Craft For A Greater Good: New Orleans, LA - 2023

Begin­ning in 2023, we will partner with YAYA, an orga­ni­za­tion serving New Orleans area chil­dren and youth through educa­tional expe­ri­ences and entre­pre­neur­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties in the arts. YAYA’s programs are designed to nurture the creative talents of students in ways that also strengthen their acad­e­mic success, life skills, and profes­sional prepared­ness, turning their creative talents into career pathways.

In this round of Craft for a Greater Good, we antic­i­pate teach­ing furni­ture making skills to partic­i­pants. YAYA’s orig­i­nal program involved working with young people to paint ​“story­telling chairs.” Over the last thirty-two years, YAYA has expanded their facil­i­ties, mediums, and reach. Our part­ner­ship with YAYA will allow them to return to their roots, the ​“story­telling chair;” only this time — three decades later — the partic­i­pants will go beyond surface design and learn to build chairs of their own design, deep­en­ing their skills and enrich­ing the experience.

YAYA empow­ers creative young people through visual arts educa­tion combined with entre­pre­neur­ial and life skills train­ing, equip­ping them with the skills they need to thrive as leaders. Our programs train youth to think creatively, solve prob­lems, manage complex projects, and give back to their commu­nity. Since 1988, YAYA has served as an incu­ba­tor for young talent, giving youth the freedom, oppor­tu­ni­ties, and resources to discover their passions and artistic voices. 

The Furni­ture Society is pleased to announce renewed support from the John & Robyn Horn Foun­da­tion and the Sara Little Turn­bull Foun­da­tion for our commu­nity-based initia­tive, Craft For a Greater Good. 

With the 2021 – 2022 funding the Sara Little Turn­bull and the John & Robyn Horn Foun­da­tions have so gener­ously provided, CGG has been able to grow from a modest pilot program into a robust, nation­ally recog­nized program that is making a quan­ti­ta­tive differ­ence, even inspir­ing a college course as well as national volunteer participation.

In addi­tion to the contin­ued, gener­ous support from these foun­da­tions, we are honored to have been recog­nized by the Maxwell Hanra­han Foun­da­tion in support of our efforts as we look to the future and our next project in New Orleans. We are 

These multi-year grants are mission-crit­i­cal to the contin­u­a­tion of CGG in allow­ing us to set a program­matic foun­da­tion in place to sustain and continue build­ing the program.

The Furni­ture society is grate­ful to our funders for recog­niz­ing the crit­i­cal and impact­ful nature of this program and we look forward to begin­ning our efforts, in earnest, in a new city over the course of the next year.