WKMP

ABOUT

 

The Whiz Kids Music Program is a community outreach effort run through the CCM Preparatory Department in collaboration with City Gospel Mission’s tutoring and mentoring program.

 

Our Mission: 

The mission of the Whiz Kids Music Program is to transform the lives of children in the Greater Cincinnati Region through music using a mentorship model connecting CCM students with at-risk youth.

 

Our Vision:

The vision of the Whiz Kids Music Program is to ensure that all children, regardless of economic circumstances, are provided access to quality music education.



Objectives:

• Create opportunities for elementary students to learn vital life skills through music experiences that allow them to break out of their family’s cycle of poverty.

• Equip elementary students participating in the classes with a general knowledge and appreciation of music.

• Create organized teaching opportunities for CCM student leaders.

• Cultivate relationships between elementary students and leaders, creating encouragement and support for these otherwise at-risk students to stay in school and to live healthy, successful lives in the community.

• Broaden the perspective and worldview of CCM students, and promote later involvement in their communities.

​

 

Goals:

(The purpose of these goals is to ensure that even with growth, the Whiz Kids Music Program remains a quality, sustainable, and ever-growing CCM outreach program)

 

• Continue to expand the music classes to other Whiz Kids school programs.

• Create a specific scholarship fund for CCM students chosen through an interview process to lead the music classes (these students are currently paid hourly with minimum wage out of the Preparatory Department budget).

• Create a staff position in the CCM Preparatory Department to organize logistics and facilitate the program.

• Encourage a strong, long-term partnership between CCM and City Gospel Mission (the parent non-profit organization of Whiz Kids).

• Create a culture of community and passion for outreach among CCM student leaders to keep leaders engaged, encouraged and creatively developing in their specific school programs.

 

 

History

The non-profit organization Whiz Kids is an after-school tutoring program that connects adults in the community with at-risk elementary students in the greater city area of
Cincinnati, often through the Cincinnati Public School district. 

The idea to bring music to the program began with two women, Shelley Bamberger and Jane Florer, who organized the class as an elective for the students beginning in 2006. In January of 2011, CCM graduate student Sarah Taylor joined the team and began to  integrate her interest in classical and instrumental music, bringing friends and fellow students from the Conservatory as guest artists to teach about instruments and lead group activities. 

Since the fall of 2011, the CCM Preparatory Department has teamed up with Whiz Kids to bring us the Whiz Kids Music Program, which meets with four different schools once a week and teaches the basics of rhythm, singing, instrumentation, and music appreciation.