In 2023, Girls Choral Academy was awarded a three-year $90,000 to support its neighborhood choirs and summer programming. Hear from executive director Lisa Knight as she shares her insights into this work.
Name and role with the organization.
Lisa Knight – Executive Director
Brief overview of your organization and what you do.
Our organization mentors girls in 1st-12th grade using choral music. We teach social-emotional learning, team building skills, and promote self-confidence and leadership skills all while learning how to read and learn music and performance.
Please provide an overview of GCA’s neighborhood choirs and summer programming. How did the programs come to be and what needs do they serve?
Our programs began 29 years ago with in-school classes and then transformed into afterschool programming. We have a downtown campus which serves kids from all over Kent County. We also have Neighborhood Choir Programs, which are mainly afterschool in their homeschool at nine different locations across the community. In our neighborhood schools, we work with families who may not be able to afford traditional music programs such as this, we provide opportunity for the kids to go to places they may not have been to, to explore not only our community but also the world at large through travel experiences.
What are its primary goals?
To build musical pedagogy, foster community, build soft skills, and instill leadership.
What does each program look like for youth participants?
Kids go into rehearsal and have time to build community through circles which incorporate an opportunity for them to share out and learn more about those who is in class with them. They get their music and go through warm up exercises, some of our classes now engage in body movement and some choreography. They make plans for upcoming events and then learn how to sing. They talk about the importance of learning as a group and how they can support each other as a team and build each other up.
How are participants supported throughout the program?
We not only support the child through constant affirmation, but the whole family unit if there are needs, they have an open lin
e to our whole team, and we try to connect them with resources in the community, so no one has to feel left out.
How has student/community voice shaped the program over time?
We talk to our groups and engage them in musical selections and allow them to be the speakers at our concerts, host during events, and use their expression in how we present our programming. We have created more opportunities for community to be engaged with GCA through our summer programming, which is open for families with girls in 3rd through 5th grade, for a FREE 6-week experience, that includes music, movement, writing, and career exploration.
What work have you engaged in so far, and what work do you hope to complete through the remainder of the grant period?
We have now completed two years of FREE summer camp experiences, and it has grown from year to year. We have our families who have gone from first-time engagement in summer to enrollment in one of our school year programs. Parents have been asking for a full day program for summer because of the challenges of leaving work to pick a child up. We had one parent who stayed with us every day, all summer long and some of the experiences were things she wished she had done as a child and an immigrant. This parent went on every field trip and was amazed at what she learned through our program. We are hoping to add some additional funding so that we can try to expand our time in 2026 so we can accommodate more children. Having that learning time during the summer is vital for our youth.
What do you hope is the lasting impact of the program for both students and the community?
To build community, learn about career opportunities and how it can tie into their musical learning, how to build relationships and friendships, and also learn how their brain works.
What have you learned and what might you share with other organizations who similarly provide spaces of belonging for youth?
We always have to focus on the whole family needs, because it is hard for a student to learn when there are family issues. Community partnerships go a long way. Never assume what our youth may or may not have been exposed to, we need to help them dream of what can be!
How do GCA’s neighborhood choirs and summer programming support the Steelcase Foundation’s overarching mission of cultivating communities where children and their families can flourish?
We work to make sure we are accessible for our families, so our location was vital as we were located right off the busline and not even a block away so people could drop their children off. We built strong relationships with parents to be able to transport their children to different locations. Building lasting relationships was critical, as many families didn’t know who we were, so we worked hard to make sure they could trust us with their child. Also making sure our kids had something to eat and feeding them lunch was important, because sometimes for families that is an extra cost during summer. Building families is important and we welcomed parents to stay in the program and watch what we did, they came on field trips and actually were exposed to things they had never seen before.
Is there anything else you’d like to lift-up about this work?
Many of our families are either single parent or have that extra help from neighbors and grandparents. No matter who was dropping off or picking up a child we made sure they were welcomed, so much so that they actually donated to the program. Connecting and partnering with our community was such a huge help especially financially for us to do some things we wanted to do. Steelcase Foundation believed in a dream and helped us make that dream happen for so many families.