The NYC Vocational Training Center (VTC), a 5-borough multi sited High School Program, the Fredrick Douglas Literacy Center (FDLC) and the Waterways Project of Ten Penny Players, Inc. (WP), a literacy arts publishing and performance program, are providing inclusive service learning and literacy enhancement opportunities for 400 VTC and 50 FDLC at risk 11th grade NYC young adults.

The program is implemented within the context of meeting targeted NYS Learning Standards through interdisciplinary arts programming and a school to work philosophy. VTC students receive 90 minutes a day of academic instruction from 9 teachers and spend the remainder of the educational day in service learning activities.

Students participate in weekly reflection classes at their site. The Empire State Partnership (ESP) grant received by the three partners has enabled artists to work with both groups of students and with faculty. Two of the FDLC classes are preparing puppet shows with Brooklyn College based Puppetry in Practice. They will perform at their local nursing home, the elementary school and at VTC nursing home sites. Similarly, VTC students based at Hyam Salomon also will work with the puppeteers to prepare productions which will be performed at the nursing home. The students will perform at their schools and libraries also. Students from both schools are working as well with poets, visual and performing artists to create productions based on their own writing, oral histories they collect form family or community members, and picture books. Last year FDLC and VTC students worked together with a performance artist to prepare a production of student poetry which they then performed at a nursing home, a library and a park.