Youth on Record

Yor sits at the intersections of art, culture, creative Youth development (cyd), education and economic opportunity, with a focus on shifting the local music and entertainment industry into a platform that creates positive social change while helping young artists thrive. Colorado's ever-changing music ecosystem necessitates that yor steadily and consistently evaluate and enhance its portfolio of offerings. As such, innovation is a core tenant of the organization's work. To achieve its mission, yor offers four key programs: academic success: achieving improved academic outcomes through music. Yor teaches middle and high school classes led by local community musicians who are trained in yor's liberatory and engaged, anti-racist teaching pedagogy. In addition to teaching classes, yor supports its school partners with professional development trainings, as well as district-wide career pathways course development and instruction. Young creative ecosystem: increasing economic opportunity - and activating the community to support young creative artmaking: yor offers programming that increases the opportunities for and likelihood that young people will build the skills, networks, confidence, and strategies to become economically self-sufficient, while doing work that they love and are passionate about. This programming engages communities, both in person and virtually, with Youth music, Youth identities and Youth power. The underground music showcase: yor's mission-aligned investment: the underground music showcase (ums), is Colorado's largest independent music festival. The ums, now under yor's second year of co-ownership, provides young creatives and the musician community, as well as music fans, mission-aligned activities that support artist care, community care, and care for culture. With a commitment to advancing opportunities for historically marginalized artists, the mission-aligned activities of ums programming is achieving a high impact while maintaining the festival's musical integrity. M&e newco: yor's incubation project: m&e newco was launched with the goal of creating systemic change in the music industry, focusing on racial and social equity for bipoc and marginalized artists. While m&e newco achieved significant milestones, the project also faced sustainability challenges that prompted yor to reevaluate its continuation. The program was always time-limited, but organizational leadership chose to sunset it six months early during the fiscal year due to these challenges.