Empowering Philly Youth: Arts, Civic Engagement, and Equity in Action

Creative Praxis supports Philadelphia youth in using their voices and creativity to lead change and build collective power.

Philadelphia youth bring brilliance, boldness, and truth into every room they enter. When given space to express themselves and be heard, they move communities toward justice. Creative Praxis honors that power. Their trainings support youth through art, collective learning, and culturally relevant interactive activities, all grounded in healing and liberation.

Creative Praxis doesn’t treat young people as passive learners. Instead, it invites them to build, organize, and lead with creativity and care. Whether through art-making or public narrative, youth are encouraged to take up space and bring others with them. Their experiences, questions, and dreams are valid, heard and integrated.     

What Youth Youth Power Looks Like at Creative Praxis

In Creative Praxis workshops, youth build connection through interactive sessions that bring everyone into shared focus and movement.

Youth power at Creative Praxis is grounded in real tools and relational support. Youth aren’t taught leadership from a textbook. They practice it through:

• Arts-based learning that centers voice, identity, and cultural relevance

• Civic engagement and Systemic Change workshops that connect self-awareness to collective change

• Wellness practices that build resilience and emotional safety

• Interactive facilitation that encourages co-creation and peer learning

Participants strengthen their sense of self through the "I AM" framework and connect their power to community through "WE ARE" activities. They name their values, build shared agreements, and move forward with purpose.

Art as a Tool for Action

At Creative Praxis, art is more than creative expression. It’s how young people organize, reflect, and build community. Through storytelling, music, painting, writing, and performance, youth access tools that are personal,  relational and professional. These creative practices invite them to:

• Share experiences in ways that feel safe and honest

• Build trust with peers and adult      

• Take action on issues that matter to them and their communities

Each training includes time for personal reflection, connection with their peers, and  collective building new infrastructure that supports them and their families and communities. All this is done through the arts  as a way to process, feel, and move through learning. Whether it’s a group poem, a collage, or a movement-based reflection, creative tools are woven into every session.

These practices are especially powerful in training sessions like:

• Youth Empowerment Workshops

• Culturally Responsive Training

• Civic Engagement Workshops 

Creative Praxis supports youth in building skills they can take back into their schools, neighborhoods, and organizing spaces.

Community Building as Everyday Practice

In every session, Creative Praxis helps youth build intentional relationships through grounding rituals, shared agreements, and honest conversations.

Creative Praxis believes that community is not a single event, but a daily commitment. That’s why every training centers on relationship-building. Youth are invited to think about how they enter space, how they hold it, and how they leave it with care.

Key elements of this work include:

• Grounding rituals that help participants check in with themselves and others

• Shared agreements that come from the group, not from top-down rules

• Conflict as growth rather than punishment or blame

• Making art together opens space for vulnerability and shared understanding

Facilitators model what it means to move through tension with honesty and care. Youth see that conflict can be a doorway to clarity, deeper trust, and stronger teams. These lessons shape how they move through the world—in school, at home, and in their organizing work.

Centering Identity, Power, and Joy

Creative Praxis uses a culturally responsive training model that invites young people to bring their full selves into the room. Sessions are designed to affirm identity, reflect on power, and invite joy into the learning space.

Through interactive, trauma-informed methods, youth learn how to:

• Reflect on how their experiences shape their leadership

• Speak with clarity and purpose

• Build collective strategies for addressing harm

This work is never done in isolation. It is always grounded in the community.     .

Who These Trainings Support

Creative Praxis partners with youth of all ages, from kindergarten through college. Their arts-integrated trainings are especially resonant for:

• Students of color navigating systems of oppression      

• LGBTQIA+ youth building spaces of belonging and power

• Young organizers ready to speak up and act

• Youth navigating grief, transitions, or trauma

Facilitators meet participants with care, not correction. The learning space becomes a site of possibility.

How Power Grows

Creative Praxis centers group connection and expressive movement to help youth build confidence, release energy, and stay present in shared space.

build confidence, release energy, and stay present in shared space.

Power at Creative Praxis comes through practice. Every young person leaves with:

• Tools to name who they are, what they feel and want in this world     

• Confidence to speak out and organize with care

• Relationships built on mutual trust and respect

Most importantly, they leave knowing they are heard, valued and needed. Their creativity, their questions, and their ideas are not an afterthought, but are the foundation.

Creative Praxis Supports Youth-Led Change

At Creative Praxis, we celebrate young people as artists, organizers, and leaders. Through youth empowerment workshops, civic engagement workshops, and creative anti-oppression training programs in Philadelphia, we support youth in building confidence, community, and justice-centered action.

Our training reflects the power of art-based, liberation-centered education, where healing and learning go hand in hand. To bring this work into your school, organization, or community, reach out today. Contact Creative Praxis now!