Statements
Mission
Music for Seniors connects area musicians with older adults through live and interactive music programs designed to engage, entertain and educate seniors - promoting health and wellbeing, reducing isolation and enriching the lives of all participants.
Background
In 2007, Music for Seniors was founded by Sarah Martin McConnell, Inspired by her mother, Marguerite Martin, who was blown to Nashville by Hurricane Katrina at age 84 and just 6 weeks after receiving a diagnosis of mid-stage Alzheimer's. McConnell began facilitating monthly sing-alongs for seniors at FiftyForward and witnessed transformational behavior, with the seniors "lighting up" - recalling lyrics and actively engaging in joyful music activity. So, McConnell designed and launched Music for Seniors - first as a FiftyForward arts affiliate - to connect area musicians with older adults through interactive live music programs.
In 2014, Music for Seniors began operating as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
In 2017, Music for Seniors developed its Live Performance Learning Labs programs, incorporating a crucial educational component into the organization's programming through multi-week series of group instruction.
In 2018, Sarah received a prestigious WeWork Creator Award to seed the organization's expansion into East Tennessee.
In 2019 and 2020, the COVID pandemic forced us to adapt our live music programs to maintain their engaging and interactive feel while being delivered virtually via YouTube. We were able at points during the pandemic to offer outside "courtyard concerts" as well.
In 2021 and now into 2022, as barriers to in-person programs were lifted, we have seen a surge in demand for our live music programming, exceeding pre-pandemic volumes.
In 2022, we developed a strategic plan and a succession plan at the Board and staff level to prepare for our founder, Sarah Martin McConnell, to pursue her next professional dream. With Lucia Folk, Board Chair experienced in founder transitions, and Rob Jack as Interim Executive Director, we focused on stability and continuity through this transition and plan to conduct a search for a permanent Executive Director in 2024.
In 2023, we added Natalie Thomas as Director of Development and Community Engagement to strengthen our community connectivity and diversify and grow our funding sources - expanding our reach and impact and ensuring the long-term sustainability of our programming.
Impact
We currently serve senior communities in a 45 mile radius around Nashville, in 9 Middle Tennessee counties: Cheatham, Davidson, Maury, Montgomery, Robertson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson, Wilson. We are also growing our ability to serve senior communities in Knox and Blount counties in East Tennessee.
In our last fiscal year (July 2022 - June 2023), we delivered 1,533 live music programs to 42,662 older adults and youth in 132 unique locations facilitated by 91 talented Musician Partners, each comprising 332 programs days a year.
We will have produced 20 concerts as part of our FREE Daytime Concert Series - 10 in Middle Tennessee and 10 in East Tennessee - for calendar year 2023, with an anticipated average audience size of over 100.
We will have conducted 4 Learning Labs, each lasting 6 weeks, in Hermitage, Smyrna, Goodlettsville and Bellevue for calendar year 2023.
In June 2023, we conducted our inaugural intergenerational music-making workshop in partnership with Nashville Public Library and Spoken Word, through which 20 teens taught 10 older adults to make music on laptops.
Our Fall 2022 Community Partner Survey highlighted our impact in the following areas:
>95% gave us a positive rating for Music for Seniors in Engaging with Seniors, Quality of Music, Ease of Scheduling, Dependability and Affordability
98% reported elevation of participants' mood during our programs
93% reported a noticeable increase in engagement and active participation during our programs
63% reported that participant engagement lasts an hour or more after our programs
70% reported that elevated mood and positive affect lasts an hour or more after our programs
Demographic data reported from our Community Partners on their senior populations (85% of those surveyed were willing/able to provide this data).
Race/ethnicity: 80% White, 15% Black/African American, 2% Hispanic/Latino, 2% Asian
Senior Veterans: 16%
Seniors with 1 Disability: 51%
Seniors with 2 or More Disabilities: 41%
Seniors below the poverty line / Medicaid recipients: 22%
Our mission is focused on serving older adults through curated and engaging live music programs - and the magic of our live music programs is that they are designed to connect people to one another and build community between them: between senior participants, with seniors and our Musician Partners, and more broadly with their caregivers, their friends and their families who are present. In fact, a majority of our Musician Partners are seniors themselves, sharing their talents and their compassion, and, in turn, also experiencing the same positive benefits as the senior participants they are serving.
