Trish Thibodo at National Summit

PlatteForum Executive Director, Trish Thibodo was invited to take part in exciting events in Boston this past week: The National Summit on Creative Youth Development and a Pre-Summit Gathering to Spark Collective Impact. These initiatives brought together thought leaders from the creative youth development sector. Creative youth development programs are defined by three primary focuses: 1. Excellence in arts/humanities, 2. Sustained relationships with youth, 3. Engage youth in social justice.The Pre-Summit Gathering (hosted by ARTWorks for Kids and Swanee Hunt) brought together 20 leaders from around the country to learn about each others work and create ideas for connecting communities around collective impact best practices.In an effort to capitalize on the work of creative youth development programs nationwide and to increase the collective impact programs like ours have on youth, family and communities, nearly 200 leaders, funders, policymakers, researchers and youth gathered in Boston from March 27 - 29, 2014 for the National Summit on Creative Youth Development, presented by the Massachusetts Cultural Council in partnership with the National Guild for Community Arts Education and the Presidents Committee on the Arts and Humanities.The Summit focused on creating and refining five imperatives to create an action-oriented policy agenda for the field, one for which we can all advocate and enact at the local, state, and national levels.The imperatives focus on:1. Collective Impact for Youth: Connecting creative youth development with broader youth-serving sectors.2. Community Development: Integrating creative youth development with broader community development efforts.3. Social Justice and Social Change: Engaging young people in shaping the world in which they want to live.4. Communicating Impact: More clearly defining creative youth development and more powerfully conveying its impact on young people and their communities.5. Funding and Sustainability: Enhancing funding, leadership, and field-building structures to increase the field’s capacity.