Maureen Dwyer is Deputy Director of the Sitar Arts Center in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC.  Read on to learn more about what makes her an AMYLA STAR!

What is the Sitar Arts Center?- The Center serves communities by providing afterschool and summer arts education.  The focus is to reach families who would otherwise not have these opportunities.  Programs are offered on a sliding fee scale, with the lowest income families paying a nominal registration fee.

What involvement have you had with AMYLA to date?- As a neighbor to AMYLA in its first few years, I was inspired by its mission, and feel it’s important to the community.  I’ve helped to direct resources to AMYLA—since Sitar is 10 years old, we have an established network and often get opportunities for donated computers, furniture, and other items—we redirected these offers on to AMYLA.

What makes AMYLA unique?- It focuses on young people at a really important point in their development--a point where a lot of focus is lost on adolescents.  In general, they need to take responsibility and make adult choices, but often they’re not provided with the support and guidance to help them transition to successful adulthood. AMYLA has a unique approach—it helps them to set goals and become their best selves.  The young people that AMYLA works with are pretty vulnerable.

Have you seen the impacts of AMYLA?- There is a lot of positive feedback from the students that participate--kids seem happy to be there.  AMYLA and the Sitar Arts Center also share history, because Sitar art center had roots in Good Sheperd Ministries and my husband directed the teen center where Nigel was active as a youth and then as a Program Manager.  We saw Nigel grow up and I think he’s an example of someone who took the opportunity that a program like AMYLA could offer and is now using it to inspire and guide young people.

Why should someone become involved with AMYLA?- They should be involved because AMYLA looks at a young person as a whole person, they aren’t just trying to address one area.  They are really trying to help connect young people with a lot of opportunities.  AMYLA is offering job training skills, academic support, and a strong community service component.  Even in its name, it talks about youth leadership—it’s not just trying to divert youth—it’s great to get youth off the street; but you also need to engage them and help them discover the leaders within themselves.