Success Stories
Super Project Lab began offering educational programs in June of 2009. Our partnerships with local schools and social programs created an opportunity to bring communication and team-building skills to youth and adults from Boys and Girls Clubs, Girls Scouts Beyond Bars, Boys and Girls Aid , Beaumont SUN Community School, Portland Public Schools, Outside In, Caldera and Oregon Youth Authority.
Girl Scouts Beyond Bars is a Girl Scout troop composed of girls from Portland and outlying areas whose mothers are incarcerated. The girls have troop meetings with their mothers two Saturdays each month at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. To facilitate communication and interaction, Super Project Lab designed a two-hour workshop for the mother-daughter teams. The different needs of the girls ages 5-to-15 years old were met by having positive experiences with their mothers.
Quotes from the mothers:
“You did a great job and we like it all!”
“[What we liked…] being together, learning a new game, being silly and using our imaginations”
“I thought all the games were fun but I especially like the “whoosh” it got everyone involved and laughing.”
“We laughed a lot and that’s perfect for this type of situation.”
Quotes from the daughters:
“I liked everything. PS it was perfect”
“I liked to say one word and everything”
“I think we need to go faster on the whoosh zap and groovalicious!”
“The story it was fun and the whoosh it got all of us happy”
Pettygrove Residential Program is a a nine-month program serving young women, 14 to 18 years of age, who are in Oregon Youth Authority custody. Super Project Lab’s ongoing work with the young women continues to be an unexpectedly wonderful journey. Over the course of the first seven weeks, the girls became aware of the defensive posture and protective barriers they have built up around themselves (what one social worker refers to as their “survival suit”). Through the skill-building classes that ask each participant to affirm what happens and to respond creatively, the girls learned to trust themselves and our staff.
Quotes from the girls of Pettygrove Residential Program:
“Shelley is the best ever to teach here, the games, the way she teaches the skill sets to us”
“[I liked] the games and applying some skills with the games.”
“[I liked] games, activeness and cornyness”
“good attitude and respectful staff”
Quotes from the staff of Pettygrove Residential Program:
“The improv group is a great way to present our program’s information and behavioral skill sets in a creative way. It gives the girls a new perspective on actually using the tools and skills they’ve read about in their packets; and it adds a lot of fun to learning and working together cooperatively.”
-Theresa Merrion, Residential Care Counselor, Boy and Girls Aid
Caldera is a non-profit organization whose mission is to be a catalyst for transformation through innovative art and environmental programs. A team of dedicated staff works year round with thousands of students from Portland and Central Oregon. Super Project Lab teamed up with Caldera in 2011 to teach improv and activating theater over two fall weekend intensives. Here’s what their program coordinator had to say:
Quotes from Caldera:
“Super Project Lab utilizes improv in a way that helps students find their voice, feel confident with it and generate the power to communicate that vision and voice to the world. Our students at Caldera face a multitude of obstacles in their lives. Through SPL’s strong facilitation of an Activating Theater activity, our students felt empowered to not only speak openly about those obstacles but also to start finding solutions for them.
SPL does an incredible job of allowing youth to step outside their comfort zone in a safe way and to help them begin to realize it is not as uncomfortable there as they may have thought. Super Project Lab is expanding youth’s horizons with laughter (lots of it), something we need a lot more of. We are very excited to continue our work with Super Project Lab and to see how they can continue to help Caldera youth with their own self-expression and personal growth.”
-Teafly Peterson, Arts Integration Coordinator, Caldera
Outside In is a 40 year old non-profit that helps homeless youth and other marginalized people work toward self-sufficiency. Super Project Lab has maintained an ongoing partnership with OI for two years. We have produced a dozen performances in which the homeless youth from Outside In have performed improv and activating theater for public audiences as well as audiences of their peers.
Quotes from Outside In:
“Nicholas and Shelley have gone above and beyond. Beyond teaching at OI, they found improvisation class scholarship opportunities for 3 youth out in the community. They have worked hard to craft a dynamic peer education unit this fall and have an excellent rapport with our youth. They help the youth step out of their comfort zones, suspend negative judgment of self and others, and build acceptance. Youth reported that they enjoyed working on the skits because they were given agency in determining the content and were not censored. Thank you for giving youth this opportunity!” – Nili Yosha, Chat PDX Project Leader
“Nicholas and Shelley are very committed to their work. Their dedication shows through the continuous engagement with the youth. We are fortunate to have their support.” - Heberto Espinosa, CHAT PDX Youth Specialist
"The improv group is a great way to present our program's information and > behavioral skill sets in a creative way. It gives the girls a new > perspective on actually using the tools and skills they've read about in > their packets; and it adds a lot of fun to learning and working together > cooperatively." > -Theresa Merrion, Residential Care Counselor, Boy and Girls Aid