Growing Equitable Music Studios (GEMS)
A Course of Action for studio music teachers who believe every child can change the world.
Expand studio diversity, access and inclusion while nurturing students as changemakers.
Get ready to take five tangible ACTION steps alongside your peers:
- Clarify Studio Culture that embodies your dream for social change. Envision an equitable studio environment for yourself, your students, their parents & studio collaborators to practice living in the world we want now.
- Grow Diversity by partnering with community youth organizations to curate a mixed-income, multicultural classroom.
- Expand Access to private lessons. Begin by creating a sustainable grassroots fundraising plan that will annually refresh your financial aid fund for a minimum of one or two students' full tuition.
- Elevate Inclusion by working interdependently with students, parents and local artists. Draw inspiration from the social justice organizing principles of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown.
- Employ Equity Pedagogy that intentionally nurtures students’ essential skills for changemaking such as resilience, innovation, collaboration, & higher order thinking.
Participants will engage with their Course of Action in two ways:
- During 6-weeks of online coaching sessions Monday and Friday afternoons 1:30-3:30p EST, except holidays.
- Outside of virtual class & following course completion as our studios continuously evolve. For example, we aspire to collectively expand access to private lessons for 100 youth by the end of 2021.
Each lesson will be driven by a CAR: Concept, Action, and Results. On Mondays, GEMS participants will be presented with an overarching concept and be invited to take specific actions. Case studies and templates from Detroit Youth Volume will be provided as inspirational tools. Friday classes will consist of individual check ins, personalized coaching and peer mentorship around each studio’s plans and progress.
During the last Friday of the course, GEMS participants will take turns presenting their work to each other and our broader community using the virtual platform of the Youth Volume Think Tank, designed to “recenter social justice from the margins to the heart of music education” and to generate “practical solutions for individual music teachers to nurture their studios with diversity, equity and inclusion ASAP”.
Want to grow equity in your own organization and/or support the work?
- Sign up to receive email updates, email Clara to set up a chat, and/or Donate.
- On social media, follow @clara.hardie313 on Facebook and @clarityclark on Instagram.
- Follow Youth Volume on Facebook / Instagram to check out how GEMS Action steps show up in real life!
Enrollment and Cost
Enrollment is done during phone consultations with course coach Clara Hardie to ensure applicants are a good fit and to assess any need for financial aid. Thirty-minute consultations can be booked by emailing clara@detroityouthvolume.org. You will then receive a link to schedule your chat.
$1,088 is the full cost of one six-week GEMS Course of Action for one participant. Requests for payment plans and financial aid are welcome!
The GEMS Course of Action will generally be offered in Fall, Winter, and Spring every year. And every year, three unstoppable cohorts of five justice-loving music teachers will emerge!
Suzuki Association of the Americas members who have completed Every Child Can and Unit 1 will receive credit for GEMS as an SAA Enrichment Course!
$1,088 is the full cost of one six-week GEMS Course of Action for one participant. Requests for payment plans and financial aid are welcome!
The GEMS Course of Action will generally be offered in Fall, Winter, and Spring every year. And every year, three unstoppable cohorts of five justice-loving music teachers will emerge!
Suzuki Association of the Americas members who have completed Every Child Can and Unit 1 will receive credit for GEMS as an SAA Enrichment Course!
GEMS Course of Action Schedule Example:
