The Brooklyn Children's Museum
145 Brooklyn AvenueBrooklynNY11213718-735-4406718-735-4400

Program: Museum Team Year Started: 1987 Focus: Multidisciplinary Arts & Humanities Youth Served: 1,200 Ages: 7-18 Budget: $250,800 Museum Team is an educational, job training and employment program for youth at The Brooklyn Children's Museum, an institution established for youth in 1899. Museum Team, recipient of the 1995 Institute of Museum and Library Services National Award for Museum Service, is open to youth ages 7-18 and targets residents of the Museum's immediate neighborhood of Crown Heights and Bedford Stuyvesant. The program has a four-tier structure to meet the needs of participants in an age-appropriate manner. Kids Crew (ages 7-14) combines on- and off-site education activities, including daily science, cultural, arts, library research and gallery-based programs. Members are involved in a writing club and publish their own newspaper. Volunteers-in-Training (ages 10-14) builds upon Kids Crew activities with artist- and scientist-in-residence programs and short-term work experiences in a specific gallery or Museum department. Volunteers (ages 12-14) participate in a career preparatory program as well as in Museum-related programming and maintain longer term work placement. Paid Interns (ages 14-18) work in a variety of positions throughout the Museum and in other sites in the community. Ongoing workshops support continued skill development, with emphasis on college and vocational training. A youth advisory council helps plan for and evaluate the program. According to one young participant, "There is a lot of stuff going on around my block. Becoming a Volunteer was the best chance to do something good for myself."