February 16, 2007 Mary Sundet Jones Iowa Arts Council 600 E. Locust Des Moines, IA 50319-0290 I am contacting you about a partnership opportunity with The Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) of Minneapolis. We at CTC have created an innovative program called Neighborhood Bridges that has had great success with children for the past eight years. Neighborhood Bridges is a comprehensive program of storytelling and creative drama designed to help children develop their critical literacy skills and to transform them into storytellers of their own lives. Co-founded by Jack Zipes, one of the world’s foremost scholars on fairytales, Professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, and Peter Brosius, Artistic Director of CTC, Neighborhood Bridges continues to grow and seeks to collaborate with other educational groups throughout the United States. An arts-based initiative, Neighborhood Bridges has been recognized by the federal government’s Department of Education Office of Improvement and Innovation as an effective model for arts education that integrates arts with standards-based education programs. Through a grant from the Department of Education, CTC will disseminate Neighborhood Bridges to 12 selected communities across the country by the fall of 2008. We are currently accepting Requests for Proposal (RFP) for our national dissemination sites. If chosen, CTC will send an experienced team to teach Neighborhood Bridges philosophy and curriculum to your organization, at no cost to you. Space is limited since national sites in Charlotte, NC, Johnson City, TN, Lacrosse, WI, and Lancaster, PA have already received our training and have begun their own versions of the Neighborhood Bridges program. At present, the University of Texas at Austin is another potential site. The deadline for national dissemination RFP is March 30, 2007. To be considered as national dissemination partner, please complete the online RFP available at www.neighborhoodbridges.org/ndp. If you would like additional information, please contact Kiyoko Motoyama Sims at ksims@childrenstheatre.org or 612-872-5133. We look forward to hearing from you. mary.sundetjones@iowa.gov Nicole L. Gurgel Community Engagement Associate Department of Education E: ngurgel@childrenstheatre.org T: 612-872-5165 The Children's Theatre Company 2400 Third Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55404 www.childrenstheatre.org www.neighborhoodbridges.org