Jazz Empowers

Our Charter School Residency Program introduces and operates jazz programs in Title 1 schools with no established instrumental music program. Unfortunately, 61% of all middle and high school public charter schools in the United States do not have such a program. The schools we serve have the desire and need to start a band program for their students, but can't afford the $100,000 typically needed to do so. Jazz Empowers allows schools to overcome these barriers, reducing costs to a more manageable programming fee, and handling all operations of the jazz program. This includes supplying high-quality instructors, instruments, and curriculum resources. The jazz bands we start at these schools meet 2-5 times per week during the school year, and work towards performances at school concerts, assemblies, festivals, and even competitions. For the 23-24 school year, Jazz Empowers operated jazz programs at 28 underserved charter schools. As part of the program Jazz Empowers ran rehearsals 2-5 times a week for the entire school year at each school and provided free instruments for all students in the program. This program served 775 students in total and Jazz Empowers increased the number of schools in the program by 28% from the 23-24 school year. For the 23-25 school year, 75% of students in this program believed that playing in a jazz band has made them a better overall student and 75% of students in this program enjoyed school more because they were in a jazz band. The graduation rate of high school seniors in the program was 100%.

While the Charter School Residency Program targets schools without a jazz program, our Band Director Support Program partners with band directors at underserved schools with existing jazz programs. Jazz Empowers provides these programs with financial support for instruments, sheet music, and other crucial resources to bolster their program. Numerous schools served through this program have competed and won awards at prestigious high school music festivals and competitions.For the 23-24 school year, Jazz Empowers supported band directors with jazz programs at 12 underserved schools serving 300 students. In this program Jazz Empowers used funds to buy instruments, sheet music and other crucial resources for Title 1 jazz programs. Jazz Empowers also supported the school band directors with professional development and administrative tasks.

Our Jazz Band Director Cohort provides free and on-demand resources to band directors across the country. Any band director can get access to monthly live professional development sessions on Zoom, and valuable jazz education tools they can use in their bandroom to teach jazz more effectively and bring their program to the next level.For the 23-24 school year, Jazz Empowers provided online resources and professional development to 250 band directors at underserved schools across the country. These schools served a combined 5,125 students. Jazz Empowers created monthly training sessions for these instructors, and uploaded valuable resources to a free membership website for cohort members.