Kennedy 4th & 5th graders practice their salsa steps.
Reaching more youth through collaboration
On April 12, the Berklee College of Music Student Salsa Ensemble played before a packed assembly at the J.K. Kennedy Elementary School in Jamaica Plain. Children and teachers were bouncing in their seats and dancing in the aisles. Twenty minutes before the end of the performance, children were invited up onstage to join in the performance. The elementary school students enthusiastically joined in with the college ensemble as drummers, keyboard players and singers. And young dancers – 4th & 5th graders trained through the Hyde Square Task Force’s new Kennedy In-School Dance Initiative – showed off their newly-acquired salsa footwork.
This energetic scene – “controlled chaos” to any adults in the room – is the result of a new collaboration with Berklee College of Music, along with a new phase in a long-standing partnership between the Hyde Square Task Force and the John F. Kennedy Elementary School. The partnership between HSTF and the Kennedy which began over 15 years ago when HSTF began its first youth tutoring programs after school hours at the Kennedy.
Partnerships such as these drive many of HSTF’s successful youth development programs: With the help of local businesses we have been able to create unique educational models, like the Youth Entrepreneurship Clubs. In collaboration with local health centers, we have been able to sustain our Health Careers Ambassadors Program and raise awareness on health issues in our community. In 2006, HSTF built on our strengths in the arts and humanities, partnering with the Museum of Fine Arts and Berklee College of Music to promote cultural literacy and celebrate diversity through artistic murals, dance performances, and music.
Partnerships such as these are becoming increasingly important as HSTF grows, expanding existing initiatives and creating new ones, in our on-going efforts to engage more youth from our neighborhood and across Boston through our high-intensity youth and community development programs.
Click here to see a list of HSTF’s current partnerships.
For more information on our Kennedy In-School Dance Initiative and HSTF's expanding arts collaborations, please call Brenda at x323 or email her at brenda@hydesquare.org.