Building the CASE for Community: 2025-2030 Strategic Plan

Spur Local is excited to share our new five-year strategic plan. While the plan is new, it builds on the 20+ year history of our work to uplift, connect, celebrate, and support the Greater DC region. We are renewing our commitment to building the CASE for community.

The serviceberry tree above is a good representation of this work. From a tiny seed, it blossoms into a full tree that represents hope, perseverance, and renewal. It is one of the first local plants to blossom in the spring, indicating we have made it through winter. Its bloom is a small action that signals others to follow.

This work isn’t theoretical; we’re already doing it. Since 2003, our organization has raised over $70 million for local nonprofits, trained more than 30,000 nonprofit professionals, connected thousands of residents with causes they care about, and highlighted the stories of those working in our region who are often overlooked.

At Spur Local, we believe that community has the power to spark big change. As our work blossoms, we hope others will join us in this renewal and growth. Over the next five years, we will:

• Create more lasting relationships between nonprofits, community members, and each other,
• Drive more resources and awareness to local nonprofits,
• Streamline how nonprofits can find the relevant and timely resources they need, and
• Increase support for local nonprofits through storytelling and community engagement.

As one of our first steps toward centering nonprofits’ voices in all that we do, we are launching the Nonprofit Leadership Council, ensuring that Spur Local centers nonprofit partners in our advocacy and programming. We are thrilled to work with the ten local leaders on our inaugural council and appreciate the accountability and guidance they will provide our team.

By connecting community members through volunteering, learning about the region, and engaging deeply, we will strengthen civic engagement and foster a commitment to being in relationship with one another. In coalition, Spur Local will advocate for and with local nonprofits and communities. And because we invest in the people who power this region, we will serve leaders and nonprofit workers through individual and group wellness programs, leadership development, cohorts, and customized professional development so they can advance their organizations, ultimately advancing the region.

The Greater Washington region is unique, strong, vibrant, curious, and committed. Stories matter, and Spur Local will tell ours with a purpose. This plan isn’t just a direction for what we do, but a call to action for you too: a call to all those who care about this community to take small actions and plant seeds now, so that our region blossoms into the community we need and hope for tomorrow.

Our power is community. Our power is local. And, our power is growing. We invite you to join us by staying in touch and supporting our work.

Traveling Players Alumnus Performs in Hamilton National Tour

Written and originally published by Traveling Players Ensemble

Traveling Players alumnus, Kai Thomani Tshikosi, is taking to the stage on the National Tour of Hamilton, bringing Hercules Mulligan and James Madison to life. His journey from our stage to the spotlight is a testament to the training, passion, and dedication he started honing at Traveling Players. We couldn’t be more proud of Kai!

Tshikosi (right) backstage during ‘Hamilton’

Tshikosi was a student performer at Traveling Players Ensemble from 2006 – 2012, where he went on his first-ever performance tours as an actor. He spent three years as a member of the Shakespeare Troupe, an advanced audition-based summer conservatory where high school students take a full-length Shakespearean play on a pre-professional tour to theatres all over the region. As a member of Shakespeare Troupe, he played Macbeth (Macbeth), Leontes (The Winter’s Tale), and Biron (Love’s Labor’s Lost), and performed at more than a dozen theatres, including the Kimball Theatre in Williamsburg and Lime Kiln Amphitheatre. He concluded his education at Traveling Players with a performance of Othello, in which he played the title role.

Said Tshikosi about his time at Traveling Players, “Traveling Players is probably more singularly responsible for my artistic and social development than any other space I was able to grow in as a child. It incubated and deepened my love of text and poetry, taught me the meaning of ensemble, instilled in me the values of rigor and teamwork. It introduced me to friends who more than a decade on are still several of the closest people to my heart. Most importantly, it was the place I felt most safe, most able to be myself and to grow into who I was becoming.”

Tshikosi (right) in Traveling Players’ 2009 production of ‘Macbeth’

Tshikosi continued his education at Emerson College in Boston, MA. He graduated in 2015 with a BA in Acting and a concentration in Global/Post-colonial studies. He then furthered his education as a graduate student at Brown University, where he earned his MFA in Acting in 2023. At Brown, Tshikosi performed in various plays and worked as a director, educator, and fight and intimacy choreographer.

Tshikosi has been a working actor in various productions along the Northeast coast. Some recent credits include: Pirelli (Sweeney Todd) at Trinity Repertory Company, Tybalt (Romeo & Juliet) at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, and Oberon (Midsummer Night’s Dream) at Shakespeare & Company.

