Young Voices Education In Music Foundation
Bringing together music and education to give young minds the opportunity to connect the classroom to real-world experiences
Our Mission
The Young Voices Education in Music Foundation exists to inspire children to discover their love of music through semester-long Project- and Community-Based Learning.
We believe that access to music education improves the emotional intelligence of students and becomes integral to the development of social, practical, and inspirational young people.
The Young Voices Education in Music Foundation realizes this mission by:
- Training Teachers – By providing professional development workshops that are fun, informative, and give teachers the confidence to help inspire children to sing.
- Offering Grants – By giving grants to disadvantaged schools to enjoy the Young Voices Educational Program that gives them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to connect in school study with a real-life concert with thousands of like-minded participants. With grants that cover the cost of the travel, music pack (including repertoire and lesson plans), food, t-shirts, and parents’ tickets, we enable families to be a part of the Young Voices experience; an opportunity they may otherwise never have had.
- Connecting Teachers – By giving them the means to talk to each other and share experiences, ideas, and resources through our private online Teacher Community, offering the teachers themselves a collaborative learning process that they can then pass on to their students.
- Supporting Young Talent – By taking on placements from universities and colleges, we provide learning experiences and essential life-skills to the future generation of music educators and professionals.
- Connecting with Business – By bridging the gap between the music industry and education we offer an opportunity for the corporate sector to integrate Arts Education in to their social responsibility initiatives through music and singing projects.
Why Should I Help?
Every child enjoys music, and every child enjoys singing. But despite this almost universal interest, many schools are having to do away with their music education programs. Young Voices fights this trend by giving schools an affordable or free alternative. Help us make sure schools don’t lose a necessary and enjoyable subject, and an outlet that can enrich students’ lives and education.
The above is true especially in economically struggling schools; The Brookings Institution has said, “Over the last few decades, the proportion of students receiving arts education has shrunk drastically. This trend is primarily attributable to the expansion of standardized-test-based accountability, which has pressured schools to focus resources on tested subjects. As the saying goes, what gets measured gets done. These pressures have disproportionately affected access to the arts in a negative way for students from historically underserved communities”.
The Young Voices Foundation not only gives these students and their schools a layered music program that can be taught in class or after school, but the culmination of the program brings these students to a world-class arena and allows them to have a performance opportunity that connects classroom to real-life experience. One of the top pieces of feedback Young Voices has received from teachers, administrators, and students alike over its history is the value of the opportunity for students to see real-world application of their studies, which creates active learners who see the value of their education and see the classroom as a place they want to be.
For the economically struggling schools, the Young Voices Foundation provides teachers all the necessary resources needed to successfully prepare the music in classes and rehearsals throughout the school year. Materials include scores to the high-quality performance repertoire, vocal and accompaniment recordings, conducting notes, teaching aims and objectives, as well as curricular materials and lesson plans in inquiry-based format structured on the National Core ArtsStandards. In addition, Young Voices has a closed online community for educators to interact and engage, and fosters community among participating teachers. Workshops are offered to review music and logistical information in which teachers earn valuable Professional Development Hours for their participation.
Our History
In 1996, David Lewis, founder of the Young Voices International organization, became aware that school music in the United Kingdom was on the decline. Along with his family, Lewis went on a mission to assist music teachers, especially at schools with little to no music programming, by giving students an opportunity that would ignite a love of music for the rest of their lives: through amazing massed-voice concerts in local arenas. Today, the Young Voices educational program features over 200,000 different students each year singing over multiple nights in cities across England, as well as Ireland, Germany, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, and since 2015, the United States.
In the United States we found that many schools want to participate in the Young Voices Educational Program but because of lack of school funding were not able to. Our immediate thought was we would like to be able to help these schools! How can we solve their problem and give them a high-quality music program for free, get them to the venue, have them participate and allow their parents to see them perform in a world-class arena, and all at no cost to the school or parent?
With all this in mind, the Young Voices Education in Music Foundation was born. So now you can help a student with free sheet music, lesson plans for their school, learning materials, and a performance experience like no other in the world, whilst at the same time enriching the educational expertise of music educators across the country, by offering a unique and inspiring performance opportunity for them to work towards.
How It Works
Young Voices is a year-long journey that focuses on highlighting the music potential of all students.
It is an all-inclusive program, but also a unique opportunity for teachers to provide the most amazing performance opportunity to their students that helps engage and develop their 21st century skills through self-reflection, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation.
The program is designed to strengthen vocal range, improve diction, enhance music literacy, compliment all other curriculum learning and above all, achieve this whilst making sure the children have fun and are engaged.
The curriculum, specifically adapted for the age group, is engaging and fun with arrangements from standard choral literature to familiar rock and pop songs, predominantly with themes of hope, inspiration and empowerment.
The program also has wider benefits for the school community, bringing value and togetherness to their peers, parents and wider school community.
Your donations allow schools for free to:
Receive 45 minutes of carefully designed choral music
Receive school lesson plans, along with conductor’s notes for each piece of music
Free attendance for the lead music teacher at a Teacher’s Workshop to help communicate the materials effectively
Free support through the program
Access to internet-based closed Teacher Community
Transportation reimbursement
Free T-Shirt for each student
(1) Free Parent ticket for each student
In the smallest sense for $50 you can change a child’s life, and for $3,000 you can change a school. Help us open their mind to the power of music and give them an experience they will remember for a lifetime.
Donate Here
Young Voices Education In Music Foundation is a project at The Giving Back Fund, Tax ID 04-3367888, a not-for-profit corporation with federal tax-exempt status from the IRS under section 501(c)(3).
Young Voices Education In Music Foundation | c/o The Giving Back Fund
5757 W. Century Blvd · Suite 410 | Los Angeles, CA 90045
