What were the specific goals of this creative economy project? Describe the community development challenge or opportunity that your project was designed to address:
As an organization, we continue to work towards the following goals daily:
*Provide students with valuable tools to develop self-expression, cooperative learning, teamwork, peer mentoring, academic rigor, confidence and self-esteem.
*Engage students at an early age and support their training by offering them high quality instruction, instruments, and a full range of personal and family enrichment experiences.
*Better serve and deepen the WSO’s reach into its community; broaden partnerships with other community organizations.
*Develop a neighborhood program that will create a sense of community pride.
*Increase parental involvement in all aspects of students’ lives to improve modeling and students’ lifelong success.
Some of our challenges include:
*Financial sustainability moving foward (continued research for grants, donor cultivation)
*Continuity of parental involvement and support of their child's progress
*Consistency with the students; adjusting our expectations when their living situation or parental guardianship is shifted; accommodating their needs and providing the support they need to be successful
Some of the opportunities include:
*Collaborative projects in and outside of Connecticut with programs similar to ours; the opportunity for students to meet other students, and create music alongside them
*College-collaborative opportunities are a big part of Bravo; we recently took our students to the Yale School of Music for a College day. Our students ranged in age from 1st-5th grade. They had the opportunity to tour the Yale campus, and also participated in a concert at Sprague Hall performing alongside High School students. Opportunities such as this one will broaden their idea of a future for them. We are continuing to create experiences similar to this one.
If the goals change over time, please describe how:
Our goals haven't necessarily changed; We are constantly evolving our goals as needed to accommodate our students and families in Waterbury Connecticut. We work some of Waterbury's most vulnerable children. We evaluate our goals monthly to ensure we are serving our community to the best of our ability.
Who was involved in this project and what did they do? (be sure to include the partners from outside of the creative sector and how local voices were included):
The Leever Foundation- The Leever Foundation is our initial funder and our primary source of funding. Bravo Waterbury is a vision of the late Ruth-Ann Leever who believed in access of quality music education and social growth. She planted the seed and we work very closely with the Foundation to ensure the success of the program.
Connecticut Community Foundation-They provide visionary community leadership by identifying programs such as Bravo Waterbury and give us the ability financially to write and receive grants in order to keep the program running.
Bridge To Success- A Youth-serving organization in Waterbury that we partnered with in 2012 in order to create a assessment tool to assess effectiveness for our students, parents, and staff at Bravo Waterbury. Students are assessed twice a year and we track both their social and musical growth.
Children's Community School- Our first host site Bravo was implemented with 34 students. Currently we have 70 students enrolled in the program.
Brass City Charter School- Our second host site which began last year and currently has 120 students enrolled.
American Savings Bank- Financial Contributor to the program
Ion Bank- Financial Contributor to the program
Connecticut State Department of Arts Cultivation- Financial Contributor to the program
