Team up with the Green Chair Project™ and you'll build more than Green Chairs!

Crescendo Inc., in collaboration with The Green Chair Project™ and YouthLink, is pleased to offer organizations a team-building experience unlike any other. Working side-by-side with young people, participants reconnect with purpose, process, roles and relationships - key components of any effective team.

Sound too good to be true? Here are some photos and participant comments from recent workshops:

• "Working together as a team to 'build' the charis was my most valuable learning."
• "The Green Chair Project™ and the diversity had a significant impact on me."
• "As a result of this experience, I want to become more involved in the lives of the young people in my community."
• "The whole workshop was awesome - totally cool - the best thing that has happened with managers at my company in all the years I've been here."
• "Good collaboration with community resources - fun sharing, learning and group time!"

About The Green Chair Project™

The Green Chair Project™ was born twelve years ago in South Minneapolis when two lawn chairs were taken from the backyard of artists Chris Hand and Joel Sisson. With the help of 14 teenagers from the neighborhood, they built over 90 green Adirondack lawn chairs in their backyard and just before dawn one Sunday morning, gave them to their neighbors, two for each house, for a two-block stretch of Pleasant Avenue in Minneapolis.

This neighborhood was deemed a "crack street" by the media and these teenagers were all too easily identified as gang members and "up to no good." The Green Chair Project™ proved that given a chance, young people can and do want to be productive members of society. Their goal is simple: to give inner-city teens the opportunity to learn by doing and to discover their own talents in the process. For many years, The Green Chair Project™ employed inner-city teens to build and sell outdoor furniture to the general public.

Recent funding challenges have limited the scope of The Green Chair Project™ to team building workshops and major public art installations.

About YouthLink

YouthLink (formerly Minneapolis Youth Diversion Program) is committed to building a healthy community by empowering vulnerable youth to make positive life choices. YouthLink operates 2 broad service areas: NewPath Partners provides intervention services for youth (and their families) who are still at home. Project Off-Streets provides transitional services for homeless and sexually exploited youth.

NewPath Partners is about helping young people want to be in school and to be productive and successful in their homes and communities. The program is about helping their families provide the safety and support each child needs to be successful. YouthLink case managers are counselors, role models, advocates and cheerleaders for both the youth and their families. They do what it takes to help families get things back on track.

Project Off-Streets provides services to the significant number of young people who are homeless or live in dangerous or exploitive environments. YouthLink offers a safe and healthy environment with strong, positive adult role models. They help young people return home and when that is not possible, they help them stabilize and figure out what to do to move on with the rest of their lives by finding a stable place to live, finish high school, prepare for college or other training, find a job and to learn independent living skills.