Sing for Hope’s HandaHarmony Global Youth initiative leverages the power of youth creativity and the arts as drivers of the Sustainable Development Goals. For the third consecutive year, in partnership with UNICEF and the International Foundation for Arts and Culture, HandaHarmony students shared performance and conversation with world leaders at the United Nations HighLevel Political Forum, demonstrating the key role of global youth in the UN Decade of Action. This year’s High-Level Political Forum was held virtually, with an expected return to in-person convening in 2022.
Launched in response to the needs of high school students sheltering-at-home, Sing for Hope’s Careers in the Arts series is an online resource that brings students directly into conversation with arts leaders via Zoom. Focusing on a variety of career paths as well as the many ways in which the arts transform lives, Careers in the Arts guests have included Hadestown star Kimberly Marable, mezzo-soprano/producer/writer/composer Alicia Hall Moran, Broadway stage manager Glynn David Turner, and SFH Co-Founders Monica Yunus and Camille Zamora, among others. In FY21, the program served an estimated 500 students from school districts including the NYC Department of Education, Peekskill City School District, Mount Vernon City School District, and the Detroit Public Schools Community District, home base of the program’s sponsor, The Beatrice and Reymont Paul Foundation.
Sing for Hope Young at Arts Lab serves middle and high school students in The Bronx and Southern Westchester County in a neighborhood that was among the hardest hit in the U.S. by COVID-19. In partnership with Amani Public Charter School, SFH’s daily in-school and after-school classes for middle and high school students include African drumming, musical theater, music production, jazz band, Afro-pop band, voice, acting, and dance modules, all within a framework of rigorous health and safety measures. Under rigorous COVID-19 precaution protocols in Winter/Spring 2021, SFH YAA Lab served a total of 70 youth with in-person daily classes. That has grown to a current number of 400 youth participating daily.
Each year, through a special partnership with the NYC Department of Education, we select 50 public schools each year through a competitive RFP process to become Sing for Hope Citizen Artist Schools. Each school receives a Sing for Hope Piano and our Citizen Artist Curriculum, a program that helps teachers empower students to use creativity and the arts to enact positive social change. The curriculum includes a specially-curated Citizen Artist Opening Assembly featuring our roster of world-class Artist Partners; a monthly online teacher resource guide including articles, lesson plans, and student contests; and the opportunity to host additional workshops led by Sing for Hope Artist Partners on a variety of art forms throughout the year.
Our brave parents and teachers suddenly must find new ways to keep their students engaged. Creativity is as vital as ever. We’re here to help share arts and culture-based educational resources from our friends, partners, and own tools.
Have any questions or examples of what has worked for you and your students? Email us at info@singforhope.org!
Are you an educator? Please click here to download Sing for Hope’s master resource list of educational, artistic, creative, and mindfulness resources.
Arts and culture-based resources from our friends, partners, and own tools
Are you able to help out? Please DONATE to support Sing for Hope’s COVID-19 programming, which packs a twofold impact right now: employment for artists + comfort for our most isolated, vulnerable neighbors.
Through July 31, 100% of your donation goes to fund our Creative Hope for Refugees program, and every dollar donated will be matched by the Sing for Hope Board of Directors.
Sing for Hope is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization (EIN 01-0856384).
Sing for Hope is supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation.
Sing for Hope is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization (EIN 01-0856384). A copy of our most recently filed financial report is available from the Charities Registry on the New York State Attorney General’s website (www.charitiesnys.com) or, upon request, by contacting the New York State Attorney General, Charities Bureau, 28 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10005, or Sing for Hope at 99 Wall Street #1812, New York, NY 10005. You also may obtain information on charitable organizations from the New York State Office of the Attorney General at www.charitiesnys.com or (212) 416-8401.
Our mission is “art for all” – we actively engage those with special physical or intellectual needs. Both our office and our SFH Pianos Studio at 28 Liberty are ADA compliant, as are our partner sites.
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