Currently, Tshikosi is working on the Hamilton National Tour in the Angelica cast. He will be performing as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison for the duration of the tour, which will be in Charlotte, NC from January 7 – February 2.

Other Hamilton tour locations include: Greenville, SC; Memphis, TN; Houston, TX; Austin, TX; New Orleans, LA; Chattanooga, TN; Omaha, NE; East Lansing, MI; Des Moines, IA; Cleveland, OH; Columbus, OH; Grand Rapids, MI; Ottawa, ON.

You can find more information about his credits and contact Tshikosi on his website.

Tshikosi with Traveling Players’ Founder, Jeanne E. Harrison, on the set of ‘Hamilton’

Recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts as one of 25 model “Summer Schools for the Arts,” Traveling Players is dedicated to training students in grades 2-12 in theatre. Now in its 23rd year, the company has grown from a summer camp of 18 students to a year-round theatrical community engaging 1000 students annually. Founded on belief in the imagination, wit, and honesty of teenagers, Traveling Players’ programs help students find their voice through bold ensemble-based acting classes and theatre productions that emphasize connection and community.

Students interested in training with the company can take classes year-round at the Traveling Players Studio in Tysons Corner Center, including their day camp for grades 2-5. Over the summer, they also offer sleepaway camps & residential acting conservatories based in VA’s Northern Neck, right on the Rappahannock River.

In 2020-21, Traveling Players received the ArtsFairfax Arts Education Award.

Spaces to Grow

This summer, Spur Local’s Communications and Civic Engagement Intern Kyle Reid created a short documentary highlighting two local arts & culture nonprofits, 826DC and Young Playwrights’ Theater.

826DC helps DC students strengthen their writing skills, share what matters to them, and build a lifelong relationship with writing.

Young Playwrights’ Theater inspires young people to realize the power of their own voices. YPT provides inspiration, tools, and opportunities for young and emerging artists to develop and share their stories.

DC is a place that celebrates art. This is a city of politics, but also a city of music and museums. There is a rich history of, and respect for, creatives performing at their highest. People with this artistic passion are all over the District. There’s so much artistic talent in our youth, but many of them struggle to find places to express themselves outside of the classroom. When children have a passion for the arts and the space for artistic expression, what does that look like? What does that do for them, for their communities?

“It is always important as a community for us to wrap ourselves around supporting every young person to have an education that inspires them, that motivates them, that engages them, that tells them that they matter and that there is a life of possibility out there for them,” said Robyn Lingo, Executive Director of 826DC. “There are so many things in our world that tell young people that what they have to say doesn’t matter, or that they need to fit into this box, or follow these instructions, or do the assignment in this way. I think finding your voice, for me, is more about what we as adults do to create an environment where every young person knows that they are important, that people want to hear what they have to say.”

“There are sometimes limited opportunities for young people to engage with the arts. When we look at a lot of school curricula, a lot of what students learn is focused on testing, and art seems almost like an afterthought. But there are a lot of students who are able to express themselves in ways, through writing, through performance, that they ordinarily don’t feel equipped to do in a normal school day,” said Farah Lawal Harris, Artistic Director of Young Playwrights’ Theater. “This type of work gives young people confidence in themselves. It exposes them to skill sets that they didn’t even know about, and it helps them just imagine a greater world for themselves and even what career options they could explore.”

Credits

Created by Kyle Reid and Amanda Liaw, Spur Local

Featuring (In Order of Appearance):

• Robyn Lingo, Executive Director, 826DC
• Tyonna J., Poet
• Wisdom N., Poet
• Farah Lawal Harris, Artistic Director, Young Playwrights’ Theater
• Amira Al Amin, Playwright of “Dresses that Twirl”

Additional 826DC Footage Courtesy of: Sarah Richman, Associate Director of Communications and Development, 826DC

Additional YPT Footage Courtesy of: Cody Bahn, Communications Manager, YPT

Archival Photos Courtesy of: DC Public Library

Music Courtesy of: Artlist

• Ballerino by Yehezkel Raz
• Midnight Sun by Beneath The Mountain
• Ballerina by Yehezkel Raz
• Icicles by Yehezkel Raz
• The Kid and the Bird by SEA

For five years, Spur Local has been surveying hundreds of Executive Directors at small, local nonprofits across the Greater Washington region to gain insight into their personal and organizational wellbeing. Each annual survey gives a snapshot of how community leaders experience and respond to challenging moments, from COVID-19 to major funding losses. And every survey consistently shows that these leaders, and their teams, are disproportionately vulnerable to burnout.

