Why did you create this innovation?

Burning Barriers, Building Bridges Youth Theatre (B4YT) believes in the power of the arts for community empowerment, problem-solving and peace building.

B4YT aims to promote service through volunteerism and civic engagement using the arts to give a voice to issues often overlooked.

B4YT recognizes the importance of training young adults in the skills necessary to lead, teach, and mentor others.

B4YT invests in collaboration between universities, NGOs, communities, businesses, and government.

B4YT supports young people in their aspirations to become better people for a brighter future by expanding educational activities.

B4YT amplifies the voice of those less often heard and promotes positive change.

How does your innovation work in practice?

Performing on stage gives them a way to voice their concerns to community stakeholders, while building awareness of and providing possible solutions to societal ills identified by the youth using our unique community organizing arts model. Since 2010, B4YT has served hundreds of children in Liberia, West Africa, training them to serve as Arts Instructors who lead their own program sites across the country.

Their arts-based advocacy and community education efforts have reached hundreds of thousands through live performance, especially on issues of health promotion and wellness during the Ebola and COVID-19 crises. Our signature program, the Global Youth Arts Collaborative, a 10-week arts and community engagement training has gone virtual to reach youth all over the world with this model. Through our consulting services, we have provided training and curricular materials on education, gender, health, arts, and advocacy to community organizations and academic institutions. Follow us as we Burn Barriers and Build Bridges to academic success and positive community change!

How has it been spreading?

B4 Youth Theatre was established in 2009 by partnering with THINK (Touching Humanity in Need of Kindness) in Liberia. The pilot study of an arts education model for high risk youth was implemented in 2010 at the Children’s Rescue Center Orphanage Mission in Mt. Barclay, Liberia. This program has since flourished to reach more than 400 children in Monrovia and surrounding areas outside of the capitol city, building a reputation for quality programming for children that engages them in positive community change while bolstering their academic success. This new learning model blends arts education with public achievement to achieve a unique synthesis of creative community change through live performances and student-led projects. It all begins with imagining something different!

If I want to try it, what should I do?

Follow us as we Burn Barriers and Build Bridges to academic success and positive community change!