making a difference program for youth
Using making to empower youth to explore their voice and agency for social justice and community organizing
I guess my definition [of social justice] hasn't really changed, but how I approach it in learning spaces has. It doesn't always need to be a big and heavy conversation. Social justice is woven into every single part of our lives and parallels will be drawn in so many different ways
Teaching Artist
Children's Museum of Pittsburgh
supported by
This project was made possible with generous support from The Grable Foundation.
about the project
Making has been proven to empower students in the classroom setting.
Yet learning does not stop at the end of the school day, and societal issues that children face are constant. This program explored how empowerment through making can be translated to other challenges that students face, specifically within the realm of injustice and inequity.
Through intentional scaffolding and supportive environments, youth can use making as a way to bring agency to their feelings, share their voices and change their communities.
A research-based collaboration between Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and Assemble led to the creation of this model for integrating making as an education practice into social justice and community organizing, and therefore, fostering youth as the change-makers of tomorrow.