Download GrantSpace - Collaboration Hub YOSA Music Learning Center

GrantSpace - Collaboration Hub
YOSA Music Learning Center
Participating Organizations
●
Good Samaritan Community Services, San Antonio, TX
Primary Contact
Name:Steven Payne
Title:Executive Director
Email:[email protected]
Url:http://www.yosa.org
Please note that all data below was derived from the collaboration's nomination for the Collaboration Prize. None of the
submitted data were independently verified for accuracy.
Formation
Type of Collaboration: Joint Programming to launch and manage one or more programs
Geographic Scope: City
Collaboration Focus Area:
Arts and Culture
● Education
● Human Services
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Population Served:
Children and Youth
● Economically Disadvantaged
● Minorities
●
Year Collaboration was Established: 2008
Goals Sought Through Collaboration:
Serve more and/or different clients / audiences
Address unmet and/or escalating community need
● Leverage complementary strengths and/or assets
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Reasons Prompting Collaboration:
●
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Advancement of a shared goal
Response to a community need
Who Initiated Collaboration:
Board member(s)
● Executive Director(s) / CEO(s) / President(s)
●
Number of Participating Organizations: 2
Were Partners Added or Dropped?: No
We submit these details as an example of a strong and developing program-focused collaboration, in which two mature,
well established organizations have pursued extension and elaboration of their mission and services in an area that, for
different reasons, is quite unprecedented for each—or, indeed, for their respective type of organization.
Youth Orchestras of San Antonio, or YOSA, is San Antonio’s only community-wide youth orchestra. It is the direct
successor to the San Antonio Youth Symphony, created in 1949. Today YOSA serves more than 500 young musicians
through five ensembles at graduated levels, a summer strings camp, a triennial international tour (YOSA musicians have
just returned from their Great Tour of China) and a growing after-school program.
YOSA’s programs are supported by collaborations with multiple organizations, but the focus of this proposal is our long
and still growing relationship with Good Samaritan Community Services. GSCS was founded in 1951 on San Antonio’s
near west side by the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. Today, GSCS is a private, non-profit 501(c)3 neighborhood
center providing comprehensive services to over 6,000 low-income individuals and 1,800 families annually.
YOSA’s collaborative relations with GSCS date back to 2002, when YOSA’s Neighborhood Strings program, first offered
in 1998, was moved to the Good Samaritan Center on San Antonio’s near West Side. Serving impoverished children from
surrounding neighborhoods, this program provided free Saturday morning beginning strings classes, with violins and
cellos provided for each participant.
YOSA’s Music Learning Center, launched in 2008 in pilot phase and now providing free after-school orchestra immersion
classes every school day at GSCS, is a major step forward in this mission, demanding a significantly deeper and more
extensive collaboration between the two organizations.
YOSA’s president had previously been chair of GSCS’s board. He grew up in poverty on the West Side and attended
classes at Good Sam, where learned to speak English. One of the first goals he articulated as president was to see YOSA
expand its service in underserved parts of the community. YOSA’s executive director responded that a model existed for
such an effort—the phenomenally successful national youth orchestra system in Venezuela, known as El Sistema. This
has grown over 30 years from serving a handful of students in the founder’s garage to multiple orchestras around the
country that today serve almost 300,000 children and youth, the large majority living in extreme poverty.
From the beginning, the MLC was conceived as a multiyear commitment as grade-levels are added until the center is
serving several hundred students grades K-12. The initiative was strongly endorsed by YOSA’s board, despite the
unprecedented growth in budget delineated in a multiyear pro forma, an increase that would be entirely dependent on a
corresponding increase in charitable contributions.
GSCS approved YOSA’s efforts to recruit students for the after-school music classes from its existing after-school
program, which serves about 300 young people from the neighborhood. The Center also provided space for the classes
and for storage of the instruments, which are provided free to participants.
Management
Management Structure: Management team / oversight committee with representatives from each partner
Early in the school year just ended it became apparent that more formal structures were needed to lead and manage this
increasingly ambitious program. The chief executives of each organization had already been appointed to sit on the other
organization’s board, greatly improving understanding of respective strategic directions, funding initiatives, etc. Also at the
board level, an ad hoc committee of representatives from both organizations’ boards of directors was created, meeting
every other month. This has proved valuable in bringing together directors with, for example, professional expertise in
music education with those deeply grounded in human services. Members of the staff of both organizations also meet
regularly.
