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<\/p>\nNear Dexter and Joy Road on Detroit’s westside, a neighborhood full of families and youth watched their neighborhood K-12 school close.\u00a0 This closing was one of dozens in the City in 2016.\u00a0 This left parents to figure out where and how to get their kids to a new school.\u00a0 It left kids feeling sad that they could not walk to school with their friends.<\/p>\n
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Despite the school closing, a pre-existing weekly community dinner continued to thrive and naturally became an important connection point for the neighbors.\u00a0 Many youth came to gather for this neighborhood dinner every Tuesday night.\u00a0 Youth began to bring their homework and express a desire for something just for them.\u00a0 A group of neighbors, families, a local non-profit (YWAM Detroit<\/a>) and a small local church came together and launched what is now the Gladstone Studio, an after-school program focused on literature and the arts.<\/p>\n Every Tuesday night in the basement of a Gladstone neighbor’s home, one can find a group of youth ranging from K-12 engaged in reading, STEM labs, life skills training, creative activities, and always sharing a meal together.\u00a0 This grassroots initiative is still morphing and growing now.\u00a0 Last year, a local artist raised funds to donate instruments for the Studio<\/a> after hearing the desire of the youth to have a music program, since most of their schools don’t provide music.\u00a0 The Gladstone Studio community members hope to expand into an organized music and arts program this year, connecting local musicians, rappers, writers and dancers to the youth in the community.<\/p>\n The neighborhood school remains closed for now.\u00a0 This continues to be a strain on the families in the neighborhood.\u00a0 The Gladstone Studio exists to continue to support these brilliant youth as they continue to discover their potential and their dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Near Dexter and Joy Road on Detroit’s westside, a neighborhood full of families and youth watched their neighborhood K-12 school close.\u00a0 This closing was one of dozens in the City in 2016.\u00a0 This left parents to figure out where and how to get their kids to a new school.\u00a0 It left kids feeling sad that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":260,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/IMG_6774-200x300.jpg\")
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