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Prodigy uses the arts to develop children and teens\u2019 life skills. (University Area CDC) <\/p>\nProdigy uses the arts to develop children and teens\u2019 life skills. (University Area CDC) <\/p>\n
For a quarter century and counting, the Prodigy Cultural Arts Program has helped young people discover their voice, confidence, and capacity to lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
University Area Community Development Corporation founder and former State Senator Victor Crist\u2019s bold idea for an arts-based youth intervention program in North Tampa\u2019s University Area neighborhood launched Prodigy in 2000. Since then, it\u2019s grown with funding from the Department of Juvenile Justice to 20 locations across seven counties, providing an average of 1,000 youths a year a space where dance, music, visual art, and mentorship become catalysts for change. Prodigy is the story of a community that refused to accept the limits placed upon it and instead chose to build something extraordinary.<\/p>\n
The beginning<\/p>\n
Crist recalls the University Area in the years before the University Area CDC and Prodigy, when eight separate civic groups were struggling to make meaningful progress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe joined forces and became one organization called the USF Area Community Civic Association in 1987,\u201d he says. \u201cI became president, and I\u2019m still president today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That unified effort grew into a civic movement, attracting federal, state, and local funding and public-private partnerships that helped revitalize the community. A turning point came in 1992, when the University Area was one of only seven communities selected out of 3,800 for federal Weed and Seed designation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the most coveted designation to receive from the federal government at the time because of the empowerment and monies that came with it,\u201d Crist says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The program\u2019s grassroots approach caught the attention of then-Attorney General Janet Reno, who made the site \u201cher number one training site\u201d in the country, Crist says<\/p>\n
As Weed and Seed neared its end, Crist wanted to keep the momentum going. In 1998, he founded the University Area CDC and began designing a new kind of program, one that would use the arts not as enrichment, but as intervention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to create a program that was science\u2011based, that would use the visual performing arts to modify deviant behavior and improve learning skills and document it,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
With the University of South Florida and McGill University of Canada as research partners, Prodigy was born. The early years were rigorous, data\u2011driven, and groundbreaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we were also doing that no other juvenile justice program in the country was doing was documenting recidivism, not six months, not 12 months, not 18 months, but 24 months after graduating from the program,\u201d Crist says.<\/p>\n
The results were astonishing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were maintaining a 94 percent non\u2011recidivism rate, and we were measuring it out past six months to 24,\u201d Crist says.<\/p>\n
In 2008, the Best Practices in Mental Health International Journal recognized Prodigy as one of the best arts\u2011based intervention and prevention programs worldwide.<\/p>\n
Shaping today\u2019s youth<\/p>\n
Today, Prodigy\u2019s focus is prevention rather than intervention. But it remains a place where young people learn to trust themselves, express themselves, and discover who they can become. Few students embody that journey more than eighth grader Danaja Khahaifa, a Prodigy Cultural Arts ambassador who was recently the youngest nominee, and the only African\u2011American female nominee, for the Children\u2019s Week Florida Youth Advocate Award.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Danaja has been involved with Prodigy since before she could walk. When she was a baby, both of her parents worked at Prodigy. Still, she felt nervous walking into her first class. The welcoming environment washed away her anxiety.<\/p>\n
Over the years, Prodigy has shaped Danaja\u2019s sense of identity, helping her build the confidence to \u201cspeak up and lead other people.\u201d She\u2019s also grown as an artist. This year, she stepped into a new kind of leadership, traveling to Tallahassee with other Prodigy students to advocate for the program that helped mold her. Speaking with lawmakers, her nerves faded quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you get in there, it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, I got this,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cBecause the legislators are so welcoming, they\u2019re so nice and sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Prodigy ambassadors at the Florida Capitol (University Area CDC)<\/p>\n
She and her peers also put on a dance performance in the Capitol courtyard, a moment that blended artistry, advocacy, and courage. Crist says seeing young people step into that advocacy and visibility role is proof of Prodigy\u2019s purpose.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes my heart shine,\u201d he says. \u201cTo see these young people out there making good of themselves and their lives with skills they never realized they had, and a voice that\u2019s being heard that they never thought would have a chance to be seen or heard, it\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind every student there\u2019s a teacher who helps guide that transformation. For dance instructor Carrie Harmon, who has taught at Prodigy for 15 years, the work is deeply personal. She discovered her calling through dance and now helps today\u2019s youth find their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI reassure them that they\u2019re going to be fine,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s just a dance class.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She pushes when she knows a student is close to a breakthrough, telling them, \u201cI know you\u2019re about to get this move, do it. Just do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through the years, Harmon has watched countless young people evolve through movement, discipline, and community. One student entered the program so shy she could barely speak.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that very kid is like a leader in the class,\u201d Harmon says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dance becomes a form of meditation for many of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you can really get to a point where you\u2019re freestyling, it\u2019s just you and the music,\u201d Harmon says. \u201cYou\u2019re present, you\u2019re in the moment, and that\u2019s meditation.\u201d<\/p>\n
She sees that same growth in Danaja.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a really sweet person and very wise for her age,\u201d Harmon says. \u201cHer enthusiasm for coming to class and being in class has really impacted me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commitment to the arts<\/p>\n
Prodigy is just one result of Crist\u2019s commitment to the arts. He notes that he\u2019s led the effort to fund and build two theaters. There\u2019s the theater at the University Area CDC\u2019s Victor Crist Community Center Complex, formerly the University Area Community Center. While serving on the Hillsborough County Commission, Crist and Doug Wall, the late co-founder of the New Tampa Players, led the charge to fund, design, and build the New Tampa Performing Arts Center, an effort County Commissioner Ken Hagan carried forward after Crist left office.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Victor Crist at 2024 naming ceremony for the Victor Crist Community Ceremony Complex (UACDC)<\/p>\n
He also envisioned a school where young children could grow up immersed in creativity. The Hillsborough County Public Schools told him that if he raised the money and built a school, the school district would run it. The result is Mueller Elementary, adjacent to the Victor Crist Victor Community Center Complex, the state\u2019s first visual performing arts magnet elementary school, Crist says.<\/p>\n
These spaces, like Prodigy itself, were created to give young people a place to grow, imagine, and transform. They\u2019re proof of what happens when someone believes deeply enough in the power of the arts to change lives.<\/p>\n
As Prodigy looks to the future, Crist\u2019s hope is simple and urgent. He wants elected officials and anyone who has ever questioned the value of the arts to understand that a program like Prodigy is not an extracurricular activity. It is a lifeline.<\/p>\n
He has spent decades building Prodigy and watching it grow from an idea to a model for programs around the world. After all these years, his connection to the program remains deeply personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my passion,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is my love. And it\u2019s my baby.\u201d<\/p>\n