Our Executive Director, Matt Gayer, has written about the need to invest in our people, and how nonprofits and our sector can better support nonprofit teams to address the higher-than-average voluntary turnover rate. Since 2023, at least 1 in 2 Executive Directors expressed that they recently, were about to, or currently experienced a sense of burnout at the time of completing the survey. Beyond this figure, the qualitative responses we received were demonstrative:

• “I currently feel a sense of burnout and work diligently to hide it. Any sense of wellbeing and self-care is erased by the daily demands.”
• “There is always a crisis or urgent need no matter how hard we try to stabilize operations.”
• “I mostly choose to prioritize my staff’s wellbeing over my own.”

Over the years, it is clear that many Executive Directors continue to face the same issues of burnout, low staff retention rates, and inadequate support. Persistently, the top three barriers to these leaders accessing the care they need are a lack of time, staff capacity, and financial resources. We must acknowledge that these issues are not new. They are systemic, incur long-lasting consequences, and require all of us in the charitable sector to address.

Using general operating support to foster healthy workplace environments

Nonprofits are often expected to give their all without prioritizing their own wellbeing, providing more services with fewer resources and support.

“I think the model leads to burnout all by itself,” said Taylor Mitchell, Executive Director of The Platform of Hope. “One person is your HR person, they are development, lead staff, do budget. No one is all those things… It’s impossible for one person to do it all without getting burned out.”

When asked what type of support would most benefit their organizations, leaders highlight general operating support as key. This kind of funding is what pays for rent and salaries, and can allow them to provide their staff with mental health resources, technical training, HR training, professional development courses, and more. Knowing they can cover the basics alleviates external stressors and creates space for them to implement sustainable staffing practices that increase retention. “Overhead” is not inefficiency, but sustainable investment in the people who drive nonprofit work, allowing for organizations to foster healthy workplace environments in the long-term.

“My organization right now is not able to provide retirement benefits,” Taylor emphasized. “So, to me, it’s not just burnout but not being able to stay long-term because of this. can grow a lot and grow skills but, at the same time, I cannot expect staff to be retained when this is not sustainable long-term.”

Sustaining the work long-term through multi-year funding

Supporting staff wellbeing is especially significant for frontline nonprofit workers. “Burnout is a real issue, not just for leaders but staff,” stated Paula Fitzgerald, Executive Director of Ayuda, a nonprofit that serves over 3,000 low-income immigrants annually. “The work we do is tough. A lot of the people we work with… have experienced crime and trauma. There is a lot of need in that area but that is also a lot for staff to hold.” Increasingly, this includes the emotional duress of being targeted for working in fields like immigrant services.

“A lot of organizations have had to retract or reduce or close down completely, so you lose a lot of the infrastructure,” Paula explained. “In terms of building the future of nonprofit work, it is definitely deterring people from entering the field.”

As nonprofits keep operating in an environment where funding is decreasing immensely, the stability that multi-year grants provide becomes more apparent. In the immediate term, receiving multi-year funding eases the pressure on nonprofit leaders to raise an entire budget from scratch year after year so they can focus on strengthening their operations and deepening their impact.

“Long-term, I see [the nonprofit sector's] resilience being challenged not just financially, but with staff retention as well,” noted Tamela Aldridge, Executive Director of Only Make Believe. “Someone has got to step up. We cannot just look at nonprofits and tell them to do better. We are trying to do the best we can and we keep getting rugs pulled out from underneath us… We are human beings.”

Though the long-term effects of burnout on the sector can be incredibly damaging, a shift in thinking around how we invest in what we value can be just as restorative.

“Multi-year grants are investments in the mission, investments in the community, and investments in the organization. It isn’t about one feel-good moment, but about restructuring what it is we value and how we show up for humanity,” Tamela shared.

Trusting nonprofit leaders and workers

As a charitable sector, we must trust nonprofits to do the work and implement the organizational practices they need to sustain it. As Taylor highlighted, we cannot always see the immediate impact or progress of our work. “You have to keep going, even if you are not seeing it immediately.” Providing general operating support and multi-year funding is a tangible way to enable nonprofit leaders to improve their personal and organizational wellbeing, better retain their staff, sustain services for the communities they serve, and increase the long-term health and resilience of the nonprofit workforce.

