Orange County Academy In-School Residency
"BEYOND LEARNING TECHNIQUE & STYLE... STUDENTS ARE LISTENED TO, CARED FOR, ENCOURAGED & CELEBRATED."
- Orange County Academy Staff
This program fosters social-emotional learning for students in grades preK-12 at the Orange County Academy (OCA) in Bithlo through weekly visual art classes, field trips, community exhibitions, and summer enrichment. Bithlo is an underserved community in Orange County with an average annual income of $19,000 for a family of four.
The Orange County Academy is a private school, supported by the nonprofit United Global Outreach, that serves some of the community’s most vulnerable youth. ArtReach Orlando’s trauma-informed art curriculum, not only increases art literacy, but enables students at OCA to rebuild their sense of self-worth.
The act of producing art has a proven, powerful healing impact, particularly for youth who are unable to put words to their experiences. Supporting self-expression through a wide range of art projects helps relieve the negative impact of difficult life experiences and can free youth to dream of and have a positive future.
Since 2010, United Global Outreach (UGO) has led the Bithlo Transformation Effort, a grassroots effort to undo many years of poverty and neglect in a town known as “Bithlo So Low” and the “Outcast of Orange County.”