Programs that seek to engage participants in arts-based programming may be drawn to creative youth development (CYD), a youth-focused, holistic approach to learning through creative expression. As the Creative Youth Development National Partnership (2018) defines it, "'Creative youth development' is a recent term for a longstanding theory of practice that integrates creative skill-building, inquiry, and expression with positive youth development principles, fueling young people's imaginations and building critical learning and life skills." After a period of learning about CYD and exploring its suitability, Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education in the Bronx, New York, launched an initiative to integrate CYD principles into its afterschool programs. Though Casita Maria built on a growing base of knowledge about these principles and how to implement them, its staff had to integrate new practices into the existing program and extend the principles to reach youth with a wide range of ages and experience levels. In this article, the author shares her observations and evaluation of the initial pilot phase of the program launched in spring 2018 which may prove useful for practitioners who want to reap the benefits of CYD programming.