Our criteria for success is having our students become engaged learners, improve academic performance, graduate, and become active, productive members of their communities. The Barat Foundation afterschool arts in education program exposes underserved youth to positive life-changing experiences so that they may realize their potential to express themselves creatively and excel academically.  The arts provide a safe container for all youth, regardless of their culture and differences, to express ideas, feelings and opinions about coming into being as part of society, dealing with hardships, happiness, stress and illness through creative expression.  The arts allow children individually, collectively and culturally to say things they might never otherwise get to say.

Youth at risk usually present with multiple risk factors, have poor communication skills, unexpressed anger and mistrust adults.  The creative arts can transform the lives of youths at risk of negative behaviors by increasing the protective factors which often lie silent within.  The aim of the creative arts approach is to develop resiliency by increasing the youth’s emotional, behavioral, cognitive and cultural competencies.  The arts provide options, challenges, and an effective means of promoting growth and change.  For youth, the arts provide a different perspective on their lives, a chance to imagine a different outcome and to develop a critical distance from everyday life.