Founded on April 1st, 2014 by 9-year-old Christian, Cooline set out to make an impact on East Palo Alto by providing children a safe space to have fun. Through many years of service, growth and innovation, Cooline launched a 2 week summer experience for 100 young people in East Palo Alto to teach leadership through play and art. The CoolineKids Organization teaches K-8 students creativity, compassion, communication, and collaboration (our four foundational principles of service leadership) through our hands-on curriculum that includes cooking, photography, reading, science, art, play, and engineering. CoolineKids believes young people learn best from other young people, that’s why we engage high school students to support as leaders at our summer camps. High school youth grow their leadership skills through a variety of programs including our CrewCamp training experience, the Summer Leadership Academy and Camp Leadership Team. Our vision is that all youth will grow to become service-centric, family-minded leaders dedicated to inspiring change in their communities. And we are eager to live that out by empowering and equipping young leaders of color through innovative, skill-based programming. We were founded on the belief that young people are often the most influential to other young people. That’s why our programs with elementary students are primarily led by high school youth who have gone through our leadership training program and implement that with younger students. Cooline is our community’s only leadership development program serving all ages. We bring an innovative approach to teaching children skills like advocacy, compassion, creativity, collaboration, and more! Everything we do is focused on play (physical activity) and the arts.