This article was written by Leslie Aguilera, spring 2025 Communications and Civic Engagement Intern at Spur Local, in conversation with Taylor Mitchell at Platform of Hope, Paula Fitzgerald at Ayuda, and Tamela Aldridge at Only Make Believe. It was edited by Amanda Liaw, Spur Local’s Communications and Marketing Director.

A Simple Conversation Can Lead to Something Meaningful
Here’s how Spur Local inspires generosity in the DMV
Originally published by GivingTuesday

Generosity is all around us and shows up in a number of ways.

It’s holding the door for the person behind you, paying for someone’s coffee, or sending a thank-you note to a peer who inspired you. It’s these, at times seemingly simple, everyday acts of kindness that are fueling positive change in America’s capital city, Washington, D.C.

That’s what we’re hearing from local GivingTuesday leader Amanda Liaw, who serves as the Communications and Marketing Director at Spur Local, an organization that spearheads campaigns throughout the year to generate support for local nonprofits. Most recently, Spur Local introduced an all-new day of giving called, Give Greater D.C., that inspired people in the DMV area to give back. The campaign was met with an incredible amount of love resulting in over $300,000 raised to support 154 local nonprofits!

We wanted to know how Amanda and the Spur Local team pulled it off, so we sat down to chat through their strategy. We hope this conversation will spark ideas for your future generosity campaigns like the one you have coming up on Tuesday, December 2. (Hint: that’s GivingTuesday 2025!)

When did you first hear about GivingTuesday and what was your initial reaction?

I first heard about GivingTuesday as a marketing and development associate at a small local nonprofit, one of Spur Local’s nonprofit partners, where I first began working in this sector. I ran its GivingTuesday fundraiser for two years as part of Spur Local’s annual Give Local Together campaign, before joining Spur Local. It was a great way to get creative with our fundraising and reach our audience in new ways. I tested storytelling themes, different visual aesthetics, and more 1:1 methods of engaging with people on social media.

What advice would you give to nonprofit teams who want to plan a GivingTuesday campaign?

GivingTuesday is an opportunity to try one new thing, not everything at once! As a capacity builder, we know that nonprofit advice around campaigns like GivingTuesday can feel overwhelming. When we speak with small nonprofit teams that often plan GivingTuesday campaigns with no budget, a big challenge we see is that there are too many potential strategies and choices.

Our advice: pick one goal, test one new tactic, and see what happens! Based on what you learn, you can continue to build and deepen your campaign in future years.

In addition to your GivingTuesday campaign, “Give Local Together,” you hosted a campaign earlier this spring called, “Give Greater DC.” How did it go?

This was the first Give Greater DC day and it was a resounding success! The campaign raised more than $300,000 for 154 local nonprofits. Many of these were small donations, averaging around $130, from over 1,000 unique donors.

Spur Local created this day to celebrate the strength of our local communities here in Greater Washington during a challenging time for the region. Nonprofits continue to serve residents and advocate for change every day, and it was inspiring to see the amount of love and support that poured back into our nonprofit workers and leaders on this day.

One of my favorite parts of the campaign was seeing donors leave comments with their gifts. One donor wrote to a nonprofit: “Thank you for fighting. Thank you for caring. Thank you for inspiring.”

Any lessons learned from Give Greater DC or Give Local Together?

Tell the everyday stories and meet people where they are.

We have found regional campaigns to be a wonderful vehicle to highlight community members–including nonprofit staff, volunteers, local leaders, and more–who are creating positive change in their workplaces and neighborhoods. People connect with these hyper-local stories that we don’t often hear about.

For one-day campaigns like Give Greater DC or GivingTuesday, we’ve also found it helpful to partner with groups that are already part of people’s daily routines. This can look like partnering with companies to encourage their employees to participate during the work day or partnering with local businesses to display flyers and reach shoppers in their stores.

How does data help your team make decisions and measure success? (Where do you get your data from?)

We send a post-campaign feedback survey to every participating nonprofit and typically get a great response rate of about 30%. After closing our campaign’s donation portal, CauseVox, we also dive into the data by asking questions like:

• How many unique donors gave to the campaign?
• How many nonprofits reached their fundraising goals?
• How much did peer fundraisers raise?
• What was the average donation amount?
• How much was raised before, during, and after the day of the campaign?

