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"How are you able to continue to teach so many kids during the pandemic?!" The answer lies with our grassroots partners (think mom-and-pop corner store equivalent of non-profits) led by selfless individuals who care for their neighbors as they care for their own families, like the one you will read about in this newsletter. I am constantly amazed at how many of you choose to invest in us. This is love in action, and I am thankful. Much blessing to all of you in this season of giving!
Jee-Hoon Krska, Executive Director
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Fearless Collaboration Brings Kids and Communities Together
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Two organizations, one from the suburbs and one from the city, joined forces over the summer to bring arts instruction to children in Newark. But the surprise “winners” of this collaboration are the high school volunteers who support the two organizations, as well as the children who discovered new talents and interests and a deeper connection to their community.
“This is a case of one plus one equals 20.” That is how Dr. Marcia E. Heard, the president and co-founder of ACCA Creates!, describes her collaboration with Dr. Jee-Hoon Krska, founder and executive director of Keys 2 Success.
Both organizations provide arts education to school children in Newark. Keys 2 Success focuses on classical piano instruction, primarily through several public schools. ACCA Creates! (formerly called Ivy Hill Vailsburg Center for Arts, Culture and Community Activism) offers classes in visual arts, theater, vocal music, dance and community activism. It teaches young people how to “engage in the art of conversation” to become active members of a community, able to advocate for themselves and the things they care about, Dr. Heard explains.
The two leaders met at various arts- and education-focused conferences in 2019, and their collaboration began in conversation: exchanging points of view, alerting each other to grant opportunities and brainstorming through challenges. In early 2020, Dr. Krska invited Dr. Heard to teach dance to some of her younger students. The children loved it.
The collaboration expanded this past summer, when Dr. Heard asked Dr. Krska if she would teach some piano classes during the summer session. “When I could tell children and their parents, ‘we’re going to offer piano instruction this summer,’ their eyes would light up,” Dr. Heard said. “They were so excited to have the chance--and that came from me and Jee-Hoon working together.”
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“This kind of collaboration is unusual in the nonprofit, urban-centered world,” Dr. Krska noted. More often, she said, nonprofits occupying similar spaces--in this case, arts programs for urban children and youth--find themselves competing for funding, space, volunteers, and paid staff. “The children are the ones who suffer,” she said.
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But these two women were fearless, the word Dr. Heard used to describe their relationship as leaders. “Not courageous, which is different. We were fearless.” That spirit came from mutual trust, and it generated entirely new interactions that benefit not only their students but also--to their surprise--their high school volunteers.
Many of the teen volunteers for Keys 2 Success are from suburban neighborhoods such as Summit, Westfield, Scotch Plains and New Providence, where the organization resides. K2S also has volunteers and teen staff members from Elizabeth, Plainfield and elsewhere. ACCA Creates! draws volunteers and summer students from various neighborhoods in Newark. The students come from different environments and bring different strengths and expectations. But since the summer, when Dr. Heard and Dr. Krska brought the two groups together to work collaboratively, the students have discovered a larger, richer and more diverse world.
“During my time with ACCA Creates! I’ve learned that a sense of community is very important. I have opened up to meeting new people from different places and just understanding new ideas,” said a 15-year-old named Kasia.
Emely, a member of the K2S high school fund-raising team who lives in Elizabeth, expressed a similar view about joining forces with ACCA Creates!: “Our weekly zoom meetings have doubled in size and our relationships have done the same. We cheer each other on! Even though we are all from different towns and have different backgrounds, it feels like we’ve created our own community within each other.”
The concept of “creating our own community” represents a growing shift in mindset regarding volunteering and philanthropy, which Dr. Heard and Dr. Krska have pursued intuitively. The traditional model begins with an “us/them” relationship in which the privileged give help to those in need, but the communities remain separate and the benefits flow in one direction. In contrast, the newer model--which both leaders embrace--begins with the assumption of a shared community in which “we” all help each other, and everyone benefits equally.
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As Ashley, a K2S teen staff member from Plainfield, put it, “Everyone--in a beautiful way--is in the same bucket. And nothing, no matter the difference, can change that. So even just a little collaboration, a little conversation, could spur a change and even friendship between people of all origins.”
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As Ashley, a K2S teen staff member from Plainfield, put it, “Everyone--in a beautiful way--is in the same bucket. And nothing, no matter the difference, can change that. So even just a little collaboration, a little conversation, could spur a change and even friendship between people of all origins.”
Dr. Krska said, “Our collaboration created something that didn’t exist before: this whole layer of interns creating a community, teaching each other about life and the business of philanthropy . We just created something brand new. My volunteers are teaching hers how to do certain things, and it comes back: Marcia’s volunteers are writing stories and opening up the world.”
Now, the women are planning to bring the high school volunteers together “in an unofficial capacity so they have an opportunity to grow a relationship,” Dr. Heard said. “Some of them may become friends for life. We don’t know. But if we give them the opportunity to sit together and talk with one another, share iced tea and coffee cake, they get to know each other in a different way, on a deeper and more personal level.”
Those personal connections are already happening and are likely to continue. Wesley, a junior from Warren, observed, “In the relatively short time I have volunteered at K2S, I have been able to collaborate at a much more personal level with other students with completely different backgrounds and perspectives. That has impacted my own perspectives of community and volunteering.”
Alondra, a K2S teen staff member from Elizabeth, sees it this way: “On Saturday’s there’s this shared sentiment of coming together to work for both Keys and ACCA Creates!
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Instead of waking up late and doing our own thing, I feel the more we work together, our values are all blending since we’re all adopting each other’s ideas and perspectives. It reminds me of the way that rivers and streams all end up in the same ocean, the ocean being our rich Saturday meetings.”
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Dr. Heard and Dr. Krska are quick to point out that they, too, have benefitted individually from the collaboration. For example, Dr. Heard is explicit with her students about why being able to express themselves and their concerns is important to their success. Dr. Krska has been “less intentional” with her students about how music allows them to express themselves and be heard. “I see the power of what Marcia is doing and I would love to start doing that with our Keys kids.”
The two leaders are committed to continuing the collaboration. “We didn’t come together with a specific goal in mind,” Dr. Heard said. “We just trusted each other and allowed things to open up. That’s what I mean by fearless.”
Dr. Krska concurs. “I didn’t expect it. I didn’t see it coming,” she said of the teen volunteer group. “There’s something good about collaboration like that. I’m blown away by it, and I really want more people involved. We’re connecting the teens now — what if we brought adults together?” It’s in relationships that the magic happens.”
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"Keys has brought so many kids together through music and friendships. Keys 2 Success is actually no longer just an organization to me. It's a very big family of loving and incredibly talented people."
- Darasimi Ajayi, 8th grade
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Another story written by K2S students
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Help us reach our year-end fundraising goal!
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