Awards & Accomplishments


The following highlight some of our recent major accomplishments:

    IOCA wins Coming Up Taller award!
  • The President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities awarded The School Project the national 2005 Coming Up Taller Award (received January 25, 2006). Co-Director Camille Ameen and program participant Brandon Tillis accepted the honor from First Lady Laura Bush at a White House reception.
  • Three independent research studies1 have confirmed our impact. In February 2006 Educational Theatre Association's national magazine Teaching Theatre published UCLA professor and expert in the Arts and Human Development, Dr. James Catterall's groundbreaking study. The magazine also featured an in-depth cover story on Inside Out, "Making Theatre, Changing Living."
  • In March 2008 we published a comprehensive Artist Leader Training Manual with an accompanying DVD. This was the culmination of a project started in March 2006 when we were awarded funding from the Dana Foundation to expand our Training Academy and support the development and implementation of a Master Trainer Program. In addition to the manual, we now have four certified Master Trainers who can teach and support new Artist Leaders in-house and in new territories.
  • In May 2005 Inside Out was honored by the LAUSD with the President's Volunteer Service Award in recognition of contributions to youth development and achievement.
  • Inside Out received a Professional Designation in Arts Education by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission in 2004.

  • Inside Out's School Project was one of nine programs identified as a model in RAND's The Arts and Public Safety Impact Study: An Examination of Best Practices, "to demonstrate decisively that arts programs can contribute in quantifiable ways to solving social problems such as crime and violence."
  • California Arts Council recognized The School Project as an Exemplary Arts Program in 2002. The award supported teacher training at LAUSD and an independent case study by two UCLA researchers. Their report concludes: "Inside Out is an ambitious program that practices what it preaches...Other programs interested in finding substantive ways to assist student development should look not only to Inside Out's design but also to the multiple components of its successful program: philosophy, curriculum, staff, and ultimately a belief in the power of all students."3
  • Since our inception we have directly served more than 3,600 youth and reached over 55,000 audience members through our programs and thousands more through festivals and community events.
  • Since 1996 we have premiered more than 280 original topical plays written by middle school participants.

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1Catterall, James. Inside Out's School Project: A research report measuring the power of a theatre-based program for at-risk junior high students. Teaching Theatre, Winter 2006, pp 2-7.
2Joseph, Rebecca & Estrella, Rachel. Inside Out Community Arts' The School Project: Helping Students Construct Individual and Collective Change. A Qualitative Case Study Evaluation. Funded by the California Arts Council, July 2003.
3Inside Out Program Evaluation: Participant Project Survey Analysis 2000. Steven Frieze, Director of Institutional Research and Planning at Cal Polytechnic University, Pomona, funded by the Eisner Foundation, July 2001.