And so on! Our team uses feedback from nonprofit partners to improve every future campaign, whether that’s working with CauseVox to develop additional customizations on the campaign site or creating more personalized nonprofit resources in-house.

We also report out trends in the donation data we see, so that nonprofits can make their future decisions based on what other organizations found challenging or successful. For example, nonprofits can use our data to tweak their future fundraising goal amount depending on the average goal amount across all participating organizations. Nonprofits can also explore the average amount raised across organizations of a similar budget size or issue area.

Do you have a favorite success story from Give Greater DC or Give Local Together?

One of my favorite stories is about a relationship that I formed with a local civic group. I initially reached out to them to partner on Give Local Together a few years ago, but we ended up spending the majority of our collaboration on creating group volunteer opportunities with several of our nonprofit partners across the year.

That experience developed a new connection between the civic group and one of our nonprofits, who they now support in a greater way because of how meaningful the volunteer experience was.

I consider this type of ongoing, long-term relationship-building as the greatest success that a campaign can have, even if (or especially if) the collaboration itself extends beyond the campaign.

What’s your go-to way to engage with volunteers and donors ahead of GivingTuesday?

Spur Local provides nonprofits participating in our Give Local Together campaign with ideas and sample toolkits for engaging their audiences ahead of GivingTuesday. The best way to get your volunteers and donors excited is through personal outreach.

Depending on who you’re engaging, this personalization can look different. For some, you can reach out to ask them to share their story of why they give to your organization. For others, you can ask them to join a crew of peer fundraisers to amplify the impact of your organization alongside others.

Ultimately, the go-to strategy depends on your goals, the capacity of your team, and knowing how to meet your volunteers and donors where they are.

We know it’s several months away, but what can we expect for GivingTuesday 2025 on Dec. 2?

Our team is already getting started planning for GivingTuesday 2025! Every year, our Give Local Together campaign usually draws more than 200 nonprofit partners to participate. This year, we will continue to build on our strengths and lessons learned by providing nonprofits with the resources they need to build successful campaign strategies. We’ll also focus on sharing their stories of change on-the-ground and connecting them with people who live in the region.

This past spring, Spur Local hosted two Communications and Civic Engagement interns from the UCDC program, including Blanca Melchor. Here, Blanca shares her internship experience.

Where Growth Meets Purpose: My Time at Spur Local
Written by Blanca Melchor

Interning at Spur Local has been one of the most transformative experiences of my professional journey so far. What makes this place so special is not just the work itself–though that’s powerful–it’s how the organization creates a space where you can grow, explore, stumble, and rise at a pace that honors your well-being.

Spur Local offers something that’s rare, especially for young people just entering the professional world: the chance to step into the realm of corporate life–managing deadlines, juggling communications, being part of campaigns and real deliverables–but without the burnout that too often comes with it. The pace here is intentional. You’re allowed to take breaks. You’re encouraged to check in with yourself. And most importantly, you’re reminded that your voice and your health matter just as much as your productivity.

And yet, that doesn’t mean the work is any less impactful. In fact, it’s the opposite. Every single day, I got to be part of work that’s truly trying to change the world–starting at the local level. The nonprofits Spur Local partners with are doing extraordinary work: helping refugee families find housing, providing arts education in underfunded schools, offering legal aid to those who can’t afford it, feeding seniors, mentoring students, and building economic power in marginalized communities. It’s easy to assume that local work only has local impact, but this experience shattered that notion for me. What I’ve learned is that local work is national work. It’s global work. These small but mighty actions spark change that ripples across cities, states, and even countries. They create pathways that others can follow. They become blueprints for equity and justice.

Working here helped me see how much is happening behind the scenes–how many people are out there, fighting every day for things we often take for granted: safety, opportunity, dignity, access. I got to witness and uplift stories that rarely make the headlines but hold deep meaning and power. These are the kinds of stories that change perspectives, that humanize policies, that move people to act.

Through all of this, I was surrounded by a team that really embodied what it means to support and uplift one another. When I struggled, they were patient. When I had an idea, they listened. When I needed guidance, they offered it. That kind of environment gave me the courage to take initiative and trust myself more. It gave me the room to lead–and the safety to learn when I didn’t have all the answers.

This internship taught me that professional development doesn’t have to come at the cost of personal care. That the best work happens when you’re seen as a whole person, not just a role. And that small teams, doing intentional work, can move mountains.

