In 2010, the inaugural cohort wrote the play "Problems to Solve" about education access and gender rights and performed at the largest performance venue in Liberia for former President and Nobel Prize recipient Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who invited the youth to a private lunch and discussion session about the implications of their work for education policy. In 2011, the government of Liberia extended education to be free and compulsory beyond grade 7 to include grades 8 & 9. In 2012, 15 youth were trained as Arts Instructors and expanded the program to five counties across Liberia. In Philadelphia, we began with small events such as Fashion from the Motherland "walk a runway in her dress" cultural exchange experiences that coordinated with the Juneteenth historic celebration as early as 2013. These smaller events connected youth artists at the intersections of the shared history of Black freedom and independence between the US and Liberia which dates back to 1822. Since 2013, thousands of youth ages 10-20) from Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Minnesota have become part of a transnational cultural exchange network with youth in Liberia to learn more about this shared history as they have created artistic projects around issues they identify as important for the cultural community. This constant engagement reinforces the value of education more broadly. In 2014, this transnational collective raised funds in their communities to support the team in Liberia as they created street performances which reached more than 300,000 Liberians with prevention messaging during the Ebola crisis. They collected & shipped more than 10k lbs of medical supplies to Liberia to support the work of the artists on the ground. Since these collective efforts, virtual collaborations have created opportunities for greater leadership of youth in our program transnationally and in collaboration with a variety of institutions. Senior Arts Instructors have also been given paid opportunities to contribute to educational consulting opportunities through our fee-for-service consultancy Creating Brave Stages established in 2018. B4YT youth leaders and students, in collaboration with four Black actors from the Department of Museum Theatre at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, created "200 Years of Returns"; an original play with music and dance to commemorate the bicentennial of Black Americans return to Africa and the founding of Liberia. In 2022 the original play was performed which included residents of Baltimore City affiliated with Orita’s Cross Freedom School and the Angels of Praise dance ministry at Pleasant Hope Baptist Church, and two graduate students from the greater Baltimore area, most traveling to West Africa for the first time. The trip was not only a showcase of a global African community, but also an opportunity to illuminate the richness of Liberian culture and tied history that Gbarnga City shares with Baltimore and that Maryland shares with Liberia. For 50 years, there has been an established relationship to foster mutual learning through the sister cities committee under the Mayor’s Office of each respective city. The Baltimore artists met with Gbarnga City Mayor Lucia Herbert who also provided special remarks to close the Gbarnga City performance. As a result of this performance not only was the connection between Gbarnga City and Baltimore reinforced but also started a conversation about the founding of Liberia. In our most recent major project, “MY BODY, MY VOICE” (2023), B4 Youth Theatre students in Philadelphia developed and performed plays to address preventing sexual assault/abuse and the importance of prevention education among youth. Students were discussing stories about experiences with “Creepy Uncles”: these are men who are trusted within the family and meant to represent a safe relationship, but instead make youth feel uncomfortable with sexual advances. B4YT students expanded this conversation into sexual abuse within relationships and education on sexual health. They discovered they shared similar experiences, not just with other situations involving the prevention of sexual assault. With assistance from B4YT staff and partners, the students produced scripts to initiate conversations, provoke solutions, and encourage resolutions amongst students to establish healthy boundaries and prevent sexual assault. Puppetry arts served as the conduit to deliver the topic in a way that is palatable to all audiences. These students performed an abridged version of their play for two events over the summer (Summer Arts Festival in Harford County and the Kite Event sponsored by the Free Library of Philadelphia), further participating by assisting with programming as Junior Arts Instructors. With this project, we educated younger students about the importance of Safe Touch.