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Supporting Freedom Arts & Education Center from the comfort of your chair.
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Eyes on the Prize

Freedom Arts is growing. God has been very generous to us and our programs have reached viable points where they are steadily serving our scholars and our community. Our team consists of motivated and quality artists, educators, and mentors. Our artists have learned how to teach and our educators have developed their artistic skills. Our squad has years of experience in the arts, education, outreach, and social work.  The level of commitment from these people is not only inspiring, but vital to the growth and overall health of our organization as our scholar engagement has increased and our program demand has gone up. Freedom Arts is indeed getting stronger every day and we are thankful and honored to be serving St Louis.

So what’s next for Freedom Arts? We have three big goals for 2015:

Scholar Transportation
We currently use personal vehicles to transport our scholars to and from events. Due to our growing scholar enrollment and program expansion, we have to use multiple vehicles and enlist extra volunteers to drive. We would like to improve and simplify our transportation methods by obtaining at least two reliable 10-passenger vans. Though our scholars have requested limousines and helicopters, we believe that vans will get the job done!

Staff Compensation
Our Leadership Team works tireless hours developing programs, designing events, meeting with potential partners, meeting with parents, receiving training, providing training, managing finances, meeting together, and generally running and growing the organization. This group of talented and devoted teaching artists works for pay that is far below minimum wage. As we enter our fourth year, we would like to leave other jobs in order to work for Freedom Arts full time and be able to devote ourselves to this mission at a higher level.  

Sufficient Location
We are deeply grateful to Clayton Community Church for allowing us to use their building in Rock Hill. We are intensely humbled by their generosity and support. We are excited that our programs have reached a point where we can actively begin fundraising and searching for our home, for the actual Freedom Arts & Education Center. We are looking for a location that is 5-8 miles from our scholars’ homes in Hamilton Heights with a large common area, at least 6 classrooms, a kitchen, bathrooms, and a parking lot. 
2014 was a year rife with triumphs and trials, not just within Freedom Arts, but also in our beloved city which we serve with sincerity. Challenges have presented themselves, conflict has been made evident, and our Arch City is at the center of it all. Just as Sam Cooke sang about 50 years ago, Nehemiah the cup-bearer worked for 2500 years ago, and so many of us are fighting for now, a change is going to come. As this new civil rights movement continues, we enter 2015 more focused and more determined in our mission and purpose. Challenges and conflict are beautiful opportunities for good to come about, and we have so many opportunities within Freedom Arts for you to join us. If you have the heart to get involved, then we have the opportunity that will best suit you. There isn’t a soul on this planet who cannot contribute to the mission. Because we serve St. Louis in diverse ways, we have room for everybody! You can get involved by assisting us in meeting any of our three big goals. You can also get involved by joining the squad and working with us. We have paid and volunteer opportunities for dance instructors, visual artists, academic tutors, musicians, mentors, marketing masters, finance folk, noise makers and trouble makers of all kind. If you have the love, we have the labor. It’s a messy, beautiful labor, and it is so well worth it. Just ask any of our staff or volunteers. Amidst many challenges and changes, we are moving onward, upward, and forward with our eyes on the prize
GET INVOLVED
So how can you get involved? You can help us reach our three big goals by supporting us financially. Donations can be made on our website. Just click the gigantic PayPal button to make a secure, tax-deductible donation. Then SMILE, because you have directly impacted our organization and our scholars. 
 
We also have many paid and volunteer opportunities available for artists, educators, and mentors. We are especially looking for experienced and passionate teaching artists for our Art & Academic Workshops program. Send your resume to Info@FAECSTL.org to join our dedicated, creative, awesome squad, or fill out a volunteer application at FAECSTL.org.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Celebrate Black History Month with us by checking out our Black Music in Arch City workshop: 

Tuesday 2.3.15 7pm Thornhill SLCL
Saturday 2.7.15 10am Grand Glaze SLCL
Saturday 2.7.15 2pm Midcounty SLCL
Thursday 2.12.15 6pm Natural Bridge SLCL
Tuesday 2.24.15 6:30pm Prairie Commons SLCL
Give STL Day 2015 is on the way! Last year, you raised $2100 for our scholars and programs! How about we double that number this year? Check out this promotional video Greater St. Louis Community Foundation put together, featuring Freedom Arts!
Keep up with all of our events and happenings by bookmarking our calendar 
THANK YOU
A HUGE thank to you to everyone who has volunteered, donated, promoted, worked with us, worked for us, and supported us since our humble beginnings in 2012. Our community is getting stronger and moving forward thanks to all of you. Let’s keep going! 
Stay up to date with us! We’re on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wordpress, and Tumblr

To help spread the mission of Freedom Arts & Education Center, you can bookmark all the websites listed and forward our newsletters on to friends, family and colleagues. You can make a positive difference in so many ways, and there’s no better time to get to work in your community than right now. 
So just like James Brown said...
Copyright © 2015 Freedom Arts and Education Center, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
Freedom Arts and Education Center
4138 N Grand
St. Louis, MO 63107

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