We are an after-school music-and-development program for at-risk youth in St. Paul, MN, founded in 1992. The program identifies three interrelated goals:
- Healthy development and resilience among at-risk youth (healthy kids)
- Artistic achievement and productivity
(arts achievement)
- Positive community impact around diversity & making peace
(community impact).
What we do:
- Provide a high-quality arts participation experience for low-income children (without charge)
- Encourage participants’ families and friends to attend performances without financial barriers
- Provide exciting live performances that inspire, strengthen, and vitalize the community at large
- Promote strengths in young people and advances larger-scale social justice and community-building principles by means of youth participation in and performance of group vocal music
- Make special efforts to involve youth who face adversity due to minority status, poverty, discrimination, and/or family difficulty
Our uniqueness:
- Our dual emphases on arts process (rehearsal and arts participation activities as important for the development of individual health and strength) and product (high-quality performances, original songs, and recorded products)
- Reaching underserved populations both by enabling children from these populations to succeed as arts participants and performers
- Providing high-quality, inspiring performances for audiences comprising underserved populations
- To our knowledge, no other program in the Twin Cities offers the benefits of participation in an intensive, community-based, high-quality performance and creative arts activity, without required auditions or participation fees, and with ongoing “backstage” social work and education activities for participants and families.
How we do it:
- Rehearsal, coaching, and performance activities are structured and conducted, collaboratively, by music staff together with social work/education (SWE) staff, to optimize kids’ individual and group development.
- All activities are implemented according to a set of Action Principles that we have drawn from research in human ecology, youth development, assets, and life-cycle development and that represent the kinds of environmental supports that are essential for young people to experience, in order to develop psychosocial health, strength, and resilience.
- Formal, regularly scheduled activities are supplemented by individual vocal coaching and by additional youth and family engagement with SWE staff, as necessary.
- Repertoire explicitly focuses on multicultural respect, and on personal involvement in strengthening community and promoting social justice; performance venues reflect the same focus.
By working, simultaneously, toward all three goals, individual CitySongs Kids develop the following qualities:
- Self-discipline
- Competence
- Confidence
- Grounded self-esteem
These strengths are fundamental to productive participation in life’s arenas of family, community, and school/work. That is, these strengths enable participants to function as full citizens in a robust, continually renewed society. We have received awards and recognitions in all three goal areas, and are beginning to develop description and training materials that will enable us to function as a model for utilizing the arts to promote strong, healthy kids and communities.
Nuts & Bolts:
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CitySongs Kids rehearse twice weekly, after school, at St. Paul’s Rondo Education Center (located in the Frogtown area)
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CitySongs is open to interested youth, free of charge and without audition.
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CitySongs Kids give 15-20 public performances/year, throughout the metro area, in grassroots settings (e.g., women’s shelters; meal sites; block clubs) and large-scale, public settings (e.g., Million Mom March; Statewide MLK Celebration).
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We host two major concerts per year at which the CitySongs youth perform an extended program for the community. These concerts are rebroadcast on St. Paul Neighborhood Network television cable.
We are committed to:
- Providing meaningful, high-quality participatory arts access to kids who are financially disadvantaged and who may not have had previous opportunity to identify or develop their talent.
- Encouraging these kids to provide high-quality, live performances, free of charge, for diverse community audiences. We have recently issued a CD, “Erasing Racism,” which represents the singing, songwriting, and studio work of CitySongs Kids and staff from 1998-2002.
Our Numbers(since 1992):
- Provided direct service to over 1,000 young people by involving them in the program.
- Reached well over 17,000 individuals as audience members, through over 280 public performances.
CitySongs is a joint project of our own board, staff and supporters, the University of Minnesota School of Social Work, University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development, Hallie Q. Brown Community Center, and Rondo Education Center.
Contact:
Helen Kivnick
Executive Director
hkivnick@umn.edu
612-624-6773
CitySongs Office
citysongs@umn.edu
612-626-1241
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