Meet our recipients
Artists' Exchange
Artists’ Exchange is an arts collaborative whose mission is to create an atmosphere in which creativity, learning and discovery converge and individuality is celebrated. Artists Exchange offers opportunities for immersion into the arts through summer camps, classes, school programs, art themed birthday parties, theater & music.
Bradley Hospital
From mural making and cardio drumming to hip-hop and improv, the healing arts engage, instruct, and inspire at-risk adolescents coping with serious and complex mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety. When Bradley Hospital opened its doors in 1931, it became the first psychiatric hospital in the nation exclusively for children and adolescents. Today, it remains the only hospital of its kind in the region, treating more than 5,000 patients annually. Their mission of delivering health with care provides a wide range of family-focused, high-quality mental health care to children and adolescents with significant psychiatric, behavioral, and/or developmental disorders. The White Family Foundation grant supports the community artists who work with Bradley’s adolescent inpatients
CHOP – A Genesis Center Cafe
Genesis Center’s Culinary Hub of Providence (CHOP) is a hybrid workforce development, economic development, and retail hub soon to be located at a busy downtown corner in the Providence Public Library. The initiative is a natural expansion of our longstanding and successful culinary arts program, and will better meet the evolving needs of our participants and employers in the hospitality field. CHOP will serve as a Culinary education and training hub, where it will create jobs, support business, and strengthen the local community.
Community Music Works
Founded in 1997, Community MusicWorks is a “revolutionary organization” (The New Yorker) with a mission to create cohesive urban community through music education and performance that transforms the lives of children, families, and musicians in underserved neighborhoods of Providence. The free, intensive after-school Youth Music Program provides students aged 6- 18 with age-appropriate opportunities for music instruction, mentoring, and leadership development.
DownCity Design
DownCity Design is a community organization working to build a city of problem solvers. We empower students, educators, and community members to use design skills to improve the places where they live, work, and play.
It was founded in 2009 by Adrienne Gagnon and Manuel Cordero, with the mission of improving Providence by getting young people involved in designing and building solutions for their communities.
Everett Stage School
Everett is a multi-disciplinary performance arts incubator in Providence, RI. Encompassing a Company, Stage and School, its ensemble of artists create, perform, teach and mentor new generations of artists within a diverse community. This unique intertwining of a professional company, performing arts school, and theater creates a powerful learning experience for students. For 33 years, Everett artists have used improv, role playing, dance, storytelling, videography, and play to break through seemingly tough exteriors. The work our artists’ mentoring youth helps them grow, emphasizes the importance of personal stories to facilitate healing, and develops emotionally intelligent, empathetic young people who are prepared to engage positively with the outside community.
Sojourner House
Founded in 1976, the mission of Sojourner House is to promote healthy relationships by providing culturally sensitive support, advocacy, housing, and education for victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking; and to effect systems change. The Sojourner House offers RI’s largest residential services program for victims, including 3 emergency shelters and over 100 apartment units. The White Family Foundation grant supported Alchemy, a program that engages youth, ages 12-18, who have experienced or witnessed abuse, in an expressive arts afterschool experience. The program is designed to be a safe space for the youth to express themselves using art. Activities are tailored to the interests of each group, but typically include mask making, collage, music and songwriting, poetry, dance and painting.
The Collaborative
The Art Academy is open to students in grades K-12 from all over Rhode Island, and nearby Massachusetts, though the main focus of the program is the East Bay community of Warren. The Academy offers free or low-cost programming in creative activities after school and during the summer.
The nature of the program allows the potential for students from all different backgrounds and experiences to work together on high-quality arts learning with experienced teachers and professional artists. The White Family Foundation expressly supports this program as it hopes to strengthen the East Bay community’s access to strong, free programming in the creative arts.
The College Crusade
The College Crusade of Rhode Island is an innovative nonprofit organization founded in 1989 to reduce high school dropout rates and increase educational and career success for low-income urban youth. Each year we serve approximately 3,900 Crusaders from Rhode Island’s most economically disadvantaged families in Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Woonsocket, and Cranston.
The Community Preparatory School
Community Preparatory School gives motivated students in grades 3-8 the opportunity to reach for their dreams, regardless of family income. Community Prep offers all the benefits of an independent school – small classes, challenging academics, and a positive, nurturing environment – combined with the cultural and economic diversity of a public school.
The Community Preparatory School
The Steel Yard
The Steel Yard’s historic campus is a platform for professional artists, makers and the community to practice and learn the industrial arts. The organization fosters creative and economic opportunities, by providing workspace, tools, training and education, while forging lasting links to a local tradition of craftsmanship.
