“I can express myself the way I want through music and my voice.”
This was one of many positive responses when youth were asked, “What did you like best about Youth on Record?”
Youth on Record (YOR) recognizes that education alone can not solve systemic injustice, nor can it alone liberate youth. Art is a powerful tool, but it also cannot bear the sole responsibility of creating more equitable communities. Still, education and art, when integrated under the right framework, are powerful tools for liberation and equity.
Since 2008, YOR has been bringing Colorado’s most respected and talented musicians into high schools and youth residential treatment centers. Credited as the most utilized music provided for Denver Public Schools, our intensive, out-of-school-time activities, for-credit music classes, advanced technical training, and the positive mentorships offered by our musician-instructors are empowering young people in Denver’s most vulnerable communities to graduate and develop the skills needed to enter the workforce or pursue post-secondary education.
The mental and behavioral health of young people in Denver has been on a steady decline for several years – and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are exacerbating this already present challenge. Calls and texts coming into Colorado Crisis Services, the statewide crisis hotline, have increased by 30% since the pandemic began and medical practitioners are reporting increases in both behavioral health appointments and hospitalizations related directly to behavioral health among youth (https://coloradonewsline.com/2020/07/20/mental-health-of-young-people-worries-experts-as-covid-19-continues-to-grip-colorado/).
One proven strategy to increase feelings of connectedness, reduce isolation, and support young people in reaching their full potential is to connect youth with peers and trusted adults who share similar cultural backgrounds and experiences.
YOR’s comprehensive OST programming is offered six days a week for a total of at least ten hours each week. Utilizing a hybrid in-person (when feasible per public health and safety recommendations) and virtual approach, participants can enroll in myriad programs designed to increase their sense of community, enhance their resiliency and increase their overall sense of well-being.
YOR’s OST programming has shifted during COVID to best meet the needs of youth. Current programs include:
- Open Lab: Offered weekly for 1.5 hours, Open Lab offers participants an opportunity to create music, learn about the music business, hear from engaging professional musicians, and build a community of peers.
- FEMpowered: This virtual program aims to encourage, educate and empower young creative fems (female or female-identifying). The community-oriented sessions provide free workshops designed to provide and create space for young women.
- Music for Sanity’s Sake: YOR’s newest OST program, Music for Sanity’s Sake is a mental health wellness program offered weekly, designed to help youth make sense of their lives and the world through music, community building, and peer support.
- Podcast Workshops: YOR has designed and is launching a series of workshops to help participants develop the skills to pursue their own podcast and radio projects. Through participation in either one-day workshops or ongoing training classes, youth will be introduced to how to plan, design, record, edit, and upload/launch their own podcast.
- Relevant Deep-Dive Workshops: In addition to regularly-scheduled and consistent OST programming, YOR offers weekly workshops on topics requested by participants. For example, creative writing, lyricism, and/or beat boxing.
- YOR Fellowship: This year-long program emphasizes the personal, professional, academic, and musical development of participants. This year, based on feedback from previous participants, the Fellowship is designed to reengage program alumni and offer a deeper dive into their personal and professional development journeys.
YOR is an organization that was built by the community, for the community, and with the community. These values are reflected in staffing, governance, and organizational decision-making. For example, YOR employs 11 full-time and five part-time staff members, 58% of who identify as BIPOC and 93% of whom identify as artists. Further, 36% of the current staff members were formerly YOR students or YOR interns, and 46% of the Board identifies as BIPOC.
YOR’s theory of change is: By providing high-quality music-centered, trauma-informed programming in areas of academic success, mentorship, economic opportunity, and community activation to young people living or going to school in under-resourced communities and schools, increased social-emotional skills, increased resiliency, increased academic success and achievement, increased post-secondary readiness, and increased economic stability will occur.
All YOR programs are designed to increase resiliency, teach positive coping skills, increase access to trusted adults, and increase social connection with peers. Specific to the proposal, YOR’s OST programs aim to: increase access to high-quality, culturally responsive, trauma-informed OST programming; build youth resiliency through connections with peers, trusted adults, and themselves; and increase social-emotional skills – all while helping youth reach their full potential.
Have questions about YOR programs? Visit https://www.youthonrecord.org/programs Open Lab.
1. Program Name: Open Lab
2. Description: Online music seminars and workshops for youth led by local music professionals. Registration is required.
3. Location: Zoom (online)
4. Phone: 303.993.5226
5. Website: https://www.youthonrecord.org/programs/open-lab
6. Date and time(s): Every Thursday from 4 – 5:30 pm MT
7. Age range event is appropriate for Ages 14-20
8. Cost: FREE!
FEMpowered
1. Program Name: FEMpowered
2. Description: This community-oriented group provides free workshops on topics that are related to today’s current music industry while also providing the space for young women to shape and pursue their artistic visions. Registration is required.
3. Location: Zoom (online)
4. Phone: 303.993.5226
5. Website: https://www.youthonrecord.org/programs/fempowered
6. Date and time(s): Every Wednesday from 4 – 5 pm MT
7. Age range event is appropriate for Ages 14-20
8. Cost: FREE!
Music for Sanity’s Sake
1. Program Name: Music for Sanity’s Sake
2. Description: Connect around music that helps you make sense of your world. Learn free tools to support your creative path. Practice real ways to manage stress. Vent in a safe and welcoming space that doesn’t need you to change to be heard. We will be making music, looking at our favorite artists, and exploring how music can (and does) help us stay sane! Registration is required.
3. Location: Zoom (online)
4. Phone: 303.993.5226
5. Website: https://www.youthonrecord.org/event/music-sanitys-sake-virtual-meetup
6. Date and time(s): Every Friday from 4 – 5 pm MT
7. Age range event is appropriate for Ages 14-20
8. Cost: FREE!
The virtual out-of-school programming is open to all youth across the country, ages 14-20
