Ignite Residency

(Formerly Teen Living Programs)

“Ignite stands with youth on their journey to a home and a future with promise”

Ignite envisions a world where all young people have the support they need to be defined by their potential, not their circumstances.

Ignite offers a comprehensive continuum of services to young people between the ages of 14 to 24 who are unstably housed or experiencing homelessness. Beyond meeting youth's immediate needs, our services provide youth with all the tools and support they need to succeed: stable housing; access to employment and education opportunities; primary and mental health care; lasting connections with caring adults, and the skills to live a healthy and independent life.

 

OPPORTUNITIES

In planning conversations with Ignite staff and clients, we identified the residency as an opportunity to:

  • Prepare mindfulness exercises to promote daily rituals

  • Introduce Deep Listening text scores in conjunction with life skills programming at Ignite Belfort House

  • Encourage Ignite clients to develop the skills integral to career building

  • Encourage Ignite clients to develop their communication and collaboration skills

  • Support Ignite’s transient population through a residency program that yields a creative experience before the end of each session

 

QUESTIONS EXPLORED

  • How can music be composed without the use of traditional notation?

  • How can we make music with our peers using Deep Listening techniques?

  • How does mindfulness support the process of self reflection and empowerment?

  • How does the creative process aid career development?

 

THE OBJECTIVES

  • Clients will cultivate a supportive and healing creative environment 

  • Clients will learn how Deep Listening pieces can help them to overcome stress and better understand concepts from Life Skills programming.

  • Clients will practice public speaking skills and connect staff and interviewers more effectively.

  • Clients will communicate abstract creative ideas and collaborate with peers in daily weekly activities, developing the team-building skills necessary to job readiness.

 

OUR PROCESS

Finding a greater understanding of Ignite’s iSkills program that explores life skills such as mindfulness, nutrition, diet and exercise, financial independence, job readiness training and more, helped Fifth House find a new integration window. In collaboration with Sam Browson, the leader of iSkills, Fifth House prepared a new curriculum that integrated Deep Listening practice and, for the first time ever, Fresh Inc Festival workshop material. Fresh Inc. workshops are designed for participants of the festival - performers, composers, and pre-formed ensembles - looking to envision and launch their own authentic careers in music, rooted in adventurous genre-defying collaboration, entrepreneurial thinking, and meaningful partnerships with audiences and community. The materials from these workshops that highlight unique pathways to employment, like public speaking and personal promotion, transferred perfectly to this new residency plan for Ignite clients. In addition to these changes, Fifth House now also provides a weekly Deep Listening score distributed by Ignite staff. Should clients want to learn more, they can try these text-based musical compositions and exercises on their own. If they want more support, there is an opportunity to practice the score as a group in the next iSkills session. Time is split between Sam and Fifth House Ensemble teaching artists during the 60-minute weekly sessions.

Fifth House kicked off this new programming with a special concert presented by Sixto Franco, Elizandro Garcia-Montoya, and myself, featuring solo works for viola, clarinet, and horn respectively. The concert was connected to the television in the Belfort House communal space so that anyone passing by would be able to stop and listen or ask musicians questions about their instruments or our upcoming programming goals.

 

THE FINAL PROJECT

Residency still in process

 

THE IMPACT

There have been some remarkable changes to the observable effectiveness of the program since the curriculum shift:

Fifth House teaching artists participate in the iSkills curriculum alongside the Ignite clients and have become more connected to the Ignite community.

  • Deep Listening activities and scores are framed in more relatable ways, boosting both participation and discussion about their applications outside of the weekly sessions.

  • Attendance and participation have improved immensely with an increase over 400% in both categories.

  • This residency was aligned with Ignite’s mindfulness, personal expression, and job readiness learning objectives. Participating Ignite clients honed their ability to work effectively as a team while collaborating towards the creation of original music. The residency provided opportunities for participants to complete learning goals while also navigating an online platform.

“I’m feel like my connections to other people are so much more useful than what might be on my resume.”
— Ignite Client
 

THE NUMBERS

Dates: October 13, 2020 - May 27, 2021

Total Number of Visits: 28

Total Participants: 25

Race and Ethnicities of Participants:

  • Black: 90%

  • Hispanic: 5%

  • White: 5%

 
 

Fifth House Ensemble’s educational programs and research initiatives are supported in part by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, the Albert Pick Jr. Fund, Chamber Music America, the Farny R. Wurlitzer Fund, and by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.