For today’s video, we’re switching gears away from real estate. On that note, I’m delighted to have Regina Nixon, executive director of the Phoenix Conservatory of Music, alongside me. Regina joins me to give us a window into her background and some rare perspective on the organization as well.
Cited below for your convenience are timestamps that will direct you to various points in the video. Feel free to watch the full message or use these timestamps to browse specific topics at your leisure:
0:34—About Regina: her background, the Phoenix Conservatory of Music’s mission, and the “why” of her role
3:08—How the organization serves students from at-risk, poverty-stricken areas through after-school programming
3:40—Discussing the array of music classes the organization offers to help students prepare for college auditions and set them up for long-term success
5:10—Why the college prep program’s positive impact on students isn’t necessarily reserved for those pursuing music
6:58—What you can do to help support the organization through donations or volunteering
8:52—How you can contact and learn more about the Phoenix Conservatory of Music
9:50—Listing some student performances you can attend
If you’d like any additional information regarding this wonderful organization, please give me a call at 652-252-4191. And, as always, be sure to call me for help with any and all of your real estate needs as well.
Act One is a phenomenal local nonprofit foundation that serves to engage Title 1 students with the arts, and I recently sat down with president and CEO Geri Wright to discuss how (and why) they do this.
Geri Wright, the president and CEO of the Act One Foundation, has joined us today to discuss how this nonprofit organization benefits local children.
In Geri’s words, Act One’s primary function is to “provide access to the arts for students in Title 1 schools.” She calls this their signature program.
Act One is still quite young, having only started in 2012, but has already achieved great things. In their very first year, they took over 6,000 Title 1 students on a field trip. This is amazing in and of itself, but the growth they’ve seen since then is even more impressive. Right now, Act One is set to send over 47,000 students from across the Valley on an arts-related field trip.
What Geri and the other hardworking individuals involved with Act One are doing is so crucial, because the arts definitely suffer when budget cuts are made in schools. And while a lot of other outreach programs may have the capacity to invite students to performances, they lack the ability to transport these students to and from venues. Act One, meanwhile, fulfills this need.
Geri has done fundraising work in the Valley for 25 years now, spending the bulk of that time as the Heard Museum’s chief development officer. She also spent time working with the American Red Cross and the Arizona Theater company.
Art education should be part of every child’s education, and with Title 1 schools, this is not consistently the case.
But of all the work Geri has done giving back to our community, her involvement with Act One is something she finds particularly exciting. She loves to engage students and to watch them discover possibilities they never knew existed. “It’s a life experience [for these students],” says Geri of the field trips sponsored by Act One.
Not only do these experiences open students up to new interests and passions, but they also offer teachers something to draw upon later during lessons in the classroom.
In terms of their actual process, there are four steps Act One takes to make these trips possible: They pay the art organization for tickets, they pay for the students’ transportation, they provide teaching guides to complement the art organization’s guides, and they provide educational resources for teachers to draw upon later in their classrooms. And, when the budget allows for it, Act One also provides books for the teachers’ classrooms to supplement the experience.
The bottom line, according to Geri, is that “art education should be part of every child’s education, and with Title 1 schools, this is not consistently the case.”
Of course, they are always happy to receive help from people who believe in their cause and want to get involved. The best way to reach out for more information is by visiting their website: www.act1az.org. Monetary donations are always greatly appreciated, but other forms of involvement are also more than welcome.
If you are a teacher or are involved in an arts organization, you should absolutely get in touch with Geri and the other great people at Act One.
As always, if you have any other questions about today’s topic, or about any of your real estate needs, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
There are many great Phoenix Area homes for sale.Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluationso you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 602-252-4191 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.
Today, we speak with Becky Bell Ballard, the Artistic and Executive Director, of Rosie's House, a music academy for children!
Becky, can you tell us about yourself, the history of your organization, its mission, and how people can get involved?
