Devio Arts Centre is a non-profit children’s art centre based in Ghana. The Centre uses an afterschool arts and learning through play experience for children and adolescents between the ages of 3 and 18 years with the goal of developing minds, skills and talents important for holistic child development. The program integrates fun and learning to help children achieve their full potential.
The organization works in three spaces: training teachers in schools that want to integrate the learning through play model in their school, running after-school programs for school, and working in community centers in areas where there isn’t a school and high number of out of school children.
The after-school program provides time for students to practice arts, frequently using technology and play. For instance, participants learn how to use software like "Scratch" for designing, and experimenting with different forms of art. Some children have created their own characters and developed a comic book on sanitation. The program also works with volunteers from Google who serve as adult mentors and role models for young children.
The centre offers a 15-hour weekly program, a 6-hour monthly program, and a 8-hour weekend program in the local communities and at the premises of some partner companies.
The organization has a social enterprise model in which children from wealthier families pay fees, schools pay a monthly subsidized fee, and families from the lower quintiles either pay a subsidized fee or no fee depending on their income level.
Devio Arts is community based, results-driven after-school program for young people in underserved communities. Since its start with one community in the Greater Accra region, Devio Arts Centre has scaled to three more communities within Ghana. Currently there are 300 young people enrolled and more than 1600 who have engaged with the program in the past. Indirect beneficiaries include the students' families, their peers and members of their network. University students and others benefit from their volunteer work with Devio Arts through tutoring and mentoring programs. Devio Arts Center also has a partnership with Google through their volunteering program ''Google Reach'' which benefits both volunteers and children attending the program through mentorship and knowledge sharing.
By December 2015, the program aims to engage an additional 800 young people, their families and friends, work with 18 volunteers (12 Google employees and 6 university students), support 12 public schools and engage about 30 creative arts teachers. The program is also in the process of working on the third edition of an annual children's festival in creative and digital arts.
CHILDREN: The measure of success of the program is through the impact it has on the child. Success is measured by creative abilities, self-esteem and confidence; and interest in using the skills and experience gained from the program. Evaluating forms/questionnaires are usually distributed at the end of each class. The feedback helps the organization understand the impact of the activity and the way forward.
PARENTS: The program gathers and examines data on parents' perceptions about the program and its impact on their children
COMPARISON: With data collected from schools, and research information from UNESCO Ghana, the organization traces creative arts skills of students. The information is compared to baseline data for Devio Arts participants; young people between ages 8-18 in the same catchment area; the year immediately prior to setting up the Devio Arts ; peers of Devio Arts students between ages 8-18 in the same schools attended by Devio Arts students; and comparison communities, that is, attainments of students in demographically similar communities.
These reports are shared on a quarterly basis with program partners and advisors, and used to review and improve the program annually.
The program partners with community volunteers, community leaders and youth, creative art teachers and community organizations to deliver the program.
About $10,000 worth of art materials has been distributed.
In 2016, the program hopes to expand to two more communities in Ghana, and scale their annual children’s art festival to Nairobi, Kenya. The children’s art festival found support at the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit.
In the next five years, the program envisions Devio Arts Centre launching new centres in Aburi, Kumasi, Takoradi and Cape-coast regions of Ghana to reach about 100,000 children and young people. They also aim to become more socio-culturally and linguistically relevant in order improve the overall quality of learning through play education in African schools.
In the next ten years, the program wants to establish the first Children’s Museum in Ghana, providing a bigger community of creativity, play and lifelong learning skills for children. Devio Arts Centre also wants to replicate its programs in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa.
In the long term, Devio Arts Centre’s goal is to be able to develop a national network of educators and parents concerned with the promotion of creativity and imagination in the development of young people. Finally with the development of digital games and collaborations, the program envisions a global impact across the world.
The program aims to be sustainable by developing their current model to reach more young people by partnering with other organizations; developing a creative funding model to sustain existing programs; and expanding into new low-income communities. The program also wants to innovate the Devio Arts Program using technology in order to reach thousands more young people in isolated regions.
Increases enrollment from by 40% since the January 2015. The program now has 110 students.
$40 per month per child.