South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Milagro Center builds art garden for at-risk youth
The Milagro Center in Delray Beach wants to use its new Community Art Garden to help create more “milagros,” or miracles in Spanish, for economically-challenged youth.
When you walk through the gates to the open space between the center’s two buildings, what was once some gravel, rocks and grass is now a bright, green space from the ground up, even on the walls.
Barbara Stark, Milagro Center’s president and CEO, said she couldn’t be more proud of the positive impact the center has had on the underprivileged area of The SET in Delray Beach.
“Many families live in this little community in Delray,” she said. “And they don’t venture out. Most of them don’t have cars, they use public transportation, and that’s how they get by. So, we’re committed to our community, and also to exposing the community to art and also giving our community members the opportunity to showcase their art.”
The SET, which includes the neighborhoods west of Swinton Avenue to Interstate 95 along Atlantic Avenue, has more challenges than many in South Florida. There is a history of drugs and crime that has existed for decades because of the nature of the economic segregation that was established early in the 20th century.
“We’re located in the most underserved neighborhoods in Delray Beach,” Stark said. “It has the highest poverty level in South Palm Beach County. Because of that, children who are being raised in that community are much higher at risk for school failure. And we all know that poverty and school success are inversely related.
“The center has been serving Delray Beach for over 23 years and we have never changed our mission or our passion for helping the underserved children and youth achieve success,” she said.
Stark said public schools have been cutting arts and music programs to help them focus on the basics so that the schools can meet the standards for statewide testing. The cut to arts funding is one of the reasons that Milagro Center created its new art space.
“There are so many studies that show that art and music and creative expression actually works hand in hand with academics,” she said. “We are very artistic and creative. We do dance, from ballet to hip hop. We do all kinds of art, sculpture, painting, and digital art.
“Also, because we have the advantage of being in Delray, we have many, many local artists who volunteer their time and teach art classes to our kids. So, our kids are really learning art from professionals.”
One of the center’s strengths is its smaller group of youth on which to focus.
“We only serve about 130 children and teens,” Stark said. “So the effect that we have on each child is very deep and very meaningful.”
How the garden happened
Before the art garden came into existence, Stark and her team saw so much creative potential among the students at the center. But they didn’t have a way to make use of it.
“We have a lot of talented people in this community, including a lot of artists and performers. But they haven’t had any access to exhibit or any access to perform,” she said.
Then, in 2019, Stark learned that the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties had put out a request for grant proposals for community revitalization projects.
“We realized that we could transform the yard between our Junior Teen Center and our Teen
Center into a community art space. So we wrote a proposal for it, and we were fortunate to be awarded the grant,” she said.
The team at Milagro brainstormed the idea that space in between their buildings might be the perfect spot for an art garden.
“We actually transformed what is the side yard between these two buildings,” Stark said. “We had a vision that it would be an outdoor sculpture garden, and then behind our two centers we have two wooden stages where we built a deck that serves as a stage.”
The idea was to have an exhibit in the art garden, and then have a dancer on one of the stages and a band on the other stage.
“We can do these events several times a year, and engage the community and give them access to art and also launch some people’s art and performance abilities,” she said.
Student profile: Mildred Lux
Mildred Lux started at the Milagro Center when she was 5. Thirteen years later, she has grown to love the center and its people. While she always has enjoyed art, she found many other opportunities during her time there.
“When I first started at Milagro, I was doing a lot of artwork,” she said. “I’m not a tremendous artist, but I still do artwork occasionally.
“In recent years, I’ve been helping Barbara at the center with a whole bunch of human resources projects like filing, paperwork and a lot of different things,” she said. “Actually, I am focusing on HR for after high school. I’m getting a lot of experience at Milagro as an HR assistant, and it’s something that I will use in my future career.”
When it comes to the staff and students, Lux doesn’t hold back her feelings.
“The Milagro Center has been like a second family to me,” she said. “We’re a mixed culture of different people, and we get to meet a whole bunch of different people that we actually get to connect with. I’ve stayed connected with people I met here when I was 5.”
Career direction is a big part of what the Milagro Center does for Lux.
“One of the biggest highlights was the learning opportunity for me,” she said. “Milagro set me on a career path. And there are other kids here now who are getting a lot of learning opportunities for their future career path as well.”
A basic function the center offers in the neighborhood is being a desirable place for kids to be.
“The Milagro Center has a high value for any parent who wants to see their kid grow,” Lux said. “But it’s also a place where kids stay out of trouble. That’s one thing that I feel is very valuable because we have so many teenagers in the neighborhood who get into trouble or teenagers who have bad influences around them.
“Here, we focus on kids making better choices. We put them in programs, and we even have classes where they can entertain themselves, to keep them out of trouble.”
Student profile: Elvanise LouisJuste
Elvanise Louis-Juste has been a student at the
Milagro Center since sixth grade. That was four years ago.
“My older brother brought me here,” she said. “Milagro is very welcoming. It’s stunning to see how much they care about the kids who come here.”
The arts are important to Louis-Juste, so she said she feels that the center has been supportive in that direction.
“If the students are interested in art, if they’re interested in singing, Milagro helps them embrace that talent,” she said. “They helped me to grow my love for singing, and I appreciate them so much because, without them, I don’t think that I would be where I am.
“There are a lot of kids here who are shy in the beginning, and now they love to do art, they love to sing, and they love to draw. It’s a captivating thing to see. That’s why I still attend here because the staff is amazing.”
Louis-Juste also sees the benefit of the center for the whole neighborhood.
“I think when people pass by here, and they see a group of teens working in the art garden, it brings the community together, and it brings in other teens,” she said. “You can invite friends to come and to join, and I just think it’s a beautiful thing to have within the community.
“It’s a place where kids and teens can come and interact with each other and interact with people that can help them and help the future. So I think it’s a real landmark for the community.”
About Milagro Center
The Milagro Center, 695 Auburn Ave., was founded in 1997 by several visionary leaders motivated by the desire for community service, centered on providing arts experiences to the economically-challenged neighborhood children. Its programs have grown to focus on empowering at-risk youth and their families.
The center offers: Academic instruction, tutoring and reading intervention
Cultural Arts enrichment (including art, musical instrument instruction, dance, digital technology, dramatic arts, voice)
The United Nationsendorsed Living Values Education curriculum Mentoring
Visit milagrocenter.org/.