Beltway RESOURCE BANK Community Outreach Organizations in DC, MD, VA Americans for the Arts Advocacy group located in DC and NYC. Promotes October as National Arts and Humanities Month, advocates for arts education in primary education, publishes information on the economic impact of the arts. ArtBeat Collective, Inc. Promotes education, cultural exchange, and community growth through the arts. Book in a Day Literacy program in which high school students learn how to write well-crafted poetry and how to publish a book. Run by Kwame Alexander. CentroNía A multicultural learning center that trains volunteers for one-on-one tutoring in reading and math for students in Columbia Heights and Shaw in grades 1-12. Children's National Medical Center For over twenty years, Children's National Medical Center has sponsored New Horisons, an arts education and cultural enrichment program that hosts exhibitions, performances, and Artists/Writers/Musicians/Dancers/Theatre Professionals-in-Residence. DC Creative Writing Workshop Hires 4 professional writers annually to work with students from Hart MS, Simon Elementary, and Ballou HS in Southeast DC, both in class and after school. Publishes a literary journal, hArtworks; offers a 6 week workshop in Holocaust Studies, "Teaching Tolerance," with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum; and runs a Reading Resource Center. DC Scores Promotes soccer and creative writing to elementary school students, ages 8 to 12, at multiple locations throughout the city. Contact Sherie Williams at (202) 548-0101. Zachary Elkin profiled this organization in Spring 2010. 826DC Nonprofit supporting students ages 6-18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and helping teachers inspire their students to write. Services include drop-in tutoring, field trips, workshops, and assistance with student publications. Also operates the Museum of Unnatural History in Columbia Heights. Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop Using books and creative writing to empower young inmates to transform their lives. Based in DC. Higher Achievement Program for DC students in grades 5-8 emphasizing academics, the arts, and leadership. Runs after school and summer programs. Regularly includes poetry in the curriculum. The Humanities Project This Artists-in-the-Schools program serves the Arlington Public Schools, with short and long-term residencies in the literary arts (as well as performing and visual arts). Hires writers for its roster annually. Mary Eckstein, Coordinator. Lens & Pens Project Since 1989, the Spoken Word has offered forensics patients at Saint Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, DC workshops in creative writing, art and photography. Literacy Volunteers and Advocates Provides free classroom instruction and one-to-one tutuoring for adults in DC with limited literacy who wish to improve basic reading and writing skills. An accredited affiliate of ProLiteracy America. Motheread and Fatheread Adult literacy program for parents, sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. PEN/Faulkner Writers in Schools Sponsors conversations with nationally-known authors, intensive three-day workshops and semester-long residencies in urban public high schools since 1989. Such authors as Amiri Baraka, Sandra Cisneros, and Edward Hirsch have participated. Sitar Arts Center Arts center for children and youth from diverse ethnic, racial, and economic backgrounds. Offers workshops in writing, as well as music, dance, drama, and visual art. Smith Farm Center for the Healing Arts Artists and arts educators in the visual, performing, and literary arts hired for residencies working on-site with adult patients at the Washington Cancer Institute and Howard University Cancer Center. Swapping Stories An intergenerational oral history and storytelling project. Judy Thibalt Klevins, Coordinator. Washington Literacy Council Trains volunteers to teach basic reading and writing to adult students. 62% of the DC population fall into the two lowest levels of reading proficiency, the lowest adult literacy rate of any city in the United States. Also lists links to literacy providers in VA and MD. Writopia Lab Runs writing workshops in fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting, playwrightig, and poetry in New York, Los Angeles, and DC for kids ages 8 to 18. Young Women's Drumming Empowerment Project Summer workshops in the Columbia Heights neighborhood for young women (ages 13-18) in African and Latin hand drums and percussion, as well as poetry, song, movement, and team building. Also sponsors performances throughout the year.   Last update: 12/28/11