Challenges
Challenges to Making the Collaboration Work: Coordination / integration of programs & services
The MLC, like several similar efforts around the country, is frankly conceived as an experiment in the sense that plans and
projections are based on activities that have not been attempted before by either organization, or indeed by many others
nationwide. Results are continuously evaluated and goals and objectives reexamined by both partners in the project. The
music classes were started as “electives” for children attending Good Sam’s after-school programming, which includes
classes of various types for each child. Part way through the fall, realization dawned that attendance at the music classes
for interested students could be made routine by synchronizing those classes with Good Sam’s class schedule. Regular
attendance significantly increased. Staff from both organizations meet regularly, as does an ad hoc committee of
members of both boards. In the spring, both organizations agreed to the logical next step, with tremendous significance
for the growth the MLC. YOSA’s and GSCS’s directors and staff have determined that the success of this year’s program
justifies a significant expansion—opening MLC participation to all students attending GSCS’s after-school programs. Next
school year the classes will be made part of the curriculum and regular class rotation for every student attending Good
Sam’s after-school program. The number of MLC students registered is projected to more than double to about 300, with
200 likely to attend regularly based on Good Sam’s many years’ experience with this population.
Impact
Internal Efficiencies and Effectiveness:
Fund development - Access to new / more sources of funding
● Greater ability for each partner to focus on core competency - Greater ability to allocate resources to areas of need
● Improved marketing and communications, public relations and outreach - Improved marketing and communications,
public relations and outreach
●
Community Impact:
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Previously unmet community need now being addressed
Greater range / variety of services/programs offered
The YOSA MLC uses orchestral music education as a powerful means to individual and social development. Our goal is
to transform lives in an impoverished, at-risk neighborhood--to provide resources that will help young people escape
poverty and build a stronger community. We therefore strive to measure both artistic outcomes and individual impacts.
Model
In its particular field, orchestral music education, the YOSA Music Learning Center is already a model. YOSA is currently
one of only about a half dozen organizations, and the only independent youth orchestra, developing a program of the
MLC's scale (the best known example is the Los Angeles Philharmonic's YOLA program driven by a high-visibility music
director). YOSA's Executive Director has been appointed to El Sistema USA's National Advisory Team. Around the
country, there is evident interest in learning about and from YOSA's MLC.
We believe the Center is also a useful example of program-focused collaboration between two organizations. Experience
in practice has already shaped the program’s actual growth in several respect’s divergently from the multiyear strategic
pro forma. This has included reconfiguration of the program’s leadership and management structure. This openness to a
program unprecedented for each organizations has in fact led to an expansion and strengthening of the core mission of
both of them.
Efficiencies Achieved
To the existing application’s detailed coverage of most of these topics, we add the following.
1) Regarding increased revenue—there is no doubt that funders respond positively to the YOSA MLC’s grounding in a
strong collaboration. The collaboration further enhances the “AAA” rating as a well managed, effective nonprofit agency
that each organization enjoys in this community. YOSA’s ability to raise more than a half million dollars to date in support
of the program is evidence of the leveraging benefit of the collaboration.
2) The primary quantitative benefit to the community is the collaboration’s success in scaling up the number of classes
and children served. The quantitative gap between the more affluent parts of the community where schools bring the
life-changing rewards of music education through well established programs and those that do not is wide. The
YOSA/GSCS collaboration has doubled the number of children served this year, but that responds to only a fraction of the
need. We aim to be an inspiring model program locally, and will continuing adapting and adjusting as needed to grow and
replicate the program. Other youth serving community organizations have expressed interest in this form of collaboration,
as have administrators and teachers in the school districts. Nationally, the YOSA/GSCS is serving as a model through the
El Sistema USA network.
3) Measures of successful growth this year. a) Recruitment of students to the capacity of the classes (200 total),
participation of 50 in the annual YOSA Summer String Camp and 30 in the GSCS camp for younger children, and
retention of participants in the program through the school year and next school year; b) measurable academic
achievement in school and improved confidence, self-esteem and social skills; c) musical progress to the equivalent of 5th
grade level at schools with strings programs.
