About The Lab

The Lab’s Mission

The Lab is a place of inspiration for students and educators to be their best selves at school, at work and in the community. We promote the use of creativity as a means toward emotional health and school success.

Program Description

The Lab is an Arts & Wellness-based special education program of St. Paul Public Schools. We are located at Homecroft School and we serve students who have emotional behavioral disorders (EBD) grades 7-12. The Lab is an educational field trip destination for the eleven programs that serve these students.

The Lab, for Educators

The Lab strengthens EBD programs, supports the educators who work with these students and cultivates a culture of excellence by providing staff development, team building and training opportunities for these teams.

The Lab, for Students

Through 1×1 mentorships or group experiences, students engage in compelling arts and wellness activities. Students develop social skills, healthy strategies to manage emotions and discover new and creative ways to express themselves. All of these skills are integral to school success.

The Lab provides all of the student services through several primary modalities including:

The Poetry Lab (spoken word/poetry, performance and recording arts)
The Technology Lab
The Visual Arts Lab
The Experiential Wellness Lab
The Leadership Lab

Program Goals

IMPROVED SCHOOL ENGAGEMENT:
to give students a new reason to reinvest in their school community

HEALTHY COPING SKILLS:
to show students healthy ways to manage emotions & encourage self-reflection

PRACTICAL ACADEMIC SKILLS:
to promote literacy, public speaking, abstract thinking, and teamwork

COMMUNITY BUILDING:
to encourage all voices to contribute & be heard, foster a sense of community in school among students, staff & parents

YOUTH EMPOWERMENT:
to listen to our students and trust in their ability to make healthy decisions

SOCIAL JUSTICE:
to be aware of the effects of racism in our society and on our students & encourage students to ask challenging questions about themselves and society

STRENGTHENED EBD PROGRAMS:
to cultivate a culture of excellence by providing staff development, team building and training opportunities for these teams

Our Guiding Principles

The LAB empowers youth to share the stories of their lives, their opinions and their emotions. We offer small group experiences where youth can express themselves in constructive and creative ways, through four modalities, including: poetry, visual art, technology, experiential wellness, and leadership.

The LAB fosters a strong sense of community among the students, staff and parents of each program site by utilizing a facilitated conversation circle approach to community building, encouraging all voices to contribute and be heard. The circle operates with the following philosophy (a suggestion for teen writing circles written in a book called Paint Me Like I Am: Teen Poems from WritersCorps):

Everyone in the circle is equal
No one’s voice is more important than anyone else’s
Everyone in the circle is a teacher
Everyone in the circle is a student
Everyone has his or her turn to speak within the circle
When one is speaking, all others listen
The circle is sacred and special

Hear a reading of this statement posted to The Lab’s Podcasts.

History

The LAB is a program of the Special Education Department in Saint Paul Public Schools. Mary Tinucci, a school social worker in the school district, started The Poetry Lab in March of 2004. In the course of three and a half years, the program served approximately 250 students, offering writing circles and publishing CDs and poetry anthologies. In September of 2007, the program changed it’s name to The Lab, and expanded services to include three additional modalities: Visual Art, Technology and Experiential Wellness.

In fall of 2008, The Lab relocated to an exciting new space in Homecroft School (formerly Elementary) of Highland Park, expanded it staff, and now offers increased services to both the students and staff of St. Paul Public Schools’ Secondary EB/D Programs.

At Homecroft, The Lab is a creative arts wellness-based field trip site for the 11 Secondary EB/D sites. Morning Enrichment Programs give staff the opportunity to meet and do staff development led by Mary Tinucci and the district’s lead Empowerment coach, Anne Byer-Rajput, Ph.D., while students from the same program attend a performance or creative activity, lead by Lab staff, guest artists and volunteer mentors.

In the afternoon, The Lab offers on-site Small Group Residencies and Mentorships, allowing students from all of the programs we serve to spend time at Homecroft School with some of their peers and staff, during which they will work more intensively with guest artists and mentors on Lab projects that include writing, recording, dance, drumming, post-secondary planning, photography, and service learning.