SANDBOX- integrating art and technology

The issue we work on is to enable and improve personalized learning and individualized instruction for learners who have experienced disruptions in schooling and missed foundational milestones.

A comparative study from the Ministry of Education and the National Registry showed that approximately 58% of the student that enroll into high school dropout. For those students that stay in school, math and physics are the subjects with higher failing rates, both of which are essential skills for the technological industries.

Sandbox has an area of influence mainly in the “Historical Center” of Panama City, the Communities of El Chorrillo, Santa Ana, Barraza y San Felipe. These neighborhoods experience the highest levels of poverty, violence and criminality in the capital of the country.

COVID-19 adds a layer of inequality for students, as those who couldn’t afford a computer and a reliable internet connection were at odds when it came to virtual learning, a temporary way for society to cope with the high levels of infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths the country experience. Overall, this “fix” took a serious hit to the quality of education with the real setbacks to learning still to be formally analyzed.

SANDBOX is an educational innovation and inclusion project that integrates art and technology. It seeks to increase opportunities for productive inclusion around the Technological, Creative and Cultural Industries for young people at social risk through technological training modules applicable to the performing arts for the promotion of 21st century skills and the creation of an internship program that provides them with a first practical experience with industry professionals.

The project also seeks to strengthen the capacity for innovation and interdisciplinary experimentation with technology among young people and creative professionals. SANDBOX – workshop house platform model – combines a space equipped for training, interdisciplinary experimentation and innovation, based on the integration of technology with inclusive and innovative pedagogical models for young people at social risk, professional artists and trainers.

So far, the current funding, has allowed us to provide tailored training to 232 students between 12 and 18 years old from this geographical setting which is characterized by high levels of violence and constrained by lack of development, academic quality and job opportunities, at the end of the first year of implementation (May 2022). We expect to reach of 400 students by the end of year two (May 2023), with a commitment of including at least 50 refugees in the courses, that had been granted asylum in Panama because of the geopolitical problems in the region, mostly from Colombia, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

A varied team from different backgrounds, with experience in cultural performance experience. We have a mix of people of color, migrants and are led by a female executive director and project director.

We are a product of technological cooperation efforts championed by MIT, through its Computer Clubhouse project. It shows the impact of the south-south cooperation and what happens when collective minds work for the greater good. We are looking for solutions to take us to the next level!

Our solution is innovative because it gathers common collective human knowledge about the industry 4.0, digital disruption and the creative and cultural industries and structures it so it can be easily thought for young people.

Our greatest achievement is the social innovation component of the program, in which we provide student from socially-at-risk community the opportunity to get away from violent, poor and criminal environments and acquire the ability to turn their lives around to bright future of endless opportunities.

Over the next five years we want to see our program fully transition from an educational-driven perspective to a fully employment-skill building program that successfully places trained individual in the labor market.

 We want SANDBOX to be scaled to a broader community and geographical areas, both in the country and regionally. This is of paramount importance as inequalities in Latin America will not disappear overnight.

 We firmly believe that providing children with the technical skills of the jobs of future could help them get better jobs that offer them the social protections their parents did not have and move towards a just society

The umbrella indicators of macro improvements are Quality Education and Economic Growth and Decent Jobs, SDG's 4 and 8 respectively. We focused on the following:

Target 4.4: “By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship.”

Particularly the indicator 4.4.1 measures the share of youth and adults with various ICT Skills.

The output indicators of our program include:

Number of students from underrepresented communities that access training.

·      Percentage of students that complete the training classes and move through the next phases.

·      Hours of training imparted to students per term.

·      Ration of female to male participants, guaranteeing and overrepresentation of girls.

·      Number of projects completed and presented in digital or live formats

·      Number of students successfully placed as trainees in creative companies.

The ILO's report in youth employment outlines that in order to decrease the unemployment in young people it is necessary to invest in their skills and education. There is a clear need for ICT skills to be thought to children and young adults, as it would allow them to access decent jobs created by the Industry 4.0 era, one of the main focus of SANDBOX.

There is also a direct link between access to education and the vulnerable children, which includes young girls and those in vulnerable situations, for socioeconomic reasons, displacement, in conflict situations, refugees and migrant children, all of which are key beneficiaries of our program.

The output of our program to train underrepresented children in skills of XXI century will impact the quality of education they receive, allow for a population of better trained labor force to enter the market and contribute to a prosperous and equitable economic and social growth of our societies.

We utilize digital platform and in-person sessions to teach and co-create projects with students in the following areas:

·      Digital filming and photography, including editing

·      Audiovisual media creation and publication

·      Sound and music editing, mixing and creation

·      Wearable technology

·      Coding, both web and apps

·      Graphic design

·      A combination between the above mentioned and the performing arts

We have an anti-discrimination policy and a protocol for PSEA to assure a safe place for our beneficiaries and community. 

Key Resources qualified human resource

facilities
technological equipment

Partner + Key Stakeholder
Government
Private Sector
International Organization

Cost Structure
Staff
Materials

Key Activities:
training
audiovisual production
marketing
recruiting
funding

Type of intervention
Capacity and skills building

Channels
Digital
In-Person

Segments
Students from the historical center in Panama

Revenue
Grants
Ticket sales
Donations

Value proposition
Digital gap bridging
Female participation increase
Technical skills

We actively work with an updated list of sustained donors from both the private sector, the government and international organizations. We are working to build a fully equipped dance and audiovisual production studio to rent out to the public, as an additional cashflow to the organization

 Also, we produce artistic, audiovisual and contemporary dance festivals that are sold to the public, as an additional way to diversify our income and operate at a financially healthy level throughout the year.

We have received grants from:

The Inter-Development Bank

SENACYT (Government Agency in Panama for science and innovation)

Fundación EASTROCK

DEKEL Holdings

The Cultural Ministry of Panama

UNICEF

UNHCR

Succesful productions: contemporary dance pieces as "Crush" and "55"