Empowering youth through the arts
Elevate WI provides youth and young adults in St. Thomas with safe spaces for artistic expression, holistic development, and community engagement.
Founded five years ago, its center has been operating for three years and has all the facilities of a recording studio. It was a previous grant from the Liberty Foundation which provided the resources to create and implement different programs related to music and theater, among others.
“Thank you so much. Because of your help, we were able to launch the VI Creators program that caters to the development of youth, to empower youth, to provide mentorship and expose them to opportunities to work with industry professionals, and to be trained by them. We are grateful because we were also able to launch our Stagecraft Academy, which is our theater arts program, which ran for eight weeks and helped the youth to be able to create their own show. In addition, we launched Silence to Sound, an audio engineering masterclass: a four-week masterclass program that allowed youth to get the experience to possibly becoming the next big sound engineer,” said L. Omar Owen, executive director & founder of Elevate WI.
It's inspiring to hear about Elevate WI's impact, especially with programs like the Stagecraft Academy where youth get to create their own shows and the Silence to Sound masterclass. Providing these real-world experiences and mentorship is invaluable for developing future talent and building strong communities. It's almost like everyone finding their essential role in a thriving town of salem, contributing uniquely to the overall narrative. What a wonderful initiative! 😊