This qualitative case study describes the character of the Florida Arts and Community Enrichment (FACE) program, a community arts organization, and the role it plays in the lives and education of children and adolescents with at-risk tendencies. To gain an insider’s perspective of the organization, I conducted research as a participant observer. The participatory action research model enables participants and the researcher to share knowledge as equal partners in research, while the appreciative inquiry method focuses on the organization’s best qualities as a starting point for future improvement. To collect a variety of data, this study incorporated on-site interviews recorded on audiocassette, photographs, historical documents, student art, and observations recorded in the researcher’s journal. Based on two years of observation and data collection, I learned about FACE’s employees and students. Its employees do not earn a substantial amount of money, however, they do their jobs because of their love for the arts and the children. FACE’s students greatly enjoy attending their organization because it provides them with a safehaven, meaningful friendships, positive relationships with caring adults, and a place to explore their many talents. In addition to learning about the participants, four emergent themes developed. First, I learned the type of arts organization that best serves children with at-risk tendencies. Based on what I found at FACE, I argue that an arts organization should be child centered, located close to children’s homes, unique, offer comprehensive services, and operate as active learning centers. Second, I discovered the type of characteristics of a community arts organization’s leader. Third, I learned that FACE, like most child centered arts organizations, is more recreational than school. FACE balances fun activities such as structured play with educational activities to capture its students’ interests. Fourth, although FACE’s students attend an arts organization located on the grounds of a public housing project, some students had negative images of children living in project housing. Implications for educational practice showed that children like their art organization better than school because they felt more valued and respected at their program. Organizations like FACE capture their interests and make them feel good about themselves. With this in mind, arts organizations appear to be an inexpensive way to reduce risk factors in the nonschool hours to children with at-risk tendencies because they give them something meaningful to do with their free time. Learning lessons from what works well at FACE, schools can benefit their students with at-risk tendencies by integrating the arts into academic subject areas, incorporating the community into the classroom, giving children a choice of what they would like to participate in or how to create a project, and most importantly, providing them with a nurturing environment. / Dissertation / PhD

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