Music National Service Initiative

Music National Service uses music as a strategy to advance public good through direct programs, public advocacy, and leadership development. MusicianCorps, its flagship program, trains and places professional musicians to serve as full-time instructors and mentors in low-performing public schools, youth centers, and other high-need community settings, using music to re-engage more than 400 youth in their academic and civic lives and provide them with critical skills for success. In addition, the program organizes twelve Music Service Days, with 1,000 volunteers, parents, and students coming together to help communities through music. Renewed support of MusicianCorps, seed-funded by the Hewlett Foundation since 2008, would enable three Fellows to provide ongoing music instruction in Bay Area schools, offer them professional development opportunities, and ensure that high-quality arts education reaches students who need it the most. We recommend a two-year term to monitor this young organization’s ability to diversify its funding base, which is critical to its long-term success.

Music National Service Initiative is in the second year of its pilot MusicianCorps program, a "musical Peace Corps" of Fellows in a year-long school residency in the Bay Area. The program offers students in underserved schools access to music instruction and gives musicians the opportunity to teach and practice their craft, as well as develop professionally as educators. It is essential that the organization diversify its funding sources and find a programmatic balance as it begins its third year of operations. Renewed support for the pilot program would enable the placement of two new Fellows at service sites in the San Francisco Unified and Oakland Unified school districts, an evaluation of the pilot’s first two years, and strategic planning to decide how to focus programs in the future.

In August 2009, with Hewlett support, Music National Service Initiative launched MusicianCorps, a "musical Peace Corps" of five Fellows in a year-long school residency in the Bay Area. This program combines the youth service model with the talent and energy of performing musicians to expand access to music education and improve achievement in disadvantaged public schools and communities. Renewed support would continue the pilot with four new Fellows placed at service sites in the San Francisco Unified and Oakland Unified school districts, performance opportunities for the Fellows, partnerships with Performing Arts Workshop (a Hewlett grantee) and KIPP schools, and evaluation of the pilot's success in its inaugural year.