"I like to tell our students here at Rosie's house to remember the three B's: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. That's how they remember my name! I'm an educator and a musician. I studied music education at Arizona State University and the first instrument I played was the piano. When I was in third grade growing up in Chicago, I had the opportunity to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and I fell in love with the shiny, round horn in the back of the orchestra - I didn't even know what it was at the time. I eventually learned it was a French horn, ended up picking it up in the fourth grade, and have been playing it since."
How long have you been with the organization?
"I've been with Rosie's house for seven years. Previously, I served as Education and Community Engagement Manager with the Phoenix Symphony, so I've always been involved with youth, education, and trying to make our community vibrant through music education. I'm the Artistic and Executive Director with Rosie's House and in that world my main function is to oversee our faculty members, we have 21 part-time staff and a some full-time staff as well. We are a local success story as well as one of the largest free music academies nationwide. The purpose of our organization is to provide access to music education to students in low income families. As we bring students in, we provide them with free after school music instruction, a loan instrument, mentorship, and performance opportunities."
How long has Rosie's house been in existence?
"We were founded 19 years ago, so we will actually be celebrating our 20-year anniversary in March of 2016. Our founding story is really remarkable and inspiring. We were founded by Rosie, hence the name, in a small house in the Oakland neighborhood of Phoenix, which is a very economically depressed area of town. Rosie and her husband, Woody, made that home a safe place for neighborhood children to come after school and be involved in music. We started with 40 students coming after school to that small little house to have music lessons and cookies and milk, as a safe place for kids to meet after school."
I know you went from there to a church in South Phoenix, and you've been here for six or seven years now.
"Right. Rosie's House has been on the campus of Central United Methodist Church since 2006, which is about nine years."
Some of your students have been very successful. Where have some of your best students moved on to?
"That is one of the most rewarding parts of my job: keeping in touching with alumni students and seeing their success and their impact in the community. We just recently had one of our alums come back and talk to us about his path and his story. He graduated in 2004 and went on to pursue his love of the saxophone at U of A. He is now serving in his first year as the music director at the Rosa Linda Elementary School in the Roosevelt District in South Phoenix. So, he came back to his community to provide youth just like him with music. He's one of our success stories, and we've had a lot of students who have gone on to study music."
This is only a small part of my long conversation with Becky! If you want to hear more about Rosie's House and the amazing things they are doing in our community, watch the video above!
There are many great Phoenix Area homes for sale.Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You
may also call me at 602-252-4191 for a FREE home buying or selling
consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.
Today we're here with Jana Smith, the Executive Director of the Phoenix Community Toolbank.This is a great organization that lends tools to other charitable organizations, schools, non-profits, or neighborhood associations for mission-related impact.
The Phoenix Community Toolbank is part of a national Toolbank organization.The concept of Toolbanks has been around for 25 years. A group of churches in Atlanta had folks get together and put their tools in a shared space so more people had access to them. In 2008, a parent company formed with the goal to replicate Toolbanks throughout the United States.
An interesting aspect of the Toolbank model is that Toolbank will not open in a city that doesn't want or support it.First we gauge if there is interest and support in a community. We first started looking at Phoenix in 2011, and when it was determined that there was a community need, we started fundraising to open one in 2013.
At the Phoenix Community Toolbank,we have a 10,000 square foot warehouse filled with everything from power tools to rakes.To qualify to borrow tools from Toolbank, you simply need charitable intent. If you are out there doing good work, Toolbank will work with you so you can use their tools.
Toolbank is located at 3801 East Alioney Street.Although their business hours are 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday, Jana says they will work with organizations who need to pick up tools on the weekend. If you have any questions, you can contact Toolbank at (602) 692-2473, or visit http://www.phoenixtoolbank.org/for more information.
As always, if you have any real estate questions, please do not hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!
There are many great Phoenix Area homes for sale.Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You
may also call me at 602-252-4191 for a FREE home buying or selling
consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.
Today we are joined by Richie Ressel, the co-founder of Heroes for Students, a local non-profit organization working to inspire and empower children in Phoenix. First we’ll tell you a little about Richie and his background, and how his organization is working to brighten our future.
