A Bit of History
Hi! My name is Cathy Grant and I’m the founder and executive director of the Music Youth Partnership Foundation. This is how we got started:
I went to lower-income middle schools, and gave group flute lessons 1 day per week all year long. Most of the kids I worked with were “at risk.” I found it of utmost importance to be a friend who taught flute. We started out with basics, then worked on their band music. I later gave them 3 Christmas trios, 3-4 kids on each part. We had a field trip to my house for 3 hours of “Pizza, Pop and Playing” in order to fine tune their music for the concert. During the concert, they stood right where they were seated in band to play their trios. While I sat in the audience, the kids played their hearts out, and they received a standing ovation. I immediately wondered if that group of kids would ever again be in a position in their lives to get a standing ovation for something they had accomplished. I decided that very night that when I was able to retire, this is what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.
I came back in January, and talked to the kids about the solo festival. They were all in. Each one of them played a solo, receiving a I or II rating, and they played an ensemble piece which also received a high rating. We did another field trip to my house to help them get ready; we ate, played, laughed, talked, and played some more. These were 7th & 8th graders. I have worked some with 6th graders, but I love working with 7-8 because you can see in their eyes, they are looking for a place to belong. It is right here that kids start looking at gang involvement, sex, drugs, and other traps.
I finally retired, and returned to Friends University as a junior to study flute. I graduated May 2021 with a BS in Liberal Arts with an emphasis in Music. I have been in band with Dr. John Taylor and Mr. Shawn Knopp, studied conducting and took private conducting lessons. I have studied flute with Amy Hoffman at Friends for 4 years and I am still in the Friends University Flute Choir for my 5th year.
During my bout with COVID in May 2021, I started using my laptop and cell phone to assemble the contacts required to launch the first board of directors for Music Youth Partnership. We had our first board meeting in June and were awarded §501c3 non-profit status on July 20, 2021.
Our Vision
Phase I
We had originally hoped to go into the Middle Schools and High Schools, just like I did, 1 day per week during band/orchestra class, do a group lesson in a practice room, working closely with the band director. I originally wanted to hire teachers for each instrument, including strings. Now, as a board, we have decided to hire a retired band directors, the best of the best, one brass teacher, one woodwind teacher, one percussion teacher in each school. Fall 2022-23 has been our pilot program at Marshall Middle School and West High School.
Phase 2
We expanded to 4 USD 259 schools by Fall 2023. We are an extension of the band director, a silent partner, working closely aligned with them. Our purpose is to come alongside middle school and high school kids, USD 259 music programs and the band directors. One of our main visions is to bring more kids into The Youth Symphony program. In coming years, we would also love to have a presence in orchestra and vocal music programs and other fine arts programs, like art, dance and
theater. We have become father and mother figures, mentors, friends to a generation that has been stretched in every way possible. Our Music Youth Partnership teachers will follow band kids from they first time they pick up an instrument, and follow them until they graduate from High School.
Phase 3
Many people have offered to donate an instrument, or money to go towards purchase of an instrument. These will go to kids whose families cannot afford to purchase them. At the band director’s discretion, they are delivered to students at no charge to them with no expectation for them to be returned. Each instrument is serviced by Damm Music Company and a brass plate with the name Music Youth Partnership and that of the donor on the outside of the case.
We have also entered into a partnership with “Band of Angels” in Kansas City. They have agreed to supply instruments to students in Wichita and they will sponsor kids to go to Summer Music Camp.
Phase 4
We would like to have some sort of mission trip for High School kids, so they can experience service to those in an impoverish country. We also plan to host a Summer Music Camp to include all instruments, and a Jazz camp. We plan to hire a teacher, to teach private piano lessons to kids at Greiffenstein-Wells Alternative Middle School as a pilot program for the Spring semester of 2025. That school represents some of the most traumatized kids in the city of Wichita. We will track the data from that program, in order to write grants to expand the program into other Alternative schools in Wichita.
Phase 5
We want to provide College Scholarships to deserving students.