PROBLEM

Modern Learn Lab addresses the lack of educational programming for homeless adults age 18-35, including those exiting prison, foster care or living in transitional homes. In the absence of accessible, constructive, by-choice educational programming our solutions to manage homelessness result in warehousing people vs moving them into lives of stability and self-agency. 

SOLUTION

Modern Learn Lab is an innovative educational approach which uses highly-engaging arts, media and music education to ignite learning motivation in marginalized adult populations. Our approach blends arts education into adult educational bridge programming and contextual basic adult eduction - the current strategies used to address the lack of education in high-risk and homeless adults. By introducing the arts into educational and workforce development tactics we create significant improvements in mental wellness; build supportive social bonds; address structure and authority aversion; and teach transferable soft and hard skills, imperative to gaining and maintaining employment of all types.

1

Arts education is accessible, inclusive and builds a healthy, supportive community

2

Arts education manages trauma

3

Arts education develops essential and transferable workforce skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity

Our Big Idea

We view homelessness differently.

We are in a nationwide homeless crisis, with rapidly rising unsheltered rates across ethnic, racial and gender groups. We see homelessness as a symptom of systemic educational discrimination, disproportionately affecting people of color and those in poverty. Traditional adult education for marginalized individuals falls short, emphasizing literacy and vocational skills, while neglecting the essential elements of holistic human development necessary to foster self-agency particularly in people who have suffered trauma. Our solution is innovative: we harness the power of arts-based learning to provide a liberal arts education through creativity. By re-engineering adult education, we tackle these systemic challenges head-on, preventing homelessness and unemployment and empowering individuals to write their own stories.

HOW

MLL

EDUCATES

How it works

Our understanding of brain development challenges the conventional notion that cognitive growth stops at 18 years-old, a belief that has failed many individuals let down by traditional education.

At Modern Learn Lab, we embrace the scientific reality of lifelong brain neuroplasticity. This phenomenon, where over 100 billion neurons form and adapt intricate neural pathways, ensures that our cognitive capacity continually evolves. These neural connections, reliant on synaptic junctions, enable neurons to connect with about 10,000 others, a crucial aspect of survival. Learning reinforces some connections while diminishing others, illustrating neuroplasticity in action. For connections to thrive, sensory stimuli must be truly salient, prompting the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine. The arts and aesthetics shine as powerful catalysts for saliency, engaging multiple sensory experiences and rewiring the brain.

At Modern Learn Lab, we harness this transformative potential, utilizing the arts to facilitate profound cognitive shifts and empower individuals on their journey towards self-agency and an employed, empowered life.

Hollywood Arts 2005-2013

@modernlearnlab

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View fullsize Over and over we heard that Hollywood Arts was a "safe-haven" - young adults would come in off the streets, and when not taking classes, would create and work on their own independent projects. #art #draw #color #educate #empower
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View fullsize Never underestimate someone on the streets. Homelessness is a condition of poverty which is often the result of lack of access or meaning in conventional educational models. We broke that model wide open using arts-based learning from creative writ
View fullsize We heard you. We heard your voice, your curiosity, your talent, your desire to learn and to be better. @moneymaykinrich #music #student #hollywood #learn #educate #transform
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View fullsize So many supporters from Vans to Insomniac Games recognized the game changing difference an education makes esp one based on a foundation of what young adults want to learn - the arts, design, music … #hollywood #event #students #art #creativ
View fullsize One of our biggest losses … Shredder lived by the freeway and died hit by a car. All people matter and it’s our responsibility to help them. #music #grief #love #student #change
View fullsize Within six months of deciding to build an art school for unhoused, high-risk young adults I held a gala to raise money. We honored video game luminary and composer Tommy Tallarico and had a 30 piece orchestra + 3 opera singers performing music from
View fullsize Agents and staff from talent agency William Morris spent a day with students. Together they read students’ writing, performed improv, and had lunch. This wasn’t a day of charity. This was a day of inspiration. Our students learned abo
View fullsize These are the young adults we choose not to see. Young adults abandoned to the streets, high-risk circumstances and chronic poverty and unemployment. We have a window - 18-28 years old - where we can intervene, where we can inspire, recognize, teac
View fullsize Tours at creative enterprises like Smashbox Studios inspired students to see themselves in professional settings. Imagine going from the street to being recognized for having dreams and ideas at a place like Smashbox! This is how we plug the pove
View fullsize Make up. We’ve all seen the massive makeup market after the rise of social media and a pandemic put us in front of a camera … However around the world body adornment and make up have many meanings - tradition, ritual, story telling&hel
View fullsize Actors like Matthew taught our students how to bring a script to life 🎭 Where do I start with all the pro-social benefits of acting! ⁉️ From escaping the trials of life on the streets to buckets of self-confidence to stand in front of others and
View fullsize Holiday events a few times a year served multiple purposes. 1. Events build community! 2. Students brought friends who then became students 3. Events provided a break from the street with a hot meal and movie 4. Family - full stop Much the sam