Coming 2011!
We thought what better way to get kids off the street than to offer organized art workshops where they design their own product. Youth will have the opportunity to use their creativity and artistic ability in positive ways. The designs will be converted into screen prints and then printed onto shirts that will ultimately be sold. The youth will have a chance to learn how to create, promote and sell their own product. They gain a sense of ownership and responsibility while learning entrepreneurial skills that will last forever. This project will begin Summer 2011!
Check out Underground Tees!
We were in the Pepsi Refresh Contest!
What is Underground Tees?
There will be 8 Saturday workshops that allow the youth and UTP to figure out how we're going to create, promote and sell products. Youth will have hands on guidance in envisioning their designs and learning how to accurately market their product, which will be the self designed clothing items they will create. From the ground up youth will have the chance to first draw their designs in a drawing pad we provide. They will make the products literally themselves with a screen printer. The planning of this will allow the youth to review the loss and profit of their product, they will also have a chance to budget in educationally stimulating trips we will take around DC. This program will implement entrepreneurial skills into their life that they can carry with them well into their adulthood.
Why do we need programs like Underground Tee's?
We are witnessing the younger generation become less and less interested in going to school and doing things that are productive, in regards to their future. These workshops will give them the opportunity to get off the streets, out of their negative environments and into an atmosphere that is encouraging. The county we reside in lives in accounts for 60% of it's high school students graduating; that just isn't right. With research stating that art has the ability to enhance a student's ability to acquire core academic skills UTP feels enrichment through the arts is necessary. We have the ability to carry this out because we live in the community, we speak with the community of youth in our neighborhood and we see that they are restless.
How will we know we are making a difference?
Our success will be measured in how many youth continue to show up and stay off the streets. The success will also be measured out of how much the youth learn. Once they produce their shirts they will have to sell them to real people. Will they be successful? Will they learn from their mistakes? Will they achieve the goals they set before they started? The answers to these questions will allow UTP to measure our success.