2022 YEAR IN REVIEW

What an incredible and transformative year it’s been for Elevate Oakland and the community of students, artists and educators we serve. As we continue down the road to recovery from the pandemic, hand-in-hand with our community, we’ve experienced more growth this year than ever before through expanded programs, community partnerships, deeper investments from the city and school district as well as grassroots support from community members. All year long, nearly 400 students had the opportunity to engage in continual music and arts programs during the school day offered by our 13 teaching artists in collaboration with educators at more than 8 public school sites here in Oakland.

Elevate Oakland was founded in 2011 during a time when music and arts programs were diminishing in our public schools due to budget cuts amid an ongoing emphasis on core subjects like reading and math and test scores as the ultimate measure of student success. Our mission was simple -- to keep music and the arts alive in Oakland’s public schools. Since our founding, we’ve worked tirelessly not only to provide a myriad of resources and programs to the highest need schools and students in our district, but to also understand and unpack the core issues that students, teachers and families are facing on a daily basis.

Since our founding, our programs have reached thousands of students across Oakland and our efforts have contributed to the collective fight to uphold music and arts education as a necessary and vital part of a young person’s educational experience.

As you’ll see in the coming pages, we firmly believe that the power of our organization comes from the passionate people who live and breathe our shared mission every day--the students, teaching artists and educators who collectively sustain the work to keep creativity alive in our classrooms.

Thank you for your support and love. We look forward to many more years of playing, learning, growing and dreaming together.

Sincerely,

Elevate Oakland Co-Founders Sheila E., Yoshie Akiba, Lynn Mabry Jason Hofmann
& the Elevate Oakland Team