And that truly profound, movement-building work often comes from the places you least expect–not only massive organizations with endless resources, but also small, focused teams driven by purpose and heart. Spur Local has never strayed from its values. Here, the mission stays rooted in community, the work remains people-centered, and the impact is felt far beyond what their size might suggest.

Spur Local didn’t just teach me skills–it reshaped how I see myself, my community, and my responsibility to the world around me. I’ll carry that with me wherever I go next.

Announcing Spur Local’s 2025 Nonprofit Class

Spur Local (formerly the Catalogue for Philanthropy) is excited to announce the 143 nonprofits in our 2025 class, our 23rd class of local nonprofits!

This has been a challenging and uncertain year for many. Yet, local nonprofits continue to prove our resilience as a region. This year, Spur Local received a record number of nonprofit applications to join our network. We know the need for community is high.

The 143 organizations in our 2025 class were chosen for their critical local impact by some 150 volunteers who live and work in the region, many of whom know these nonprofits as their neighbors. After our volunteer community advocates read their applications, the Spur Local team conducted financial reviews and site visits.

As a Spur Local nonprofit partner, each of them will now have access to capacity-building support to strengthen their organizations, network-building opportunities to foster relationships across our local sector, and professional development resources to grow as nonprofit leaders. Every partner in our network gains this access at no cost for four years.

These nonprofits care for our young and elderly residents, welcome our immigrant newcomers, keep our rivers clean, and support our local artists. You may know several of them as the theater or museum down the street, the people who grow food in the garden around your block, or the nursery where you pick up native plants. The work they do matters now and for our long-term futures. Their stories are powerful and show a vision for our region that is only possible when our communities come together.

We look forward to highlighting their vital work and impact in our flagship print catalog and its digital companion, on our website, and through emails, social media, media partnerships, and more. Today, we invite you to learn about the nonprofits in our 2025 class and join us in celebrating them by giving them a shoutout, donating, volunteering, or finding a different way to engage! We all play a part in making the Greater Washington region, our home, a better place for everyone.

86 of these nonprofits will be featured in Spur Local’s annual print and digital catalog. Add your name to our mailing list to receive a free copy when it is released in November. And save the date to meet these organizations in person at our annual Community Changemakers event on November 5, 2025, at Hook Hall in NW DC.

Give Greater DC Day: 150+ Local Nonprofits to Celebrate the DMV on May 28th

On May 28th, Spur Local is hosting the region’s first Give Greater DC day to celebrate people making a meaningful difference for local communities and neighborhoods in the DMV.

Amid regional and national uncertainty, local organizations play a major role in educating our children, creating art that inspires us, cleaning our rivers, feeding those who lack access to healthy food, and so much more. They are creating change every day, and meeting needs that continue to increase. On May 28th, over 150 local nonprofits will engage the community to drive support for their critical work.

“We know the DMV is strong, and even stronger when we come together,” said Matt Gayer, Executive Director of Spur Local. “Give Greater DC is not just a day for raising funds. We want everyone to show up and use their voice to let nonprofits, and our whole region, know that people care.”

Residents can visit GiveGreaterDC.org to hear stories about what these organizations are doing in our communities right now, and to share their support. This May 28th, we ask that you celebrate our region, show up for each other, and give local.

About Spur Local

At Spur Local, we are building the CASE for community — creating connections, advancing advocacy, strengthening capacity, and elevating awareness to support the DMV. As the region’s only locally-focused guide to giving, we believe in the power of small nonprofits to spark big change together. Since 2003, Spur Local has raised more than $65 million from thousands of supporters for its network of over 500 critical local nonprofits. Through its capacity-building programs, Spur Local has trained 30,000+ nonprofit professionals, strengthening their skills as individuals and their relationships as organizations.

Story Tapestries Shows that Art is Brain Magic!

Written by Jamie Cowan, Early Childhood Program Director, and originally published on Story Tapestries

Peek into an early childhood classroom at any given moment you’re likely to find music and movement. You’ll probably see educators singing classic children’s songs and nursery rhymes like BINGO or The Itsy Bitsy Spider. We all do it, but do you know why we do this? What magical power do these bring to the classroom that makes us use them week after week and year after year?

The magical power is art.

Art is brain magic!

As technology improves and we learn more and more about the brain, we can see exactly how art not only supports learning, but it is learning.

Take The Itsy Bitsy Spider for example. I bet it’s already playing out in your head!