4) The social good. Since 1951, GSCS has been the primary social service resource for residents of the near west side of
San Antonio, one of this community’s most impoverished areas. GSCS’s commitment to improving the quality of life in this
high-risk area is embodied in its mission—changing lives through excellent community services. The mission of the YOSA
MLC adds a strong and distinctive approach to this goal— to improve the life opportunities of impoverished children in
San Antonio by providing access to the life-changing rewards of orchestral music education. Much recent research shows
that music education benefits broad aspects of human development and learning. The orchestra is especially powerful as
an incubator of self-esteem, belonging, camaraderie, individual discipline to achieve collective goals, and pride in
achievement shared by family and community. The orchestra socially, educationally and spiritually brings the community
together. It builds resources for the individual and collective struggle to rise from poverty. We expect that, for most of the
children and youth participating, their MLC orchestra will come to seem like family. The YOSA MLC is simultaneously a
social and individual development and a music project. Almost all of the children served live in poverty; many come from
difficult home situations. Their parents may be separated and working two or three jobs; 64% of students come from
single-parent families. We expect that, for most of the children and youth participating, their YOSA MLC orchestra will
come to seem like family. We expect to see stability in school and greater academic achievement. The children will
receive human services from GSCS—a safe, easily reached place in the neighborhood to go after school. The YOSA
MLC will strengthen parents’ engagement with their children, boost educational achievement, build self-confidence and
mutual respect and—through Summer String Camp, performance experiences, and membership of MLC students in
YOSA orchestras—greatly strengthen community awareness and engagement. Over the years, YOSA has prepared
many young people for careers in music. They have been nurtured by strong school programs and parents able to afford
private lessons. We anticipate that through the YOSA MLC, students will likewise be encouraged and prepared to join
YOSA orchestras. We look forward to the day when young people raised in poverty on the West Side will be performing in
YOSA’s flagship Philharmonic Orchestra at the future, world-class Bexar County Performing Arts Center. Over time, this
project will expand the number of talented musicians emerging from San Antonio, including much greater numbers of
Hispanics (the international icon is Gustavo Dudamel, a product of Venezuela’s El Sistema, who has just begun as Music
Director of the LA Philharmonic). YOSA’s MLC will enlarge and diversify the future audience for orchestral music in San
Antonio. But the benefits extend to every participant. Two members of the GSCS board of directors, both highly
successful members of San Antonio’s business community, one YOSA’s immediate past board chair, got their start as
children at Good Sam. We consider each of the young musicians in the YOSA Music Learning Center orchestras as their
likely successors—all of them with the opportunity and potential to go as far.
Evolution
The existing application covers most of these questions but, regarding measurement of the success of the collaboration,
we add the following.
1)The program has been conceived from the outset as an innovative venture into new practice that will surely demand
future adaptations for both organizations. This has happened already, as previously explained, in the music classes being
made part of the regular class rotation for all elementary and middle school students registered with GSCS’s after-school
program. This is strikingly in evidence every Friday when all the children attending that day rehearse together with
YOSA’s Music Director and his degree of participation is itself an adaptation through experience). There may be more
than 120 children of all ages gathered in the room, with both YOSA instructors and GSCS case managers in attendance.
But next year, when several of the students have reached high school, there will likely be need for GSCS to make further
adjustments to its core programming. And likewise, further changes will surely be necessary in the future. Should we
make a serious bid for public funding, that will also likely demand some systemic changes in GSCS’s programs—for
example, the addition of core academic components, since funding agencies still tend to regarding arts education as
“enrichment.” These are all potential future challenges. Activities of both organizations are being transformed through the
collaboration.
2) Measurement of outcomes. Retention in the MLC is documented through attendance records maintained by GSCS
staff and sign-up applications and forms. The children's academic performance in school is tracked with the assistance of
school administrators in the neighborhood. San Antonio area school music educators will be asked to make an
assessment of the musical progress of the students in comparison to the level of performance they see in schools with
strings and orchestra programs. As with other YOSA activities, written reports will be submitted by independent
professionals. The MLC is closely monitored by YOSA's Music Director. The Asset Building test will be used to measure
self-esteem, focus and attention. Achievement of the larger goal of individual transformation and the building of life-skills
will be implicit in much of the results described above. The students' commitment to their instrument, their regularity at
class and their bonding with peers in the orchestra will all be indicators of greater focus and commitment in other areas.
The goal of closer family bonds and parental support is indicated by parents' attendance at recitals and other forms of
interaction showing the pride parents take in their children's accomplishments.
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