CRE Outreach
In the past two years, CRE Outreach has become a fixture within the Inglewood Unified School District serving over 100 at-risk youth with after-school programs, doubled our audiences for local productions, expanded our donor database by over 15%, and been able offer stipends to our Theatre by the Blind actors for the first time. Our seventh Theatre by the Blind production, Private Eyes, completed a successful six-week run in April 2012. An audience favorite, the show was prominently featured in the Los Angeles Times and other local publications (see attached press). In addition, we have forged a strong relationship with the Braille Institute and the Junior Blind of America to develop and execute arts-based programming in the Los Angeles area serving approximately 200 visually impaired participants. CRE Outreach has also become the parent company for Outreach Through the Arts, at the Santa Monica Music Center, which provides over 80 under-served youth with scholarships for instrument lessons and music instruction. Most recently, we have developed a partnership with the Veterans Affair’s New Directions program to implement “Heroes’ Stories” — a performing arts residency that gives a voice to our nations brave service members helping to honor and empower them through theatre.
Visit this organization’s website to volunteer
Learn about this organization’s budget, leadership and mission
1 Submitted Idea
- 2013 Grants Challenge
Transforming Lives One Show at a Time
CRE Outreach is a non-profit performing arts organization that helps at-risk youth, the visually impaired, and military veterans in greater Los Angeles overcome their challenges through the creation of original works. Our programs actively engage the most under-served individuals, empowering them to live better lives and successfully navigate through today’s society. Programming Our Changing Perceptions program provides visually impaired youth, teens and adults with essential life-skills through the performing arts. Through this program non-verbal students become vocal, participants confidently navigate a stage and move through space, and casts learn to work as a team towards a common goal. Theatre by the Blind, the country’s only theater troupe composed entirely of blind adult actors, provides participants with a constructive and creative forum to confront their challenges while informing the public and changing misconceptions about the capabilities of the blind. Creative Youth Theatre provides at-risk youth with performing arts programs at under-funded schools and community centers. Students’ explore their own hopes and struggles to create original stories focused on themes such as bullying, racism, peer pressure, and self-esteem. Heroes’ Stories is a performing arts program with New Directions at the V.A. that gives military veterans a safe environment to voice their own heroic stories and experiences through theatre. Through these innovative performing arts programs, CRE Outreach is “Transforming Lives, One Show at a Time.”