Destiny
Arts Center
3900 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, California 94609
Telephone: 510.597.1619 Fax: 510.597.1620
Website: www.destinyarts.org
Email: info@destinyarts.org
Contacts
CEO: Sarah Crowell
Other contacts: Sam Mende-Wong, Project Destiny Coordinator 510.597.1619 x 105 sam@destinyarts.org Ellen Hamilton, Operations Manager 510.597.1619 x 100 ellen@destinyarts.org
Year Incorporated: 1995
Category:
Service Provider
Mission Statement:
Destiny Arts Center exists to end isolation, prejudice and violence in the lives of young people.
History/Goals/Objectives:
WE ACCOMPLISH OUR MISSION BY... 1. Offering skills training to youth, ages 3-18, in after-school, weekend and summer programs in performing and martial arts, youth leadership, and violence prevention at our main site, and outreach programs at local schools and community centers. 2. Providing youth with caring adult mentors. 3. Supporting youth in developing an individualized sense of artistic expression. 4. Giving youth opportunities to share a message of peace and empowerment, through performances, events, and workshops. 5. Nurturing the physical, emotional, and spiritual development of young people. VISION When Destiny has succeeded in its work, young people will value themselves and others - ever mindful of the ways their words, actions, and attitudes affect their communities, as well as the world. They will: respond rather than react to situations; teach and practice love, rather than violence; honor people from different backgrounds and experiences equally; and, be connected to, and active participants in, the life of their communities. Destiny Arts Center's focus is to serve our local community, while increasing our national and international impact. OUR VALUES, OUR BELLIEFS We value. the principles of love, respect, care, responsibility, honor, and peace as embodied in Destiny's Warrior's Code. building and sustaining a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-generational, sexual- orientation inclusive community. being able to provide services to youth, regardless of the ability to pay. We believe... that all youth respond favorably to love and positive reinforcement. that everyone has a unique voice, and, they are equally important. that youth are inherently good. that based on the social and political climate of today, young people experience isolation, violence and/or prejudice in their lives. that when communities take active responsibility for the struggles, as well as the successes of all its young people, youth are more likely to thrive. HISTORY OF DESTINY ARTS CENTER Destiny's staff began serving youth in 1988 as part of Hand-to-Hand, a community-based martial arts center for adults located in North Oakland. Destiny's first program, Project Destiny, used martial arts to teach basic life skills through a physical practice the kids could relate to. It encompassed discipline, respect for self and others, and other ethical lessons and guideposts for life that were really applicable to urban youth. The vision of Destiny's founding executive director, Kate Hobbs, was to reach kids who were highly at risk (homeless, gay, hostile, etc.). The initial concept for Project Destiny was to reach these youth through school-based after-school programs and then to 'community build', by getting them to the North Oakland center that Destiny shared with Hand-to-Hand. Kate envisioned the Center as a neighborhood-based community center that would offer holistic and long-term prevention programming for youth. Project Destiny began at Longfellow elementary school in North Oakland and remained there for seven years. It was eventually moved to Santa Fe elementary school, closer to Hand-to-Hand's site, in an attempt to make it easier for youth involved in the school program to get to the Center. Dance became the second component of Project Destiny because its fluid movement complemented the contracted and disciplined aspects of martial arts. This component became so successful that it spurred the development of Destiny's site-based dance and theater performance classes, offered at Hand-to-Hand's location. These classes ultimately led to the formation of the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company, a group of youth that creates and performs an annual show focused on social justice issues. As youth graduated from the martial arts and dance programs they began assisting Destiny teachers, giving rise to the third primary area of Destiny's work, Youth Leadership. The Youth Leadership program gives Destiny youth the experience of assisting dance and martial arts teachers, mentoring younger students, and learning leadership skills. This component is a natural outgrowth of martial arts, which uses this form of 'apprenticeship' to teach new practitioners, combined with a peer education element. The Youth Leadership programs also includes an outreach component in which youth teach violence prevention and martial arts skills to community groups in community settings. By the early 1990s, Destiny had evolved into much more than its original outreach program for highly at-risk youth; it had become a strong center-based arts education and violence prevention program for a diverse student body. Initially, Destiny was supported entirely by fees from Hand-to-Hand's adult programs. By the early 1990s, Destiny's budget of approximately $100,000 came primarily from student fees and grassroots fundraising efforts. For many years, staff volunteered or worked for minimal wages; the programs operated mostly on sheer passion. In 1993, Destiny developed its bylaws and officially became an independent organization, although it continued to share space and other resources with Hand-to-Hand. Destiny was granted nonprofit status in 1995, which paved the way for new sources of income, including donations and grants. Grants from United Way and the Heron Foundation helped to sustain Project Destiny for several years and provided seed money for newer programs, such as Youth Leadership. Through the late 1990s, the organization also began to secure increasingly diverse funds, including small government grants from the City of Oakland, additional foundation support and earned income through contracts and performance fees. In the Fall of 1996, the governing body was restructured from a combined board/staff entity that worked together in a collective model, to a more traditional board format. This 'separation of board and staff' was a difficult transition for Destiny, but it marked one of several critical junctures in the organization's development. The next turning point came in 1997, when the Founding Executive Director made the decision to resign. As with many small, community-based nonprofits, the departure of the founding Executive Director can either lead to the demise of the healthy evolution of the organization. For Destiny, it was the latter, but because of the organization's dependence on her, and the lack of institutionalization or documentation of many elements of the organization, her departure took two years to complete. During this time, the board wrote some foundation proposals and outsourced the writing of others in order to secure 'bridge' funding to sustain the organization during the leadership transition. With limited funds to support a new Executive Director's salary, the board decided to search for an interim director from within the Destiny 'community'. Initially, the period following the founding Director's departure were very difficult; board and staff became worn out by the ongoing struggle to sustain programs with limited funding and infrastructure. Several long-term board members revealed their intent to leave the Board, several program directors took other significant jobs to sustain themselves financially, and a few programs, including the original outreach program, Project Destiny, were discontinued due to lack of funding and staff. However, the 'core' programs - center-based dance, performance, and martial arts classes continued to thrive and attract more students and additional earned income. The Performance Company in particular reached a new level of professionalism and visibility. After a less than desirable leadership picture for a number of years, in 2002 the Board promoted long-time instructor and Artistic Director of the Youth Performance Company to Executive Director. Now in her third year in the position, Sa
Target Populations:
Elementary
Middle
High
Male
Female
LGBTQ
Staff Capacity: 12
We have five administrative staff: Executive Director, Developmentt Director, Program Director, Project Destiny Corrdinator and Operations Manager. The Project Destiny Corrdinator supports all of our after-school programs that run at Oakland schools. The remainder of our staff are black belt martial artists and professional dancers all of whom are experienced movement and violence prevention instructors. All of our program staff are trained in the Destiny Five Fingers of Violence Prevention curriculum that outlines our conflict reolution and self defense models and gives youth important awareness, safety and reporting skills.
Language Capacity (other than English): Spanish
Cambodian
Tagalog
Russian
Organizational Operating Budget: $500,000 - $1 Million
Geographic Areas Served (current):
District 1 (North Oakland- Rockridge, Temescal, Claremont)
District 2 (East Oakland - China Town, East Lake, Grand Lake, San Antonio)
District 6 (East Oakland - Millsmont, Hillcrest, Leona Quarry)
Geographic Areas for Expanded Service:
Citywide