2013 Annual Report Dear Friends
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2013 ANNUAL REPORT Dear Friends, ZUMIX was founded in 1991 with 24 youth, $200, and a simple idea – getting kids off the streets and involved in music could improve lives and transform communities. We operated out of our Co-Founder’s tiny studio apartment in Maverick Square, where we made music and changed lives. Twenty-two years later, we’re still changing lives. This past year we successfully completed the final year of a three-year growth phase in our new building, serving over 1,000 youth through our after-school programs and in-school partnerships. We also reached approximately 10,000 community members through our Community Arts events. Our youth participants continue to inspire us every day. Here are some examples of our participants’ recent achievements: We’re proud of how far we’ve come and are excited for our future, but we also know how important it is to stay connected to our past. We currently • In the past four years, 98% of our seniors graduated from high have ten ZUMIX alumni on staff, helping lead our organization and school and 91% were accepted to college. inspiring the next generation of young leaders. • Last August, our all-girl rock band, Annual Snowfall, became the We could not do any of this without your support, and we invite you to first ZUMIX ensemble to travel and perform internationally when consider deepening your commitment to ZUMIX. Together we can ensure they embarked on a ten-day tour of London and Paris. that every youth has an opportunity to grow and evolve through the • Over the past year our youth have applied the creative skills incredible power of music. learned at ZUMIX in real-life work settings, collectively earning over $29,000 as live sound technicians, performing musicians, radio Cheers, journalists, teaching assistants, and youth staff. This year, we completed a new three-year strategic plan and asked ourselves some tough questions. How do we ensure program excellence as we grow? How can we deepen our participants’ experiences? What Madeleine Steczynski Chrissy Holt happens if and when we reach our capacity in the Firehouse? Co-Founder and Executive Director Board President Our Impact On average, we offer 216 hours of youth programming at the ZUMIX Firehouse each week. During the past year, 509 youth were served through on-site programming in the Firehouse and 545 youth were served through partnerships with East Boston High School and the Mario Umana Academy. Over the past year, a total of 53 youth earned income through skills they learned at ZUMIX – 34 as performing musicians, eight as teaching assistants, six as live sound technicians, three as radio journalists, and two as administrative staff. In 2013, six of our youth were accepted into the Boston Arts Academy, a prestigious visual and performing arts high school. In the past four years, 98% of our seniors graduated from high school (compared to 58% of East Boston High School seniors, and 66% of Boston Public Schools seniors city-wide). In the past four years, 91% of our seniors were accepted to college (compared to 58% of East Boston High School graduating seniors, and 70% of Boston Public Schools graduating seniors city-wide). Currently nine ZUMIX alumni are on full scholarship at the following institutions: Berklee College of Music, Brown University, Northwestern University, Simmons College, Suffolk University, University of Pennsylvania, and Wentworth Institute of Technology. Artist Ambassador: Will Dailey In the fall of 2012, ZUMIX launched a partnership with Boston-based singer-songwriter, Will Dailey, our first-ever Artist Ambassador. Will Dailey is an accomplished recording and performing artist and a three-time winner of the Boston Music Award for Best Singer/Songwriter. He has released two full-length albums titled “Back Flipping Forward” and “Torrent” through CBS Records and his music has been featured on over 50 television programs and films. He has performed and recorded with numerous artists including T Bone Burnett, Wilco, Dave Mathews, Roger McGuinn, and many more. Over the past year, Will has been using his professional experience and network to provide special performance and learning opportunities for ZUMIX participants. Our A Capella Ensemble performed with Will in the 2013 Outside the Box Festival on the Boston Common and two of our youth bands opened for his shows at Club Passim in the spring of 2013. He has also made several site visits to ZUMIX to get to know and work with our youth. “I wasn’t surprised to find that kids are enthusiastic about music but it was enlightening to see their focus. The ZUMIX kids have a tremendous amount of focus. These kids are set up to succeed from beat one in whatever they chose to do in life.” Alumni Spotlight RAMSEL LARA, AGE 20 Ramsel first came to ZUMIX as a freshman in high school on the recommendation of a friend. He thought it would be