What does the name "4Cs" mean?
Creative Connections between Children and their Communities.

What makes a strong 4Cs project?
A strong 4Cs project has three essential elements, plus a skilled Project Team  lead by a Project Coordinator.

What are the three essential elements?
1) The project brings children/youth and community members together to collaborate and work "side-by-side" on a community arts project.

2) The project involves enough "side-by-side" time to allow meaningful connections to develop between the children/youth and community members.

3)The arts activities are lead by a professional artist or artists, who has the skills to encourage creative collaboration across ages, abilities, and other barriers to participation.

Who can be a Project Coordinator?
The Project Coordinator has a very important role. This person needs a high level of commitment to the project and the ability to stay with the project through to its end. A Project Coordinator can be someone from the community or an artist interested in working with community. The Project Coordinator needs to have a strong commitment to the 4Cs idea of bringing children and their communities together through art activities, and a strong commitment to the goals of the project.

What skills does the Project Coordinator need to have?
The Project Coordinator needs:

• enthusiasm, energy, time, and commitment.
• to be able to get people involved, talk to people, and to make people feel welcome.
• to be a "big picture thinker" and still be able to pay attention to the details.
• to know how to plan, schedule, and organize - over short and longer term time periods.
• to work well with others and to share tasks and responsibilities.
• to know when to ask for help and be resourceful.
• a sense of humour!

What about the Project Team?
A Project Team needs people with these skills:

• Budgeting and financial reporting ("balancing the books")
• On-going evaluation of activities and of the overall project
• Report writing
• Ability to get community members involved.

What Role Is There for Me in a 4Cs Project?
There can be different roles in each project, but there are always a few basic roles in every project. These are:

1)    Project Coordinator

2)    Project Artist

3)    Book keeper

4)    Community Communications

Other roles can be with publicity, preparing or purchasing refreshments, translating information, providing childcare for the very young, purchasing materials, picking up and returning equipment, setting -up/cleaning-up...

The most important role, however, is to be an active and engaged participant committed to fostering relationships between children and their community.

I am an artist who wants to work in the classroom. Can I apply for a 4Cs grant? Maybe.  If your idea involves bringing community members into the school to work side-by-side with the students in creative activities, and the School Principal is in agreement with your idea, you could apply for a grant. Call first to discuss your idea.