It’s easy to be inspired when you work in philanthropy. At The Presser Foundation, we work with hundreds of music organizations dedicated to music performance, music presentation, and music education. Every one of these organizations sees music as a way to connect, to inspire, to serve, and to bridge divides. Daily, we are impressed and moved by the work that they do.
It’s why the Next Movement Idea Forum is one of our favorite activities outside of the grantmaking work we do! In Next Movement, the Foundation collaborates with our grantee partners and other experts to create a platform for them to share their ideas and knowledge with their colleagues for the It has fostered relationship building and learning within our community of music. And every time we host a Next Movement, we leave the session with nuggets of learning that shape our own work.
The April 25, 2023 Next Movement was no exception. It featured four music educating grantee organizations – ArtSmart, featuring Lucas DeJesus and Cameron Santiago; Beyond the Bars, featuring Matthew Kerr and Aquil Shakur; Project 440, featuring Rebecca Bolden; and Rock to the Future, featuring Jessica Craft. Each individual is a leader in their organization and has specific expertise about integrating youth and student voice in creative and multiple ways. They have so much knowledge that we as Foundation staff crafted both an article for news source Generocity, as well as a guide that featured these organizations’ efforts. Yet still, even with that background information shared ahead of time, the hour-long conversation flew by.
While there was so much to dig into, we wanted to share four specific lessons that we learned from the conversation.
1. Anyone can create the space for centering/integrating youth voice into their work.
Regardless of how organizations design it, it’s important to create a space for feedback and conversation. “We need to be able to hear our students,” Matthew shared, “and reach them where they are.”
2. Flip the conversation and your communications to share how the students are helping you and your organization, not the other way around.
Each organization discussed how they feature students in their blog posts, in their newsletters, in their social media, in all of their messaging and elevate the student voice to show how students are shaping and informing the organization’s work.
Jessica remarked that students have the say on whether or not their stories are chosen to be featured in various outlets. Rebecca added that Project 440’s Youth Advocacy Council seeks to elevate the voice of students so that they’re able to advocate for themselves and what they’ve been able to accomplish. Amplifying student voice in these ways shows that its students benefitting and helping grow the organization.
3. Remove yourself so that you don’t get in the way of the students’ efforts.
Lucas shared that for the ArtSmart Alumni Advisory Board, he worked with the Board president (Cameron) to show him how to craft an agenda and then “got out of the way” for Cameron to create it. To center youth voice, adult leaders can provide advice at the beginning but then it’s important to step away so that youth can determine the direction of the board/committee/council/organization.
4. Work toward an authentic environment where youth voice, learning, and leadership are valued.
Youth are essential for sparking change in our communities. A Google search asking “why youth voice matters” comes up with millions of search results that seeks to answer that question. Generocity featured an entire month’s worth of content to share why youth activism and engagement matters.
The theory is evident, and after conversations with these leaders, the practice is as well. Society is better when youth are confident and inspired to be leaders. If youth organizations, and many others, can create that authentic environment for youth to demonstrate their leadership, then we believe that the organization, and the places we live, receive it back hundredfold.
As staff at The Presser Foundation, we are incredibly grateful for the lessons we learned and the time shared by the speakers and the attendees. We’d encourage you to dive deeper into youth voice by watching the recording (password: jz&x7LNq) of the session, reading the Generocity article, and looking through the guide. We hope that these resources help you as you’re integrating youth voice into your organization, and that the conversation inspires you to find more ways to elevate youth in your organization and in your community.
