Letting Off STEAM: Clubs for Pediatric Patients

K-12 STEAM education

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

According to National Children’s Health, over 1 million of Californian children (ages 0-17) suffer from chronic illness. Due to frequent hospital visits, deficient immune systems, physical challenges, and vulnerability to viruses, kids impacted by chronic illness face isolation, barriers to their education, and low self-esteem. A study in the September 2023 issue of Academic Pediatrics revealed that extracurricular activities reduce the likelihood of depression and anxiety in children, significantly enhancing their wellbeing. Additionally, it also improves the mental health among caregivers. Creating programs for young patients is not an easy task though, and many health care providers don't have the resources. Children with chronic health conditions require accommodations such as virtual lessons, or adjustments to participate such as additional breaks to manage pain or fatigue. Volunteer coaches need to be prepared with proper training when working with special need students.

Our STEAM learning and wellness programming is tailored to meet the needs of kids who don’t have access to adaptable lessons they can afford. Our two key program offerings remain our (4-week)1:1 lessons, where students work with volunteer coaches individually (online or in-person), and our (4-week) club lessons, where groups of students connect in a workshop setting (online), led by a Head Coach with assistance from other volunteer coaches. Popular STEAM clubs include Astronomy, Physics, Archeology, plus a wide array of art, music, and athletic lessons. Volunteer coaches are vetted and trained by our team with guidance from medical advisors. Volunteer coaches can then match with a student using our innovative CoachArt Connect app, which streamlines the matching process. In 2024 and 2025 we are adding special live events at the National History Museum, bringing back our Halloween Spooktacular event, and a winter holiday craft party. Our special live events bring together over 250 Los Angeles kids, led by volunteer coaches who organized various themed arts, crafts, and education stations.
With our new Coach Art Connect app, our number of lesson hours is on track to increase by 25% YOY. Additional funding provided by LA2050 would help us continue to grow our popular virtual and live lessons by offsetting costs required to recruit and train new volunteers, physical kits for lessons (free of cost to students), and introduce 2 additional STEAM themed live programs in LA.

In 2024 we anticipate providing 13,000 lesson hours through 2,600 matches between a volunteer coach and students in LA. With current growth rate of 25%, we will need to provide over 17,500 lesson hours through 3500 matches in 2025. Growth rates are attainable using our new CoachArt Connect app which has streamlined the matching process. The ease of virtual classes has also been appealing to a larger audience, making lessons attainable for both volunteers and students. We anticipate this annual growth trajectory will continue over the next several years with proper funding. Although CoachArt is now available to anyone nationwide, LA continues to serve as our primary hub where we engage and cultivate the majority of our patients, families, and volunteers who provide valuable feedback using our internal message board, CoachArt Inspire. These insights have led to testing and piloting new programs for our LA community that will one day serve as models for expanding national initiatives.

CoachArt has a holistic impact on a child’s development and improves their overall quality of life. CoachArt uses data to determine what areas require more attention or have more opportunity for further development.
Quantitative success will be determined by the following metrics and goals:
Total Kids Served
Total Lesson Hours
Total 1:1 Lessons Organized
Total Group Lessons Organized
Based on the above data sets, demand for CoachArt lessons nationwide have shown exponential growth between 2020 and 2023, where number of lessons more than doubled (18,119 lesson hours in ’20 to 38,723 lesson hrs in ’23) *More than half the lessons still take place in LA. Qualitative success is determined via Family Feedback surveys include questions for both the child and the parents experience. This includes if they had fun, did they feel supported, and would they recommend. In 2023 out Net Promoter qualitative scores for kids/parents/guardians questions ranked between 87% and 97% positive.