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MPACT (Moving Parents and Children Together)
, Luna Dance Institute's (LDI) model program, which bring relationship-based dance classes to families in the child welfare system will increase services in community settings through a two-year grant from First Five Alameda County. Luna's MPACT pilot, launched in 2001 with First Five support, has grown from a program offering dance classes at two Oakland locations to a comprehensive early childhood dance education program that encompasses embodied parent education classes, professional development services through workshops and internships throughout California, and a Family Dance Institute.
In 2015-17 LDI's MPACT program will partner with these Oakland agencies: the Boys and Girls Club; East Bay Community Recovery Services' Project Pride; Magnolia Women's Recovery Programs; Allen Temple Health and Social Services; and West Oakland, Cesar Chavez and 81st Ave. public libraries. Family dance classes and embodied parent education classes will be offered free of cost to children and their parents at these locations. Services offered through LDI's Professional Learning Department include a
Family Dance Curriculum Practitioner Exchange and
Dance in ECE/Parent-child Dance Workshop taught by LDI faculty; and a
Neurological Foundations of Movement and Learning Workshop with guest presenter Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, founder of The School for Body-Mind Centering. LDI's 3rd Family Dance Institute, which has attracted national and international dance educators and social workers, will be offered in 2017. MPACT services reach 300 families and 50 professionals annually.
MPACT was one of 50 programs nationwide to receive recognition through the 2015 National Arts and Humanities Youth Award, which honors high quality arts programs outside of the school day. In 2014, LDI's research on MPACT, Engaging Families in Dance: An Investigation of Moving Parents and Children Together, funded by Alameda County Behavioral Health Services, was published in the
International Journal for Education and the Arts
. As MPACT evolves, LDI is committed to meeting the human need of connectivity, play, creativity and art-making through family relationships.
Click here for more information on MPACT and current schedule.
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