In late June, Bay Area-based Five Keys Charter Schools launched the Self Determination Project, a program that turns buses into mobile classrooms to reach kids who might otherwise not get plugged into traditional schools for lack of transportation, a feeling that they don’t fit in, or because they’re afraid to cross blocks that act like borders in neighborhood gang territory.

To be a success, however, the mobile learning hubs needed to be not just transportable but also inspirational inside, so the kids want to be there. To that end, the prototype’s interior is sleek and contemporary, equipped with skylights, a boxy lounge, and plenty of clean, well-lit space for kids to access laptops, peruse an onboard library, and learn from a cast of traveling teachers.

The foundation has also greenlit a Utah-based filmmaker to do a documentary on incarcerated women fighting for their right to bear children, and a Philadelphia-based organizer to launch a pop-up exhibition and workshop involving former and currently incarcerated artists to humanize inmates and build more grassroots support for them in places where it may not exist.

“[They’re] working to help their community imagine in very concrete, practical terms what alternative policing practices could look like in their specific local context,” Wilson adds about the SpiritHouse effort.

 

In the philanthropy world, this is an example of arts and culture funding that does more than just raise awareness—it’s impact driven. Since 2015, the Rauschenberg Foundation has been awarding these kinds of two-year grants, offering up to $100,000 for artists or art collectives willing to get less abstract about their purpose. The idea is that creativity should somehow make real social change.

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