SAY SI
Celebrating 25 Years of Creativity, Community and Culture
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the United States and a majority, minority city, primarily Latino [Mexican American]. A large percentage of the population is disadvantaged and that increases in the urban core of the city. A recent national study showed that San Antonio is the largest economically segregated cities in the United States. Our students, “Opportunity Youth" need a stronger commitment from society, and SAY Sí is committed to providing not only arts learning, but also youth development and individual support. Many of our youth our first-generation college students and we have committed to building a college-going culture, so we provide them with financial aid counseling, support with applications and building strong portfolios. With the support of other organizations, we assist with many of the intricacies of attending a college or university. We work with students on building their leadership and focus and provide resources for students who need additional support
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
VA [High School Visual Arts Program]
A high school visual arts
program where students study drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, art
history and create commission artwork
WAM [Middle School Program]
Working Artists & Mentors (WAM) is a middle school visual and
media arts program taught by trained instructors and student mentors.
MAS [High School Media Arts Studio Program]
A high school media arts
program where students learn innovative communications/media technology and
filmmaking
ABC [Outreach Program]
Artists Building Communities (ABC) is an outreach program where trained alumni
facilitate weekly art workshops for children served by community organizations
and school districts.
ALAS [Theatre Program]
Activating Leadership, Art and Service (ALAS) is a theatre program serving
middle and high school students through a unique approach to performance as
community engagement
The HIVE Studio
Home for Innovation and Video Technology - a game design studio
Where we work
Awards
Coming Up Taller Award 2002
President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts
Affiliations & memberships
National Guild for Community Arts Education 2017
Americans for the Arts 2017
External reviews
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Aligned with the city of San Antonio and SA2020's strategic goals, SAY Sí is committed to creating a premier, dynamic and nurturing educational environment for San Antonio's youth. SAY Sí recognizes that the arts reshape how young people learn, communicate and prepare for their work and civic future. Goals include: enhancing students' social, academic, cognitive and vocational competencies; improving students' self-esteem and self-identity; and enhancing students' character so that they will become productive citizens of our community. SAY Sí provides students' with projects that involve cultural relevance and a variety of mediums that build skills, provides mentoring, instruction and guidance from staff and visiting artists, engages students' in real and challenging activities, provides peer-to-peer mentoring in our outreach and middle school programs, gives entrepreneurial opportunities for students to financially benefit from the sale of their work, and assists students with the development of portfolios, resumes, and applications to art schools, community colleges and universities, and/or assist in finding jobs upon high school graduation. Educating youth in the arts can open passageways for professional occupations such as: architects, interior designers, fashion designers, art educators and other art based professions, allowing youth to become productive citizens of our community. For the last 15 years, SAY Sí seniors have maintained a 100% high school graduation rate and 100% college and university placement. This is highly significant when the cumulative average of all San Antonio ISD's is at a 65% graduation rate.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
SAY Sí students participate in various activities throughout the year. Activities include 1) development of portfolios, resumes, and applications to art schools, community colleges and universities, and/or assist in finding jobs upon high school graduation 2) mentoring, instruction and guidance from staff and visiting artists, 3) engagement in real and challenging projects 4) peer-to-peer mentoring in our outreach and middle school programs, 5) entrepreneurial opportunities for students to financially benefit from the sale of their work, 6) projects that involve cultural relevance and a variety of mediums that build skills.
SAY Sí is committed to creating a premier, dynamic and nurturing educational environment for San Antonio's youth. SAY Sí recognizes that the arts reshape how young people learn, communicate and prepare for their work and civic future. Due to the nature of the SAY Sí and our programs, project goals will coincide with strengthening our current programs specifically in strengthening and formalizing our college readiness initiatives. SAY Sí has already been successful with an informal approach to college readiness in all programs, but formalizing our approach will allow SAY Sí to be even more effective in advancing our students educationally. In the last 15 years 100% of SAY Sí's seniors have graduated from high school and 100% have been accepted to a college and university.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
As we move into our organization's 27th year of service – we celebrate that for over 20 years SAY Sí has inspired and encouraged San Antonio's creative youth through these national award-winning programs: VA [High School Visual Arts Program], a comprehensive visual arts program for students in grades 9-12. Students study drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, and art history with a focus on the development of entrepreneurial and marketing skills.
