Women’s Fund Awards Grant to Asante Theatre
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowWomen’s Fund of Central Indiana has awarded a $750,000 grant to be distributed over a three-year period for a new theatre program. The grant for Asante Children’s Theatre will create the Sankofa Paradigm Program, a program for girls at the Boys and Girls Club of Indianapolis.
The new program is a partnership between the theatre, Boys and Girls Club, Community Health Network and Dr. Sally Wasmuth of the IUPUI School of Health and Human Services. The theatre allows the girls to express their feelings, solve problems and work together in theatre games, storytelling and performance to help them cope and process trauma of adverse experiences.
A taskforce reviewed all grant applications for nine months before picking Asante Children’s Theatre.
“Asante Children’s Theatre has created a bold, innovative and positively disruptive initiative to increase mental health services to underappreciated girls of color in our community,” said Jennifer Pope Baker, executive director of Women’s Fund. “The emotional well-being of these young girls is critical to their long-term success in life and they are an important part of the future of our community.