Our goals this fiscal year are:
- Expand our network more fully across Tennessee through partnerships with county Trustee offices, East TN State University, AARP, GNRC and others.
- Strengthen our program reach and impact by building organizational capacity, growing our Musician Partner network and expanding the number of Community Partners we serve.
- Strengthen our storytelling ability, by showcasing through a variety of media the transformative power of our live music programming and the impact it has on the older adults we serve and the musicians who partner with us.
- Optimize and invest in automation capabilities for our technology platforms, including Salesforce, which will allow us to deliver more programming without adding staff and will allow us to focus our energies toward more meaningful outcomes through the work we do.
- Define ways to evolve our Outreach programs around outcome-based interventions, including partnering with academic and higher education institutions to harness existing research and develop qualitative and quantitative research projects in collaboration with them.
- Diversify and expand our strategic funding relationships (grants/sponsorships) and unrestricted funding sources so that we can grow our reach and impact more significantly.
Needs
Funding for Capacity Building During the Interim Period
1) Strengthen our program reach and impact by building organizational capacity for additional program coordination assistance in Nashville, program management assistance in East Tennessee and marketing / development assistance overall
2) Secure additional funding for the interim period as we have transitioned executive responsibilities from Sarah to Rob (as Interim Executive Director) and begin planning our search process for 2024
Musician Partner Recruiting
1) Grow our Musician Partner network so that we can offer more programming to seniors in Middle and East Tennessee, while looking to expand our footprint into other geographies
Funding for Program Expansion
1) Serve more older adults in Middle and East Tennessee through restricted and unrestricted funding sources
Collaboration to Expand Types of Outreach and Other Live Music Programs
1) Connect more fully to the older adult communities we serve and devise additional program opportunities that will meet their needs
2) Celebrate the diversity of older adults in our area by working more closely with underserved communities and by imagining ways for Music for Seniors to develop and deliver live music programs that engage, entertain and educate specific to their needs.
CEO Statement
I have taken on the important interim leadership role to honor the legacy and continue the amazing work that Sarah Martin McConnell started 16 years ago, when she saw first-hand the transformative power of live music and how it improved the quality of life for her mother with Alzheimer's. From those early days, Sarah has brought joy and purpose and a sense of community to countless thousands of older adults in Tennessee, and I believe that my purpose at this moment in time is to continue the work she started, of lighting up the lives of as many older adults through live music as we can.
What makes this work the most rewarding is hearing the impact we have directly from our program participants, their families, their caregivers and our Musician Partners. And their words and stories are the most powerful way we can tell OUR story.
As an example, one of our talented Musician Partners, William Barrow (who is also a Grammy Award-winning musician), shared this story from a program he facilitated this year:
"As I was playing and singing an old standard, I noticed a woman in the small gathering of seniors who was a little younger than the others there. She was a tall, lean, elegant, smartly dressed African-American woman, and I could tell she was enjoying herself, quietly singing the words to the songs, moving to and fro and smiling broadly. When I finished my set, she motioned me over, then held out her hand, and I gave her mine."
"She continued holding it and then said; "I need to tell you something. I just came to this place recently, because I've been having problems with my mind......with my memory, so my people made me come here. I was feeling like I was DONE-slipping away, you know? When I heard your music, something clicked for me. I remembered the tunes, and the words, and I realized I WASN'T done yet. And that is a wonderful thing!" Miss Jackie thanked me and I thanked her. I hope that experience becomes a big part of who I am, and how and why I make music."
There is little more I could even add - and I hear these stories of the transformative power and impact Music for Seniors has EVERY DAY. And every time, I am reminded of the real difference we make in the quality of life of our area's older adults and the powerful impact our work has on our Musician Partners as well.
Service Categories |
|
| Primary Category: | Arts, Culture & Humanities - Music |
| Secondary Category: | Human Services - Senior Centers/Services |
| Tertiary Category: | Public & Societal Benefit - Citizen Participation |
Areas Served
Middle Tennessee counties: Cheatham, Davidson, Maury, Montgomery, Robertson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson, Wilson
East Tennessee counties: Knox and Blount
| TN - Montgomery |
| TN - Maury |
| TN - Davidson |
| TN - Williamson |
| TN - Wilson |
| TN - Sumner |
| TN - Rutherford |
| TN - Cheatham |
| TN - Robertson |
| TN - Other |
