This series of stories, "Grassroots Success: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods," explores how meaningful impact on our communities grows from the ground up. Support for "Grassroots Success" is provided by Neighborhood Connections and NewBridge Cleveland Center for Arts & Technology.

On this Friday, May 12, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., the NewBridge Cleveland Center for Arts and Technology will host its Spring Session Exhibition at the school, 3634 Euclid Avenue.

The event will feature food, fun and good company alongside the artwork of the school's youth program students. All displayed works are for sale.

Each year NewBridge provides approximately 300 at-risk high-school students with free classes in a number of disciplines, including ceramics, digital photography, film, and graphic design. Programs are offered three days a week for two hours daily in 10-week sessions. An eight-week summer session makes the school a destination for area students all year long.

Students learn various artistic techniques and styles and show and sell their creations at the end of the session. Professional and experienced artists lead NewBridge’s classes, but they make creating art just one aspect of the NewBridge experience, which also includes mentorship, one-on-one support and instilling professionalism.

NewBridge also provides a necessary safe haven in a city that Forbes deems to be among the ten most dangerous in the country. After school programs fight that reality on the ground as 3 to 6 p.m. — which coincide with the school's youth programming — are peak hours for juvenile crime. Teens who do not participate in after school programs are three times more likely to engage in risky behavior.

Nearly 100 percent of NewBridge students graduate from high school and 82 percent are accepted to college, many with scholarships. Those successful numbers in turn foster long-term better health, financial independence and lower incarceration rates.

Hence, through the arts, NewBridge aims to give at-risk Cleveland youth a fresh and different outlook on education and life.

Now Fresh Water invites you to take a look inside the school and preview the show courtesy of managing photographer Bob Perkoski.

Instructor Robert Banks works with photography students in the NewBridge after School program

Photography students in the NewBridge after School program

Photography students in the NewBridge after School program

Photography students in the NewBridge after School program

Photos set for judging to be in the Spring Session Exhibition

Photography student in the NewBridge after School program

Instructor Robert Banks works with photography students in the NewBridge after School program

Ceramic class at the NewBridge after School program

Ceramic class at the NewBridge after School program

Ceramic instructor Billy Ritter working with a student

Student ceramic work at NewBridge

Student pieces ready to come out of the kiln for the Spring Session Exhibition

Ceramic class at the NewBridge after School program

Ceramic class at the NewBridge after School program

Instructor Natalie Eddy works with a graphic design student in the NewBridge after School program

ign class at the NewBridge after program

3-D printed student work for the Spring Session Exhibition

Cleaning up a 3-D printed piece for the Spring Session Exhibition

Graphic design work on a skateboard by students at NewBridge

Graphic Design class at the NewBridge after program

Graphic design work on a skateboard by students at NewBridge

Instructor Natalie Eddy works with a graphic design student in the NewBridge after School program