Community Engagement Lab

The Community Engagement Lab builds school/community partnerships that place creativity at the center of learning so that all PreK-12 students have the creative and critical thinking skills they need to succeed in school and life. The CEL is based in Vermont, and is supporting creative school/community partnerships across the state through programs such as the Vermont Creative Schools Initiative, Teaching Artist Academy & Fellowship Program, and the Vermont Creative Learning Forum. WHO WE ARE Founded in 2011, the Community Engagement Lab is a leader in putting creativity at the center of learning. Our goal is for all Pre-K-12 students in Vermont to have greater access to high quality creative learning opportunities for developing the creative and critical thinking skills they need to succeed in school and life. WHAT WE DO Our flagship program, the Vermont Creative Schools Initiative, has three key components: 1 - COALITION BUILDING to align the programming of like-minded organizations' for greater impact, and to build a shared vision and agenda for placing creativity at the center of learning. 2 - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT for PreK-12 classroom teachers, teaching artists, and expanded learning providers to develop more high-quality creative learning opportunities for Vermont students. 3 - CREATIVE PROJECTS This is what it’s all about—creative classrooms and communities in action. We award a $5,000 teaching artist residency to each of our partner schools to help teachers provide more creative learning opportunities for their students. WHERE WE WORK Since 2015 we have worked with 1,600 students, 52 classroom teachers in 22 schools and 5 counties from the Northeast Kingdom to Brattleboro. Our goal is to serve 3,000 students each year in all regions of the state by 2021. LEARN MORE at communityengagementlab.org