For more than half a century, Wilmington's Christina Cultural Arts Center, Inc. (CCAC), the only professionally directed, multidisciplinary arts organization in Delaware, has been bringing the arts and arts education to low-income families while celebrating African-American culture.

The Center has promoted empowerment and economic development while providing thousands of inner-city Wilmington families with private and group training in vocal and instrumental music, dance, visual arts, and theater. CCAC has served residents not only at its downtown location on Market Street Mall but also in public schools, prisons, community centers, churches, and transitional housing shelters. In recent years, CCAC has extended its programs to directly impact the lives of the community's children and teens.

Today CCAC starts early - with an arts-based program for 3-year-olds and their parents - in its Learning Arts Resource Center. Meanwhile, 4-year-olds may participate in the Early Childhood Education Arts Academy, which is modeled after Kaleidoscope at Settlement Music School in Philadelphia. Designed around an arts-focused curriculum, the program follows Head Start guidelines and strives to meet the social, health, nutritional, and psychological needs of the 20 children and their parents who are currently enrolled. Funding comes from Delaware Governor Tom Carper's Early Childhood Initiative through the Department of Public Instruction, as well as from the federal Head Start program and the United Way of Delaware.

Students from kindergarten through sixth grade are welcome in the After School Arts Workshop, which offers homework assistance and transportation and runs from September to June. In the summer months, children 5-12 can spend a full day, five days a week for nine weeks in ArtSummer. The same program gives teens volunteer experience.

In addition, for teenagers in public school who are parenting children between infancy and age 4, CCAC offers Iyabo, from the Yoruba term meaning "the parent has returned." It uses music, movement, literature, storytelling, and drama to assist young parents in fostering their child's development. The program also reaches incarcerated women, and women and children living in transitional housing.