• The 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant has enabled Court Youth Center to provide children, youth and families in our community with greater access to an educational arts facility and authentic arts experiences in our arts-based Safe After School program.
  – Irene Oliver Lewis

Estampa de Mejico, a youth ballet Folklorico group at the Court Youth Center, perform at the closing ceremony for the Las Cruces, New Mexico 21st Century Community Learning Center Safe After School Program which included more than 500 participants from kindergarten to 12th grade.

The Court Youth Center (CYC), located in an old junior high school, is home to youth and community programs in the visual and performing arts and other areas. CYC is a partnership between the schools, who own the building, and the City of Las Cruces. Together with the Las Cruces Public School District, it has established a network of seven 21st Century Community Learning Centers, expanding the Safe After School program started in 1997. The learning centers are based at the individual schools and use CYC as an off-campus laboratory and studio for programs and field trips.

After-school, weekend and summer programs are designed around an arts-based and career-focused curriculum which incorporates hands-on meaningful applications of fine arts. Activities are linked to the school curriculum and are designed to assist the students in meeting or exceeding academic standards in reading, math, science, creative thinking and life skills. These avenues encourage students to become productive citizens in the community; learn healthy leisure alternatives that contribute to reduced drug use and violence; and strive for educational success.

The ratio of staff is ten to one. The staff consists of a certified school employee of the host school as the lead teacher and supervisor; six to eight parent teachers living in the neighborhoods; a CYC artistic director, after-school coordinator and six artists to integrate the arts into the core academic subjects; and leaders from community organizations which offer training, volunteers, mentors and additional resources. Safe After School staff, CYC staff and artists are trained together to understand the concept and techniques of integrating the arts into the regular academic curriculum. Training is conducted three times a year.

There are programs at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. At the middle school, six certified teachers and one educational assistant make up the staff. Sessions include photography, a Mars Millennium Project and mural, as well as tennis and computers. Working in a team with the teacher, a CYC artist is providing artistic guidance for the mural project. Another CYC artist has formed a theatre group. The CYC itself hosts a wide variety of other arts activities.