cool to learn how to play an instrument, so he decided to check it out. The first program he participated in was Got Soul, a songwriting program. He was so inspired by the talent of some of the other youth in the program that he decided to take private lessons too. Over the next four years, ZUMIX became like a second home to him. He participated in all of our Songwriting and Performance programs, Rock Ed multiple times, Drumline, and took drum and guitar lessons. “I’ve made some of my best friends here. Being able to play music with your best friends is probably the coolest thing in the world.” Ramsel is now in his junior year at Bunker Hill Community College where he’s studying Economics. He remains incredibly active at ZUMIX, both through his part-time job as an Administrative Assistant and as a volunteer. He works with our Business Manager on ZUMIX’s accounting and bookkeeping, leads a section of Rock Ed, serves as the Youth and Music Committee Chair for ZUMIX special events, and is one of the founders and leaders of the Rock Ensemble. On top of it all, he’s still committed to his own music, playing all over Boston as the drummer for Tripod and the guitarist for the Mosquitoes in Tuxedos. “I’m just really grateful that ZUMIX has invested in my development, well past graduating out of programs. I’m still involved and enjoy giving back by teaching, volunteering, and helping out wherever I can. I hope that I can help give someone as awesome an experience as I had.” Looking Forward In 2012, ZUMIX began a strategic planning process guided by a committee comprised of youth, staff, instructors, and Board Members to chart the course for our new reality as one of Boston’s premier youth empowerment organizations and as a facility owner. This process consisted of an organizational assessment followed by strategic business planning. Our intention for the next three years is to plateau at our current size and recommit to excellence. Based on the conclusion of our strategic plan, ZUMIX identified four overarching goals which will guide the organization’s development for FY14 to FY16: Goal 1. Strengthen core youth programming to ensure excellence in service for ZUMIX’s primary audience. Goal 2. Use Community Arts more intentionally to strengthen ZUMIX’s core youth programs and grow ZUMIX’s base of support. Goal 3. Refine ZUMIX’s organizational model to reflect its maturity and programmatic goals. Goal 4. Build ZUMIX’s capitalization structure to sustain the organization over time. We have already begun to take steps to achieve these goals. Program Director, Jenny M. Shulman, worked with program staff to create a Programmatic Excellence Plan, focusing on depth and length of service, to ensure that all of our programs are of the highest quality. We are investing in our Community Arts events, engaging our community and involving our youth in meaningful ways. We are refining our organizational model by strengthening our organization’s leadership, focusing our development activities more strategically, and reducing administrative burdens on senior staff and instructors. Management staff and Board Members are participating in capitalization trainings to further strengthen our organizational model. We are also focusing on diversifying revenue streams through increased support from individuals, space rentals, and ticketed events. We look forward to building on this progress over the next several years. CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY – Z-TECH is a technical training program that introduces young people to audio and computer technologies using an experiential and interactive approach. The training component is divided into four sections: 1) Live Audio Engineering, 2) Beatmaking and Music Production, 3) Studio Recording, and 4) Audio Repair and Troubleshooting. Z-TECH empowers young people to apply their newfound skills in an entrepreneurial way, as it includes hands-on training and year-round paid contract work for all graduates. ZUMIX RADIO enables our young participants to connect and share their music, ideas, and concerns with listeners while gaining invaluable feedback from local residents. Through DJ and radio journalism training, ZUMIX Radio provides youth with marketable technical, leadership, and communication skills in the context of civic engagement and community building. ZUMIX Radio streams live on our website at www.zumix.org. SPROUTS – Designed as a feeder program for our teen programs, Sprouts ZUMIX Programming involves participants ages 7-11 in artistic exploration through music, dance, theater, and set-design. These youth have performance opportunities both on-site at ZUMIX for family and friends, and in the SONGWRITING AND PERFORMANCE – ZUMIX songwriting programs community, as they perform for local seniors at long-term care facilities, at are designed to help youth address the challenges of urban life in a day care centers, and at local events and festivals.