Young Audiences | Arts for Learning (YA) has awarded three Affiliate Development Fund (ADF) grants for 2025 to support innovative projects across the national Young Audiences Arts for Learning network (YA Network). Each year, the ADF program supports initiatives at the affiliate level that can serve as models to build the capacity of the YA Network as a whole.
Congrats to the winning organizations for their leadership, vision, and commitment to advancing the YA Network and the young learners we serve. Read below for details on each ADF-funded project.
Arts for Learning Connecticut (AFLCT) – Hampden, CT
Let's Play! Embracing Play-Based Learning in Out-of-School Time Programs through 21st CCLCArts for Learning Connecticut (AFLCT) will use ADF support to expand its out-of-school time programming through Let’s Play, a new initiative that prioritizes play-based learning and translates AFLCT's in-school arts learning pedagogy into a sustainable out-of-school time model. Let’s Play responds to the immediate needs of student learners as well as to the growing call (reinforced by new statewide legislation) for the developmental and academic benefits of play-based learning in early elementary education.
Center or Arts-Inspired Learning (CAL) – Cleveland, OH
ArtWorks Youth Alumni ProjectIn the 20 years since its inception, CAL’s ArtWorks program has empowered thousands of young people through paid arts apprenticeships, mentorship, and community-focused projects. With the support of ADF, CAL will launch the ArtWorks Youth Alumni Project, a year-long initiative that reconnects alumni, engages current apprentices, and advances the creative legacy and future of the program.
Arts for Learning Massachusetts (AFLMA) – Boston, MA
Salesforce Support Cohort for Small YA AffiliatesAs a small YA affiliate, Arts for Learning Massachusetts (AFLMA) seeks to grow its capacity for leveraging Salesforce as an effective, mission-driven tool. Through ADF support, AFLMA will form a cross-affiliate collaborative cohort that fosters peer-to-peer learning, shared resource development, and collective problem solving, building a supportive community for small YA affiliates using Salesforce in their program operations.
At the heart of the ADF grant program is the expectation that the entire YA Network will benefit from the organizational development of each affiliate, which in turn will enable us to better carry out YA's mission to enhance the creativity, learning skills and cultural understanding of all children and youth. The flexibility in the term and amount of ADF grants is intended to support affiliates in designing proposals that best meet their needs and vision for change wherever they are in their organizational development.
Questions about ADF? Please contact Melissa Gawlowski Pratt, Director of Strategic Partnerships & Network Relations, at melissa@ya.org.
