Drama Club consistently cares for youth who are incarcerated and court-involved by creating space for them to thrive, using improv as their guide. From reducing anxiety to improving communication and building trust, the mental health benefits of improv are undeniable for everyone, let alone youth navigating difficult circumstances. Emboldened by the five guiding principles of improv, participants' infinitely inventive and ingenious ideas come to life, received by a room full of laughter.

We are a mobile drama club that meets young people where they’re at. We support youth before, during and after incarceration with consistent positive mentorship through year-round programming at community centers and correctional facilities across NYC. Our weekly workshops are fun, safe spaces that counteract play deprivation, promote social-emotional learning and spark relationships that allow for personal transformation. Drama Club performances are safe spaces that give young people room to have fun despite the circumstances of incarceration, utilizing the science of play to transform the culture and climate of institutions in which we work.

We use improvisational theater to encourage a sense of belonging through team building. Improv empowers our young people to engage their creative voices freely and to tell their stories the ways they want to be heard. Youth who participate in Drama Club are given space to express themselves, process challenges and explore different paths beyond justice involvement.

We recognize improv as a powerful resource to mitigate the trauma of justice involvement on young lives. Drama Club participants use improv as their guide to healthy decision making, leadership, collaborative problem solving and discovery of possibilities beyond the present moment. Love and respect remain abundant through hardships and celebrations alike – the doors of our drama club are open rain or shine.

How We Do It

- Improv strengthens self-concept and promotes consistent application of learned healthy risk-taking skills to real-life situations. Our Teaching Artists champion mentorship in the development of these important competencies while our MSW (Master of Social Work) Interns support participants and strengthen the culture of wellbeing at Drama Club.

- Drama Club fosters transformational interpersonal relationships: we believe in the power of art to transform not just individuals, but also the culture and climate of institutions in which we work. We support the leadership of Credible Messengers (mentors who have been formerly incarcerated) as Teaching Artists who make a positive impact on the lives of Drama Club participants. Additionally, we make professional development and self-care opportunities available for our Teaching Artists and Apprentices.

- Our Apprentice program is a fully paid Teaching Artist training track, and formerly incarcerated youth who experienced Drama Club programming on the inside can become Teaching Artists within our organization and return to the jails in which they were incarcerated to mentor young people as they were mentored.

- Drama Club practices the core values of love, respect, consistency, equity and the philosophy of 'Yes And...' through our programs that promote positive youth development and bolster social-emotional learning. For many Drama Club students, our classes are the first time they've experienced the magic of improv, or sometimes arts programming at all. We celebrate the joy, play, and sense of accomplishment our students experience in the classroom and especially in performance.

- Drama Club centers the participant’s voice in all programming. We make space for our young people to put on 8-12 performances per year, most of them taking place inside detention centers. Participants have self-reported an increase in teamwork, comfort speaking in front of an audience, a greater sense of belonging, and an increased belief that they can set goals and accomplish them.-

Fast facts from our Annual Report...

56% increase in social emotional learning (SEL) was demonstrated by youth who participated in 8 classes or more
An additional 10% increase was noted in students who participated in a performance

The retrospective surveys Drama Club youth complete after each performance unit have shown that their favorite rule of improv is ‘Make your scene partner look good’ closely followed by ‘No violence’.

Reading our participants' positive feedback led us to ask ourselves: in the new year, how can we do more for Drama Club students?

More means expanded programming across all of our facilities. How do we accomplish this? By increasing class hours and hiring more Teaching Artists. How will we do it? By raising funds via our #YesAnd Year End campaign!

Why We Need You

- Drama Club is the only organization in New York City that provides consistent, year-round theater programming within jails and juvenile detention facilities. We provide 875 hours of programming across 46 weeks per year on Rikers Island, in Crossroads and Horizon Juvenile Centers, and at The Door in SoHo at no cost to our participants. Our End Of Year goal is to exceed $120K in order to hire new Teaching Artists and Apprentices to expand our program offerings across NYC.

- We currently work with roughly 25% of the youth in Crossroads and Horizon juvenile detention centers; we’d like to grow that to 50%, and eventually 100%. Additionally, we currently work within one housing unit on Rikers Island and we’d like to increase our offerings there as well.

- With new Teaching Artists and Apprentices on board, we'd like to facilitate even more performances. Teaching Artists’ fees per performance unit cost $10,000 alone, so we need your support!

Help us reach our target so that we can build capacity and boost programming to fuel even more classes and expand into more facilities across New York City.

Thank you for supporting Drama Club's dreams.

Drama Club's #YesAnd... Year End Appeal

By Drama Club

Drama Club's #YesAnd... Year End Appeal

Join Drama Club as we raise funds to fuel more classes, build capacity and expand programming across NYC!

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