Mission:
To prepare underserved teens to enter Milwaukee’s workforce by utilizing the arts as a method to teach employability skills.
We Believe:
- • Strong employment supports strong communities.
- • Underserved teens who develop employability skills contribute to strong communities.
- • Utilizing paid arts internships is an effective way to engage underserved teens and train highly transferable job skills.
Vision:
Expand community partnerships to leverage the arts as an effective method for developing employability skills. Through these partnerships we will prepare underserved teens for their futures as high performing employees and thriving contributors to the growth of our city.
Values:
- • Enhancing the lives of underserved teens
- • Developing Milwaukee’s workforce
- • Cultivating sustainable communities
- • Training future leaders
- • Fostering collaboration & partnerships
- • Embracing tolerance & diversity
- • Promoting the arts & arts education
Organizational Goals:
Our first goal is to develop Milwaukee’s future workforce by:
• Providing meaningful employment experiences to high school-aged Interns who face any of the following barriers to employment:Underperformance in High School– These students have low GPAs and/or may drop out, despite having the capacity to graduate. At ArtWorks, we teach them that earning a high school diploma is key to finding employment success.
Disabilities– At ArtWorks, we teach our Interns to overcome employment barriers inherent to misperceptions about their abilities.
Lack of resources and mentors– At ArtWorks, we provide our Interns with resources and mentoring opportunities with ArtWorks’ staff, Lead Artists, and volunteer career coaches that can increase their chances of employment success.
+ Common indicators in this category include: Foster care teens and those who live in Group Homes, teen parents, and teens who live with families that struggle with addiction/incarceration/gang involvement.
Our second goal is to foster public awareness for the importance of arts and art education by:
• Teaming Interns with local professional artists.
• Providing a professional art gallery and other public exhibition opportunities.