Show some love!

Over the next week, we're going to tell you a story.

The story begins this fall, with an elementary classroom full of boxes. Teaching artist Melissa filled the room with possibility.

Students worked to put the boxes together, helping each other, creating systems, collaborating for, in many cases, the first time. Each student got their box, cardboard slowly and intentionally transforming into a tiny safe space of their own.

Most of these students struggle with feeling safe, with asking for and accepting help, with feeling connected or a part of something. But these boxes became their own tiny homes, and part of a tiny, flourishing classroom community.

Students used markers, paint, stickers, and big imaginations to create tiny homes that met their own specifications. They chose the number of windows, doors, the decor, little hands drawing on ceilings and cutting openings to let light in.

Students were able to set their own tiny home rules, practicing setting healthy boundaries and exercising their own agency and voice.

And then, one student made a choice that informed the entire remainder of the residency, and made these tiny homes much much bigger than anyone could have imagined. One student asked to add a mailbox!

Check back in over the next week to continue on this learning journey with us, as we share the lasting and life-changing impact that school residencies can have. Small things can have a great impact. Your gift can have a poignant impact today!

Consider how a gift from you ($5, $10, $50…whatever you can give) can make it so young people in our school residency programs have the ability to connect, create, and thrive.

From now until Valentine's Day, we’re asking you to show these students some love! Your donation puts teaching artists in classrooms with underserved students, supporting their learning, their social and emotional development, and their sense of community and belonging.

Your small act can make a big, big difference.