2019-698-E Arts - Musical Empowerment arts grant

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DocuSign Envelope ID:AlAF80C5-F232-4982-AD4D-7C994BB17818 students who volunteer to teach them weekly. Music is a common thread that unites us all and knows no boundaries or borders. It is a language that all cultures share, and it manages to transcend cultural conflict. Music builds self-confidence and self-value, and ME creates a space in which people from diverse backgrounds can help and learn from each other. ME aims to open the eyes of local under- served youth in terms of opportunities, while allowing college students to give back to the community in a personal and engaging way. The one-to-one mentoring relationships our students and teachers develop through music are mutually beneficial. Kids learn how to play an instrument, read music, and perform, through which they learn the value of becoming a contributing member of their local community and develop discipline, responsibility, patience and confidence. College student teachers learn how to develop and follow a curriculum for effective music lessons, how to communicate with children and parents, how to be encouraging and supportive mentors, how to actively enable their students to succeed, and the importance of volunteering in the local community. Musical Empowerment is mutual empowerment. ME is administered by two paid, full-time staff, an Executive Director and Program Director, headquartered at YouthWorx on Main in Carrboro, NC. The staff oversees the vision and growth of the organization, supports and guides chapter leaders, establishes policies and procedures to ensure safe and effective implementation of the program, evaluate program effectiveness, develops trainings, resources and curriculum for ME teachers, seeks new chapters and opportunities for growth, and fundraises for the organization. Further, our National Board of Directors and Advisory Board, including UNC-CH music faculty, professional private music teachers,and business people, offer guidance to the Executive Director and Program Director. Each chapter at UNC-CH, NC State, Wake Forest University, EastCarolina University and High Point University is led by a core leadership team of undergraduate student volunteers who run the day-to day operations of ME. The student leaders receive support and mentoring from ME staff, and report to their local board of directors. The chapter boards consist of university faculty, professional music teachers, parents of children taking lessons, and other community members. They act as liaisons to the local community and advisors to the team of undergraduates. We currently serve 179 Chapel Hill-Carrboro K-12 children, and each has one mentor. That's over 500 college student volunteers and under-served children. ME is working to launch one more chapter over the next year, and plans to continue replicating its model on campuses across the country. Most of our students are from low income families and/or qualify for free-and-reduced lunch. Our student demographics are: African American - 80%, Asian American - 5%, Caucasian -5 %, Hispanic/Latino - 10%.