JEFF FIELDER Editor
SCOTTSBLUFF – Dave Calkins of Scottsbluff is the director and founder of the Ancova Empowerment Project, a local non-profit organization that helps empower young people ages 11 to 19 who have faced behavioral, social, economic, or legal challenges. By working with accomplished professional artists/teachers on high-level projects such as films, musical recordings, and live performances, AEP students gain interpersonal and technical skills that boost their self-esteem and give them the tools they need to succeed. Calkins, 64, has 30 years of experience as a musician and filmmaker. In this Q&A, Calkins answered a number of questions about the Ancova Empowerment Project.
Q: Talk a little more in-depth about what the Ancova Empowerment Project is, including its mission.
CALKINS: “It’s a non-profit program, so there’s no charge for students. We work with kids who have challenges, including legal, social, behavioral, and economic challenges. When the kids come into the program, the first three or four weeks are spent learning a technical skill and an artistic skill. The second part of the program consists of the kids creating an artistic project. Then the last part of the program the kids share their project with the public. We do original work with the kids, and they create music and visual art. Often, we combine things into a film because a film has so many different layers of creativity built into it. As an artist, that’s what I personally love about being a filmmaker. I like that it utilizes my abilities and skills as a musician, a visual artist, and all these other technical things that come into film. As far as our mission, the reason we’re doing this is to empower kids. It’s a challenging world we live in, and kids need to have mentors, and they need to find empowerment, particularly kids with challenges. It’s a unique program. I haven’t come across any program that’s like ours. The work we do with students is intensive and it consists of one-on-one instruction moving toward teams. There are programs out there that work with kids in the arts, and some of them are very good, but many of them do kind of a shotgun approach to pull in lots of kids for a short period of time. They’ll do an activity and then say goodbye. But our program is designed to make a really significant impact in the kids’ lives.”
You can read the entire column in the February 2022 issue of Nspire Today! magazine. A one-year subscription (12 issues) is only $20. You may sign up for a subscription by sending $20 to Nspire Today!, P.O. Box 454, Scottsbluff, NE 69363, or you may pay with a credit card by calling 308-220-8865.
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