About Us
The National Alliance for Music in Vulnerable Communities’ mission is to support music organizations working in vulnerable communities through networking, education and advocacy.
We currently serve thousands of participants and leaders of music organizations across the United States with a growing slate of resources, including many national pioneers of music programs serving the vulnerable. By doing so, organizations across the country are more able to build strong, effective programs that alleviate the debilitating pain of disenfranchisement, isolation and marginalization in their communities.
NAMVC is governed by its board of directors and inspired by founders of established programs spanning the United States. Through its national representation, NAMVC aspires to leverage greater access to corporate support and grant funding that can substantively aid local programs in their efforts to bring healing to their participants.
Our Story
In recent years, a small number of music programs associated with the issue of homelessness successfully emerged as sources of inspiration to struggling citizens in cities like Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, and Norfolk, VA. As the directors of these local programs discovered and found encouragement in one another’s work, they began to communicate their desire to learn from one another and to create a more formal network that would advocate for similar programs across the country. Collectively, they dreamed of an umbrella organization to serve as a resource to music groups working in vulnerable communities.
Toward that end, directors from across the country gathered in Dallas, Texas, in January of 2018 to share ideas and become more fully acquainted with one another’s work. In addition to program and process driven discussions, the group visited and sang with the Dallas Street Choir, toured facilities serving individuals experiencing homelessness, and held meaningful discussions with researchers.
The energy that was generated at that first national “summit” carried through to a gathering in Los Angeles a year later when a similar group of leaders assembled to advance conversation about formalizing a national association and to again witness firsthand the significant work being done by our hosts, the Urban Voices Project. The leaders toured Skid Row, participated in a neighborhood sing at a medical clinic, and held extended discussions related to our organizing principles.
By the conclusion of this second leaders’ summit, attendees had founded the National Alliance for Music In Vulnerable Communities (NAMVC), agreed upon a mission statement, proposed a board of directors, and compiled basic membership parameters.
NAMVC is a registered, federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
