Mission
Project Music advances the critical life skills of Stamford youth through free music education, free instruments, mentoring and performance opportunities. The program is provided at no cost to students most in need of access, inspiration and opportunity. Project Music is an after-school music program designed to create social change and nurture promising futures for youth in Stamford, CT city neighborhoods, where 90% of student participants are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in school. Inspired by the El Sistema movement, Project Music serves students four afternoons each week, providing an intensive after-school musical environment for them as well as deep relationships with their musical ensemble and teachers.
Ruling year
2016
Executive Director
Gabrielle Molina
Artistic Director
Garrett Mendez
Main address
1127 High Ridge Rd Ste 167
Stamford, CT 06905 USA
EIN
81-2610342
NTEE code
Music (A68)
Youth Development Programs (O50)
IRS filing requirement
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Communication
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our work addresses the educational inequities of students in Stamford CT. President Obama's Committee on Arts and the Humanities conducted an in-depth review of the current condition of arts education. Their landmark study, Reinvesting in Arts Education, clearly shows the link between arts education and achievement in other subjects. All forms of art - from music to photography to dance - prepare children for success in the workforce not simply as artists, but all professions. In his foreword to the report, Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education states: "Education in the arts is more important than ever. In the global economy, creativity is essential. Today's workers need more than just skills and knowledge to be productive and innovative participants creative experiences are part of the daily work life of engineers, business managers and hundreds of other professionals. To succeed in the future, America's children will need to be inventive, resourceful and Imaginative."
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
El Sistema Academy
Since 2014, PROJECT MUSIC has partnered with public schools, community centers, and local nonprofits, to bring high-quality after school creative youth development programming to Stamford’s under-resourced neighborhoods. El Sistema Academy students participate in 8 hours of music classes and 4 hours of academic tutoring weekly throughout the academic year. Project Music provides over 10,000 hours of music classes each year across 4 sites, serving 120+ students.
Every student develops a broad skill set and learns to play their instrument of choice. With weekly private lessons, small group instruction, ensemble practice, all students take part in performances in and around around the community, helping to develop an identity as a musician and developing social skills, self esteem, creativity, independence and learning the skills public performance demands. Students are placed into one of 3 ensembles, based on achievement in both musical ability and social development.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of children who have the ability to understand and comprehend communication
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents, Children, Multiracial people, People of African descent, People of Latin American descent
Related Program
El Sistema Academy
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Project Music students learn to play an instrument, read and compose music. All these activities are embedded in our curriculum. Due to COVID-19, numbers of students is reduced
Number of children who have the ability to seek help from and respond appropriately to adults
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents, Children
Related Program
El Sistema Academy
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
An important element of our curriculum is the intentional inclusion of Social/Emotional learning to support the ability for students to advocate for themselves
Number of educators who have opportunities to attend programs offered by professional organizations
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Teachers, Artists and performers
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Our goal is to add regular professional development for all our teaching artists and staff. El Sistema USA provides an annual national conference. We hope all our TA will attend in the future.
Number of administrators and staff who plan and experience professional development activities together
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
10-15 teaching artists, administrators and staff will plan and participate in PD activities together.
Number of free participants on field trips
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
El Sistema Academy
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Maximum number of participants allowed on field trips
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
El Sistema Academy
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Average price of field trip tickets
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
El Sistema Academy
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Total number of fields trips
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
El Sistema Academy
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Total number of free admissions
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
El Sistema Academy
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of job skills training courses/workshops conducted
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
El Sistema Academy
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Through our Learn & Earn Program, students are able to apply for paid work study opportunities when they into our top musical ensemble.
Total number of free performances given
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
El Sistema Academy
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of children who have a sense of their own feelings and an ability to express empathy for others
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
El Sistema Academy
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of participants who are promoted to the next grade on time
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
El Sistema Academy
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Total number of performances
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
El Sistema Academy
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
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?
We aim to provide access to a high quality music education to every student in Stamford CT. We believe the power of music to change lives should not be limited to only those who can afford the high cost of renting or purchasing an instrument and can pay the high cost of music lessons. By providing mentoring and music education for free to our students, we help reduce the inequity in educational access. We also work to educate about the diversity in music composition and performance to give our students the opportunity to learn about their musical heritage and to delve into other cultural and historic elements within music education.
PROJECT MUSIC pursues the following goals:
• Enrich lives and build community via high-quality music instruction and frequent performances.
• Create a loving and nurturing environment, affirming each student’s pursuit of excellence via the collective joy of making music.
• Provide its students with exposure and access to professional artists in order to ignite a passion for excellence.
• Foster a lifelong understanding and appreciation of the inherent beauty in music and art.
* Imbed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in everything we do.
• Build audience appreciation for the arts and for the potential of young talent to blossom.
• Celebrate the value of collaboration via meaningful community partnerships.
• Instill traits required to build impactful lives of dignity, contribution, and strength of spirit.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We work from outreach to graduation, to include our students in the quest for excellence, both in their musical education and for their personal development. We do this by providing daily opportunities for students to practice their craft, rehearse with their peers, work one-on-one with their instructors and have many opportunities to perform. We are working to increase our financial capacity to grow our leadership team and gain additional support for marketing, communications, and fundraising. During this Pandemic year, we've added intentional Social/Emotional learning to our programming, providing our students with another resource for building self esteem, identity growth, and collaborative problem solving skills
Our goal is to provide access to excellent, free after-school music programming for every student in Stamford who desires it. Providing this programming addresses the need for excellence in afterschool programming and the need for safe, accessible after school child care.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Building organizational capacity has been the focus of our work and development planning for the past year and a half. We have successfully established an effective process for managing our finances with a CFO, we've created full time leadership positions for an Executive Director and Program Director and we are develop programming for a new Middle School focused model as well as a High School Leadership/Mentoring model. Our hope is to acquire our own "home" facility in order to build on the El Sistema model of a Nucleo - a literal nucleus of programming and operations from which we will be able to grow additional school based pilot programs to feed into this new Home.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
200 students have studied an instrument in our El Sistema Academy since 2014
16 students have earned seats in the Greater Connecticut Youth Orchestras
8 students have completed 5 full years with PM
21 students have completed 4 or more years with PM
33 have completed 3 or more
Students from 20 Stamford schools served (18 SPS, plus SCSE and Waterside School)
PM has collected over 150 instruments to provide to students who can't afford them
PM students have participated in over 120 performances since 2014
50% of PM students speak a language other than English at home
37% identify as black/african american
62% identify as hispanic/latinx
89% are in the free/reduced price lunch program at school
100% of PM students learn to read music
100% of PM students participate in performing music ensembles
100% of PM students have access to homework assistance through our partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club, Chester Addison Community Center, Yerwood Center, and Toquam Tiger Academy after-school programs
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
Our organization collects feedback through an annual survey to parents, partners, and staff.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
SMS text surveys, Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys, Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Community meetings/Town halls, Constituent (client or resident, etc.) advisory committees,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
-
What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time,
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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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
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Project Music, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 03/31/2022
Daniel Morris
Belpointe Asset Management
Term: 2020 - 2023
Daniel Morris
Michael Cooney
Angelica Gorrio
Charles Spaulding
David Tate
Domenick Pastorello
Dorothy Ghiorzo
Ephriam Fink
Ethan Schwartz
Fritz Chery
Hugh McGoran
Joseph Destin
Laureen Mody
Sara Seide
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? Yes -
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? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/26/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
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