When We Play is a non-profit organization helping build stronger communities by offering accessible arts education. As a volunteer with When We Play, I help create and lead programs and workshops that nurture minds through the arts, fostering academic achievement and personal growth in youth by improving confidence, focus and social skills.

Creativity and imagination are among our greatest gifts. Though art is available in schools, our education system focuses more on performance, and hence children who struggle academically have fewer opportunities to explore their creativity.

The Benefits of Artistic Education

We know creative activities help children:

• Learn to express their feelings and ideas as they communicate
• Transform their experience of the world by making new connections
• Think about and understand the world visually
• Be more observant of the world around them
• Develop problem-solving skills
• Discover that through concentration and persistence they can improve
• Experience a sense of achievement in learning a skill
• Develop their concentration, patience, motor skill and hand-eye coordination
• Improve their social skills
• Relax and have fun!

In school, art can become one more challenge, one more potential failure, but when children explore creativity outside of school, the arts can provide one of the few places these children will experience success.