WAM [Middle School Program], Working Artists and Mentors, is a year-round Saturday program for middle school youth in visual, media and theatre arts. High school junior and senior students work alongside instructors providing peer-to-peer mentoring and learning opportunities. MAS [High School Media Arts Studio Program], an innovative technology based learning program that provides a hands-on focus in filmmaking and digital design. ALAS [Theater Program], Activating Leadership, Art and Service, emphasizes leadership skills and civic engagement. Our theatre program empowers youth to create and perform original work that addresses community concerns, challenges prejudices and social injustice, and celebrates diversity and difference. ABC [Community Programming], Artists Building Communities, Alumni facilitate weekly art workshops for children and youth served by inner-city public schools and health and human service organizations which have included the Battered Women and Children's Shelter of Family Violence Prevention Services, San Antonio Children's Shelter and many inner city title-one public schools. HIVE [Home for Innovation and Video Ecology], what began as a pilot program within the middle school program is now SAY Sí's newest high school program. The HIVE is a new media program in which students will learn digital art, interactive media art, video games, comic books/zines, 3D modeling/animation and creative coding. HIVE challenges youth to think about interactivity, analyze art and new media critically and decide when working collaboratively or working independently are the best modes for getting their ideas across.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
SAY Sí currently uses a student review process to align with its performance measures for program staff. Students first complete an online self-evaluation followed by a meeting with program staff. Program staff utilizes the students self-review and also completes an online form for each student. This process allows us to complete a comprehensive individual review and to aggregate potential trends and issues. Our most recent student review initiated the following information:
Motivation to attend SAY Sí:
• 72% of SAY Sí high school students attribute their motivation to attend SAY Sí to their personal passion for their art.
• 55% of them also attribute their motivation to attend SAY Sí to improving their skills and 49% are motivated to attend SAY Sí because of being able to create work.
• 46% of students are motivated to attend SAY Sí because of their personal education and career goals.
Benefits of SAY Sí:
• 42% of all SAY Sí high school students recognized that access to equipment, supplies, tools and software is both beneficial and a motivating factor.
• 48% of all SAY Sí high school students also recognized being able to exhibit, perform or show their work to the public as a benefit of the programs.
• 47% of all high school students also agreed that the environment at SAY Sí is both motivating and beneficial.
Improvements:
• 35% of students said that they would not improve anything or mentioned that they appreciate SAY Sí the way it is.
• 10% of SAY Sí students mentioned that if they could improve some aspect of SAY Sí they would like more and/or new project options to choose from.
• 11% of students mentioned that they would like more individual guidance or interaction their instructor.
• 9% of students mentioned wanting more time for some projects and having stricter deadlines.
• The other 27% is a combination of other miscellaneous suggestions. Some of these include: More shared workshops among all studios, more freedom for creative expression in projects and better appreciation of the studio spaces/supplies by other students.
Population and Demographic Information: The majority of SAY Sí students come from San Antonio's inner-city school districts. Currently 61% of our student population comes from low-income households. The current racial and ethnic breakdown of students served is 69% Latino, 19% Anglo,14% Mixed Race, 2% African American, 2% Asian American, and 1% Native America/Alaskan. The current gender breakdown of our student body is 64% female, 31% male 3% non-binary and 1% transgender. SAY Sí serves students from every city council district in San Antonio.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
SAY SI
Board of directorsas of 01/17/2024
Mr Jason Moran
Designer
Michael Schroeder
SAY Sí Founder and Partner at Insite Architects
Jason Moran
SAY Sí Alumnus and Project Manager at Richard Mogas Architecture
Jim Mendiola
Filmmaker
Guillermina Zabala
Professor UTSA
Leo Lee
Artist
Mario Moreno
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Not applicable -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Not applicable
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as: