students gain a sense of accomplishment and see first hand how their work can impact others.
- By collaborating side-by-side with successful artists, students envision new opportunities for future careers.
- By learning self-expression, students are empowered to use their creativity to propel them through school, work and life's challenges.
Special Considerations:
Partnership with IDEA and School District's who have an alternative school population.
Results and Effects:
An analysis of the evaluation measures employed showed that the most significant finding was that 
SUFTA had positively impacted the behaviors and attitudes of the at-risk youth it served. Increases were found in students' class room attendance, grades, team work and their ability to manage anger in a more productive manner. The program led the students to discover/recognize and value the talents they possess that can serve as their foundation for successful growth and development into adulthood. It was found that through experiential learning classes and activities in the performing arts, the youth gained the tools required to begin on their journey to self-worthiness and fulfillment and more globally to become positive contributors to their community and society at large. Some teachers found that when they used concepts/themes from the SUFTA classes in their lesson plans, students were more interested and involved in their classroom work. One principal reported that three students who were planning to drop-out, decided to remain after starting the SUFTA program.
Pictures from the Stand Up for the Arts program
Samples of the comic book
