Baltimore's Empowerment Academy celebrates 20 years of promoting literacy through the arts
BALTIMORE -- For the past 20 years, the Empowerment Academy in West Baltimore has been serving and inspiring pre-K to 8th-grade students of Baltimore City Public Schools.
"We opened our school in August of 2003, we were all so excited. We were so proud… and then to think 20 years later, here we are still standing strong," said Dolores Winston, co-founder of the Empowerment Academy.
Fifth-grader Dakota Hall is involved in the school's theater program and hopes to be a director or producer one day.
"I look forward to coming every day to school for rehearsals," Hall said. "I love that it's a school of the arts… there's so many activities and there's a lot of things to do here you can indulge in a lot of things and have new doors open for you."
To celebrate this achievement of 20 years, students and staff members participated in a weeklong series of events.
"This has been a really, really exciting time. We have celebrated, we have had a parade, we have had a grand finale gala to celebrate and commemorate the 20 years," said Ashley Moore, principal of the Empowerment Academy.
The Empowerment Academy is also a Title 1 school.
"So that means our children have some needs economically.. but it's so important to encourage them," said Winston.
The school's mission is "literacy through the arts." It's something school leaders say is crucial for fueling growing young minds.
"We wanted to make sure that we had a hope that would appeal to all the children, something that would encourage them, motivate them," said Winston.
"It helps build their context in terms of them experiencing academics," Moore said. "When they're reading about a theater, they have that additional context."
But they say it's also much more than just a school, it's a family.
"We hope they leave here with a sense of self-worth a sense of accomplishment, and a sense of hopefulness to go forth in the future and do the best they possibly can," said Moore.
In the future, school leaders say they're hoping to expand their services to serve high school students as well.
The Empowerment Academy is now accepting applications for new students for the 2023-24 school year. Click here for more information.
