Hear Ye!  Read Ye!

The Charlotte Mecklenburg (NC) Public School District (CMS) 2021-22 school year officially ended on Wednesday, June 8, 2022.  Other private school ended sooner than that and some ended later than that.

Planet Improv’s educational calendar never ends.  It just changes from school season (September to June) to out of school season (June through August) and back-to-school season.

We are overjoyed to share some of Planet Improv’s major headlines over the last fourteen months (and into the future) that reflect our pride in how we continue to strive to fulfil our mission (empowering resilience in students through creativity.)

Planet Improv News Headlines…

  • April, 2021 – We are awarded a federal inaugural Safety and Accountability for Everyone (SAFE) Charlotte grant and begins associated capacity administered by the City of Charlotte and the United Way of the Central Carolinas.
  • Summer, 2021 – We partner with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department on their summer programs targeting teenage and at-risk students by providing educational and entertainment content.
  • Summer, 2021 – We partner with educational and arts summer camps throughout Charlotte, North and South Carolina.
  • August, 2021 – We begin our full 2021-22 school year in house residency with the Charlotte Mecklenburg (NC) Public School District (CMS) middle school, Wilson STEM Academy. We, along with Wilson’s inaugural Empowerment and Leadership lead by teacher, Chris Troutman utilize applied improvisation for:  trauma healing; social emotional education; conflict resolution; violence prevention; conflict mediation; fostering creativity, imagination and real-world skill-building amongst other objectives.
  • December, 2021 – We partner with veteran marketing professional and marketing organization, Andrea Anker and Anker Marketing to bolster our community communication efforts and outreach.
  • January, 2022 – We renew our contracted content provider status with the Charlotte Arts and Science Council’s (ASC) CMS educational residency program which had been temporarily ceased during the COVID pandemic in 2019 and 2020. Thorough this program we provided applied improvisation sessions for twelve educational organizations and hundreds of students of all ages and grade levels.
  • January, 2022 – We become a proud member of the Charlotte Violence Prevention Collaborative (CVPC,) a Mecklenburg County (NC) public health agency.
  • January, 2022 – We renew our membership for two years (we have been a member for going on four years) with the Providence Business Partners chapter (Charlotte, NC) of the international organization, Business Networking International (BNI.)
  • January, 2022 – We become a proud member of the Charlotte (NC) LGBT Chamber of Commerce.
  • January, 2022 – We hold our first board of directors meeting in 2022 with our new board members.
  • March, 2022 – We proudly begin volunteering our time as reading, writing and spelling tutors with the Charlotte chapter of the Augustine Literacy Project (ALP,) whose mission is improving the reading, writing and spelling skills of young, aspiring readers in under-resourced communities by providing free, long-term, one-on-one instruction from highly trained tutors.
  • April, 2022 – Scott Pacitti, Planet Improv’s Executive Director, is awarded a 40 Over 40 Award by the Charlotte Ledger for outstanding continuing community service.
  • April, 2022 – We collaborate/partner and facilitate educational programming with WYTV7, (CMS’s) South Mecklenburg High School and esteemed members of the Charlotte (NC) and vicinity financial community at the “Financially Lit and Lit Health and Wellness Expo.
  • May, 2022 – We provide educational content and facilitation at the Charlotte Country Day School Wellness Fair.
  • May, 2021 – We attend the Camp Freedom End of Year Awards Banquet to celebrate our ALP tutee, Elijah.
  • May, 2021 – We complete our CMS and ASC School Opportunity Funding Program contracted content provider programs for Spring 2022.
  • May, 2022 – We become a proud member of the Charlotte (NC) Pineville Chapter of Kiwanis International, whose mission is creative ways to serve the needs of children through local service projects.
  • May, 2022 – We renew our membership with North Carolina Theatre Conference (NCTC) whose mission is to improve and enhance the environment for quality theatre in North Carolina through service, leadership and advocacy for students of all ages and grade levels.
  • June, 2022 – We partner with esteemed local Charlotte (NC) grant writer, Catherine Graffy to assist us with current, future grant applications and financial support research.
  • June, 2022 – We receive funding from the City of Charlotte Arts and Culture Infusion fund (funding provided by the City of Charlotte, Foundations of the Carolinas and private donors.) The Infusion Fund’s goal is supporting local arts and culture institutions which are key community assets that enrich lives, provide opportunities and bring visitors to the Charlotte (NC) area.
  • June, 2022 – We complete our 2021-22 school year. We served over 6300 students face to face from June, 2021 to June, 2022.
  • June, 2022 – We complete our year long 2021-22 SAFE Charlotte Grant capacity building training facilitated by the City of Charlotte and the United Way of the Central Carolinas.
  • June, 2022 – We proudly renew our partnership with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) summer teen, at-risk student, family and adult program to reduce community violence.
  • June, 2022 – We are invited to facilitate theatre elective classes on the A day schedule throughout school year 2022-23 for the sixth, seventh and eighth graders of CMS’s Wilson STEM Academy.
  • June, 2022 – We become a proud collaborator of SHARE Charlotte, whose mission is building a better Charlotte by empowering nonprofits and helping people invest in their communities in ways that matter most to them.
  • June, 2022 – We achieve a bronze certificate and listing on GuideStar.org.
  • Summer, 2022 – We collaborate with Savvy Pioneer for a major update to www.planetimprov.org.
  • Summer, 2022 – We continue partnering with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department on their summer programs targeting teenage and at-risk students by providing educational and entertainment content.
  • Summer, 2022 – We continue partnerships with educational and arts summer camps throughout Charlotte, North and South Carolina, including collaborators, Let Me Run, Davidson Community Players and many, many more.
  • Summer, 2022 – We partner with many of our fellow SAFE Charlotte grantees on a back to school educational, entertainment and distribution of school supplies to underserved students.
  • Summer, 2022 – We continue our years long partnership with the ASC’s Cultural Educational Expo.
  • Fall, Winter and Spring, 2022-23 – We begin our sixteenth year of empowering resilience in students through creativity with the goal of partnering with more educational organizations and more students than ever before.

As you can see/read, we at Planet Improv have been and continues to be very busy, but we subscribe to the Mark Twain quote, “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”