Mission Statement Transforming lives through mindfulness, arts, healing, and a sense of belonging Who We Are The ROCK Center is a community based organization in the Del Mar Park Neighborhood of Aurora serving children, youth and their families. The ROCK Center offers arts based out of school programming for youth and families that focuses on cultivating resilience through teaching connection, coping skills, and competence. The Three C’s 1. Build Connection Skills: Youth who participate in ROCK Center programming will develop positive relationships skills such as helping others, resolving conflict through dialogue, and learning interpersonal communication skills through the arts. 2. Build Coping Skills: Youth who participate in ROCK Center programming will improve their abilities to identify, express, and modulate their emotions and behaviors. Some examples include knowing how to calm down when feeling upset, learning how to talk to others about their feelings, and identifying mindfulness tools to help them move through anger. 3. Build Competencies: ROCK Center participants will be able to identify areas in which they have gained new levels of skill. From visual art, to spoken word poetry, and music making, they will have the chance to work with partner artist to grow and expand their skill set. History of The ROCK Center The creation of the ROCK Center is rooted deeply in a vision of community relationships, intentional partnerships, and the power of the Arts to be a force of healing. The vision for the ROCK Center was born out of a desire of the Parkview Church Community to be a resource to the Del Mar Park Neighborhood. In the early 2000s the church launched several community engagement programs and classes. After a few successes and some failures in figuring out how to be a resource to the community, the church leadership created a dedicated staff position to expand this work. The creation of this position led to the hiring of Rev. Corbin Tobey-Davis and a period of community engagement and resource mapping that helped shape what would eventually become The ROCK Center. Led by the work of Rev. Tobey-Davis and what would become the founding board, the major identified need was for effective and engaging out of school programs for children and youth. This also corresponded with drastic cuts to Arts funding in Aurora Public Schools, and high rates of poverty as identified by the free and reduced lunch rates of the surrounding schools. The ROCK Center was officially founded as a 501c3 in 2015, maintaining its presence in the Parkview Church facility while also gaining its autonomy as a free and independent entity. During its early history the ROCK Center offered art-based programs for elementary and middle school youth in the time, this would eventually expand into the creation of the Peace Warrior Summer Camp program. This period was marked by new partnerships with local schools, community-based agencies, and community artists that reflected the diversity of the ROCK Center wider community. Through these partnerships and informal and formal conversations with our community of participants and leaders, we recognized that Trauma was a prevailing element that was having a negative impact on the community. From housing insecurity, immigrant and refugee status, to the more commonly known forms of violence, assault, and abuse, we recognized a need to focus on healing and transformation. The focus of our organization began to shift to strengthen our partnerships and leverage shared resources to focus on cultivating resilience with the children, youth, and families that we partnered with. Our out of school programming took on the form of our summer Peace Warriors camp. A program that utilizes the arts for transformation in a culturally responsive and trauma-informed environment. Our Peace Warriors camps are supported by the services of Aurora Mental Health’s school-based counseling team. In the past two years, a partnership with the Storytellers Project led to a partnership to bring their vision for a Breaking Chains Building Bonds program to life. The Breaking Chains Building Bonds (BCBB) program for formerly incarcerated parents and youth wrapped up our second cohort of programming in November 2019. The program focuses on building healthy coping skills. communication skills and on-going support to keep them out of the prison system. The shifts outlined in the last few years led the board to adopt a new strategic plan and along with it a new mission statement: Transforming lives through mindfulness, arts, healing, and a sense of belonging. Meet our Staff Rev. Corbin Tobey-Davis Executive Director Corbin is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and served as the pastor of Parkview Church UCC in Aurora for 8 years. In November of 2019 Corbin left his position to further the community ministry of the ROCK Center, a Youth and Family community based 501c3 non-profit in Aurora whose mission statement is, “Transforming lives through mindfulness, arts, healing, and a sense of belonging.” Personal Corbin is a 5th generation Coloradan and seeking to embody transformative community practices of healing through collaborative endeavors. Corbin is a drummer, a lover of all forms of music, he is a “Master of the Playlist”, and and freestyle hip-hop emcee who believes in the power of a communal cypher and the unifying force of the drum beat. Corbin also believes deeply in the power of nature and the healing spaces of the wilderness. He is an avid hiker, skier, and a self-avowed hugger of trees. Rachel RobertsSchool Based Program Manager Rachel is an artist, facilitator, and organizer focused on cross-sections of storytelling, communal care, and social justice. She is currently pursuing her Master of Social Work degree with a concentration on ecological justice. Alongside her work at the ROCK Center, she is actively involved with community-engaged research on cooperatives, cultivating models for regenerative education, and participating in a mutual aid fellowship Personal Raised in New England and having lived in St. Louis and Chicago before moving to Denver last year, Rachel is excited to continue deepening her roots and connections across Colorado. She has worked as a teaching artist, organizer, and advocate across diverse spaces. Although a writer and visual artist at her core, Rachel loves to take part in and be around all creative forms, especially those that involve performing, sharing stories, and building relationships with others. She also enjoys climbing, caring for animals, growing food, and traveling. She loves to spend as much time with trees and water as possible. Marcus MurraySchool Based Program Manager Marcus Murray is a Jamaican-American artist and educator living in Denver, Co. He has worked in education for the last 8 years and has found his passion in engaging the youth through art. An avid lover of comics, movies, and everything else nerd. When not hunched over his iPad drawing he can be found trying to wrangle in his dog, Kali Fronzo GilkeySchool Based Program Manager This is your friendly neighborhood Fronzo! By day he’s one of our school-based programv directors at The ROCK Center. By night he is the director of operations for Dyfferent Media. His origin story starts in the colorful streets of Colorado. Where he discovered a strong enthusiasm for the arts. Over the years this passion led him into the theatrical realm where he’s been able to build on his skills of being a performer, writer, & producer. Under the guidelines of creating relatable, entertaining, original, conscious art; he has found himself in some beautiful communities, with truly incredible humans. As someone who’s a child at heart, Fronzo loves working with kiddos & encouraging them in new ways of expression, facing challenges, self advocacy, and finding joy. Where is peace found for Fronzo? Wherever there are mountains, food, & laughs being shared.