The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.

Down came the rain and washed the spider out!

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain,

And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

Rhythm and Rhyme

You remember this song after all these years because brains love rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. They also love positive emotional connections, multi-sensory experiences, and movement — and this one hits all the marks for the brain to take notice of the activity, and save the information for later. When we sing this song, we use rhythm, rhyme, and repetition because, of course, we’ll have so much fun the first time so we will sing it twice!

Rhythm and rhyme are proven through research to be foundational skills necessary for learning to read. When we sing this with children we hear the song (auditory music) and move our hands to act out the story of the spider (kinesthetic, drama.) By acting out the song lyrics we enhance vocabulary and comprehension, which is valuable for speaking at a young age and later for reading and writing. When we sing this song with children they feel a positive emotional connection, both to the spider who tries again and succeeds, and to the adult they are joyfully singing with.

Children engaged in singing about the itsy bitsy spider learn a valuable social-emotional lesson through the story of resilience, one they can use later to help them persevere when playtime presents challenges. That’s a lot of skill development for a quick song!

“Art in the classroom not only spurs creativity, it also inspires learning.” — Mickey Hart

Sing it Together

A cautionary tale — Before you choose to watch a video of the song instead of sitting and singing together, consider this: When you sing and act this out together the part of the brain that needs to imagine things to understand them (sometimes called visualization or the mind’s eye) activates to create a picture that helps make sense of the words and ideas. This is a skill children need to develop before they learn to read, so that when books no longer have pictures, text still makes sense. However, if you watch a video instead, the brain will not practice this important skill.

Ultimately remember this: Art is brain magic! The next time you feel like you need to amp up your lessons for learning, take a closer look at what you are already doing, and ask yourself what arts are we engaged in, and how many developmental skills are included in our daily routines of song, dance, and movement? Then, look for small moments to get those children’s brains practicing rhythm and rhyme and much more through music and movement that goes along with your topic of study or storytime book, and see the learning magic happen right before your eyes!

Story Tapestries addresses vital community issues for millions of people of all ages and abilities using collaboration and the arts, in all forms, to create and deliver tailored, accessible programs. Learn more and support their work by visiting their website.

A Day in the Life of a One World Academy Student

One World Education is the largest writing program in DC. They serve 5,000 middle school, high school, and adult students annually through their in-school and afterschool programs. Their afterschool program, the One World Academy, enables high potential but underperforming students to research a social justice issue, write an argumentative essay, and prepare a presentation for the citywide student showcase, the One World Challenge, at the end of the semester.

Meet Mahir, a 6th-grade student who’s part of the One World Academy. His day starts like any other with classes and tests, but it’s what happens after school that truly sets him apart. At 4pm, Mahir walks into the One World Academy, greeted by peers, pizza, program managers, and teacher-leaders. The room buzzes with energy as students settle in and get ready to dive into an evening of fun learning.

Today’s session is focused on finishing the final essay draft. Students choose their social justice research topic at the beginning of the semester, and spend eight weeks refining, writing, and editing their work. Mahir chose to write about air pollution in Bangladesh. When asked about why he chose his topic, Mahir said, “I was watching CNN one morning and heard that Bangladesh has the worst air pollution in the world. We need to do something about it.”

Students work with experienced teachers in small groups to receive individualized attention and constructive feedback. With his teacher-leader’s support, Mahir edits his essay and is ready to submit his final draft. The rest of the program will center around preparing an oral presentation for their research project to show at the One World Challenge. This Challenge is hosted biannually in December and April.

The One World Difference

One World’s mission is to transform students into confident communicators, critical thinkers, and persuasive writers. When their founder and CEO, Eric Goldstein, started teaching in DC public schools, he realized that his students struggled to express their ideas in their writing. He developed the One World curriculum to center students’ voices and equip them with the tools needed to communicate effectively.

Since 2007, One World has served over 50,000 students through their in-school and afterschool programs in Washington, DC. Their in-school program trains teachers in partner schools to implement the One World curriculum in their English classes. 90 percent of partner schools report making significant gains in student writing after one semester of their program.

Interested in supporting One World? They encourage volunteers to serve as feedback coaches and presentation judges during the end of the Fall and Spring Academies. Contact One World to get involved with volunteering, donate so they can expand and provide their services to more DC public school students, and learn more about how they empower student writers to find their voice and communicate effectively, transforming students into writers with voice, knowledge, and purpose.