Greater Lowell Community Foundation Releases Free Toolkit to Help Organizations Bring Professional Artists into Youth Programming
The Greater Lowell Community Foundation (GLCF) announced the public release of the Arts Elevate Embedded Artist Toolkit, a comprehensive, free resource designed to help youth-serving organizations launch and sustain arts-based wellness programming through embedded community artists.
The toolkit emerges from Arts Elevate’s Fall 2025 pilot, which placed four professional artists — Anthony Febo (spoken word), Shoni Hallock-Martin (fiber arts), Andrea Wilson (visual and mixed media), and Tom Flint (film) — inside four Greater Lowell nonprofit partners: the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lowell, Danny’s Place (Acton), Prescott Community Center (Groton), and The Umbrella Arts Center (Concord.)
“What we learned across all four sites was strikingly consistent,” said Jennifer Aradhya, founder of Arts Elevate and Vice President of the Greater Lowell Community Foundation. “The artistic discipline mattered far less than the relationship between the artist and the young person. When that relationship is strong, young people discover what they are capable of.”
Outcomes from the pilot were significant. At the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lowell, 90% of spoken word participants reported a sense of belonging, and 80% reported feeling less anxious or depressed. Across all sites, families and community members witnessed visible growth in confidence, emotional expression, and peer connection.
The toolkit provides organizations with the full framework, templates, and practical guidance to replicate the model — including a three-tier budget structure (starting at $6,500), a complete artist MOU with safeguarding provisions, evaluation forms, parent communication templates, and a comprehensive section on GLCF’s adaptation of CREATE-CONNECT-CATALYZE framework for creative youth development. The CREATE-CONNECT-CATALYZE (CCC) framework is a nationally recognized model used in Creative Youth Development (CYD) to define and measure the impact of arts-based programs on young people.
“We built this toolkit because what we learned belongs to the broader field, not just to us,” Aradhya added. “Any youth-serving organization, in any community, can adapt this model.”
Arts Elevate is developed with lead funding from the Barr Foundation through its Creative Commonwealth Initiative, which supports strengthening arts and culture across Massachusetts.
“As we look to grow this work beyond youth to serve veterans and seniors across all 21 of our communities, this toolkit ensures no organization has to start from scratch,” said Jay Linnehan, President and CEO of the Greater Lowell Community Foundation. “It’s a blueprint built from real experience, and we’re proud to share it. We welcome partners to continue this work.”
The toolkit is available for free download at glcfoundation.org/download-the-toolkit.