Richie has been in education for 5 years and was a teacher in the classroom for three of them while pursuing his master’s degree in elementary education. He noticed a big divide between the community and his classroom, so he wanted to bridge that gap. He saw his students weren’t benefitting from the community, so that’s when he decided to start bringing in guest speakers to his classroom.
One particular guest speaker he brought in was a bi-lingual female doctor. Richie recalls a young girl being so inspired by this speaker and her message, that she ended up raising over $1000 for children with cancer.
Seeing this kind of inspiration occur while continuing to see the gap between the students and the community widen, Richie and his co-founder decided to put together an organization that would have a database of guest speakers for people who want to rally around their local schools. So far, they have been able to get over 100 guest speakers in classrooms, impacting over 500 students.
In addition to working on bringing more guest speakers into the classroom, they are also planning some community events as well. Richie wants to close that gap between the high-performing and low-performing schools by inspiring and empowering his students to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them. It’s not just about what they learn in the classroom, it’s about what they learn outside of it as well.
If you have any questions for Richie about Heroes for Students, feel free to give him a call at (760)703-3404 or visit the organization’s website online here. If you have any real estate questions, you can obviously contact us and we will be with you shortly.
There are many great Phoenix Area homes for sale.Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You
may also call me at 602-252-4191 for a FREE home buying or selling
consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.
Today I have the honor and the privilege to be sitting with Andre St. Pierre. He is a graduate of the Valley Leadership class, and Arizona 2030 was a project that he started in order to complete the class.
His team had lots of different issues and ideas that they wanted to solve, so Arizona 2030 (www.Arizona2030.org) gave them a platform for them to solve their individual problems while also allowing people to pursue their other goals.
Community organizations, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and members of the community can all come together and tackle these goals together. They have partnered with the Center for the Future of Arizona in order to merge mutual ideas and accomplish shared goals.
Some of the goals set forth by Arizona 2030 include:
Connecting organizations, businesses, and individuals who are working toward similar objectives.
Providing an online platform for organizations to share their vision, short and long-term strategies, and opportunities for others to engage.
Sharing creative goals and new ideas to inspire Arizonans.
Providing resources to democratize access to information, knowledge banks, and human capital.
Creating an online venue to foster community dialogues, civic engagement, and economic development.
Continuously evolve and expand to provide new ways to track your pledge progress and engage with the community.
Becoming a statewide resource for all Arizonans committed to creating the Arizona we want.
Arizona 2030 is a non-partisan organization that aims to make Arizona stand out as a place that people want to live and grow.
If you would like to learn more about Arizona 2030, you can visit www.Arizona2030.org.
We encourage you to investigate this wonderful organization and take the pledge!
There are many great Phoenix Area homes for sale.Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You
may also call me at 602-252-4191 for a FREE home buying or selling
consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.
Today we're here with Tom Egan from the Foundation for
Senior Living. Tom has been in non-profit management for about 20 years and
recently started working with this 40-year-old establishment.
The Foundation for Senior Living provides a continuum of
services for seniors, adults with disabilities, and caregivers. There are
multiple facilities: 21 different affordable housing complexes, 17 group homes,
and 3 adult day health centers. The Foundation offers assistance to people in
their own homes in order to help aging Baby Boomers maintain their
independence.
Tom and his team work with you to identify the correct
service for your situation. Home care is a service that generally helps someone
maintain their independence by providing housekeeping services. Home health
also provides medical assistance to people living in their own homes.
The adult day health centers offer the caregivers a respite,
the person gets a change of environment, and there is medical support staff to
assist them.
It's important to keep in mind that while it's called the
Foundation for Senior Living, they also assist adults with disabilities.
The Foundation for Senior Living's main offices is located
at 1201 E Thomas Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85014. If you have any questions for Tom or
are interested in their services, you can call 602-285-1800, or visit their
website, www.fsl.org.
As always, if you have any questions for me, give me a call
or send me an email. We'd be happy to help you!
