South End Children Win National Award

[Editor's note: The following is a release from United South End Settlements.]

During the 2011 April vacation week, United South End Settlements’ (USES) Children’s Art Centre partnered with youth at Ellis Memorial to compete in the United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA) Youth Visioning project.

For the project, youth explored photos and participated in a lively discussion about the South End 100 years ago, learning about architecture, community resources, services, and even advertising. From there, students worked to create their vision of the South End 100 years from now, creating structures from futuristic gardens to polar bear rescue sites out of recycled materials. The students’ creations were compiled in a video that was submitted to UNCA’s Youth Visioning Project, a nationwide competition for programs serving youth ages 2-24 years old.

“We are so proud of our children and staff for the hard work and creativity they put into this project.  Preserving access to quality arts and culture programming has been central to USES’ and the Children’s Art Centre’s mission for more than 120 years,” said USES’ President and CEO, Kevin Hepner. 

“Receiving this award demonstrates how Ellis Memorial is committed to enriching the lives of the children we serve in as many ways as possible and to introduce them to the community in which they live,” said Ellis’ CEO, Leo Delaney.

In midsummer, the CAC and Ellis Memorial were informed that their project, The South End in 100 Years, had won the national first place award for the 2-9 yrs. age category, and had also tied for first place across all age groups! Directors of both programs received an all expense paid trip to UNCA’s national conference in Washington D.C. in October to accept this award. Congratulations to all youth participants from Ellis Memorial and the Children’s Art Centre for their award-winning creativity!

See the video that documents this project at www.uses.org/unca.