The Education and Community Engagement Award is given by Chorus America for outstanding programming in education and community engagement.
Criteria for the Education and Community Engagement Award vary from year to year in order to highlight specific aspects of this important field. The award honors in-depth and ongoing engagement programming that deeply affects communities.
Successful education and community engagement programs often demonstrate the following characteristics:
- Collaborations and ongoing partnerships with other ensembles, schools, and wide-ranging community organizations
- Organized efforts to engage with specific communities to understand needs and involve new constituencies
- Clearly articulated goals, outcomes, and tools for evaluation
- An ongoing commitment to music education
For the 2025 Awards cycle, this award is open to emerging programs no more than four years in operation.
The winner receives an engraved plaque and $2,500.
Eligibility
Applicants must be a chorus member of Chorus America.
Future categories include:
- 2025: Best emerging program no more than four years in operation
- 2026: Best collaborative program
- 2027: Best program by a chorus with a budget under $200,000
This award is not required to be given annually and will be given at the discretion of the selection panel.
Deadline & How to Apply
The deadline to submit an application is Friday, January 24, 2025 at 11:59PM ET.
Member choruses are invited to submit nominations. A complete application consists of the following materials:
A. Describe the following aspects of the nominated program. Be as specific as you can, including quantitative and qualitative data points and metrics as applicable:
- Program Description
- Program Goals
- Constituency served
- Staff involvement
- Partner organizations (if any)
- Reflect on any modifications that have been made to the program since its launch, and include information on why changes were made and lessons learned.
- Outline the criteria used to evaluate the program, and the evaluation process. Provide sample evaluation data from the most recently completed program. (For example, if you distributed a survey to participants, please provide the summary results from that survey.
B. Submit program budgets for the previous and current fiscal years, and fill-in the general operating revenue and expenses of the organization for the previous and current fiscal years.
C. Letter of recommendation from a program partner or participant
While there are no word limits for narrative questions, we find that concise responses that address the prompt and award rubric criteria in 2-4 paragraphs tend to be most successful.
Click Here to view the Education and Community Engagement Award rubric.
Questions? Contact Vale Southard at vale@chorusamerica.org.
2025 Awards - Education and Community Engagement
The Education and Community Engagement Award is given by Chorus America for outstanding programming in education and community engagement.
Criteria for the Education and Community Engagement Award vary from year to year in order to highlight specific aspects of this important field. The award honors in-depth and ongoing engagement programming that deeply affects communities.
Successful education and community engagement programs often demonstrate the following characteristics:
- Collaborations and ongoing partnerships with other ensembles, schools, and wide-ranging community organizations
- Organized efforts to engage with specific communities to understand needs and involve new constituencies
- Clearly articulated goals, outcomes, and tools for evaluation
- An ongoing commitment to music education
For the 2025 Awards cycle, this award is open to emerging programs no more than four years in operation.
The winner receives an engraved plaque and $2,500.
Eligibility
Applicants must be a chorus member of Chorus America.
Future categories include:
- 2025: Best emerging program no more than four years in operation
- 2026: Best collaborative program
- 2027: Best program by a chorus with a budget under $200,000
This award is not required to be given annually and will be given at the discretion of the selection panel.
Deadline & How to Apply
The deadline to submit an application is Friday, January 24, 2025 at 11:59PM ET.
Member choruses are invited to submit nominations. A complete application consists of the following materials:
A. Describe the following aspects of the nominated program. Be as specific as you can, including quantitative and qualitative data points and metrics as applicable:
- Program Description
- Program Goals
- Constituency served
- Staff involvement
- Partner organizations (if any)
- Reflect on any modifications that have been made to the program since its launch, and include information on why changes were made and lessons learned.
- Outline the criteria used to evaluate the program, and the evaluation process. Provide sample evaluation data from the most recently completed program. (For example, if you distributed a survey to participants, please provide the summary results from that survey.
B. Submit program budgets for the previous and current fiscal years, and fill-in the general operating revenue and expenses of the organization for the previous and current fiscal years.
C. Letter of recommendation from a program partner or participant
While there are no word limits for narrative questions, we find that concise responses that address the prompt and award rubric criteria in 2-4 paragraphs tend to be most successful.
Click Here to view the Education and Community Engagement Award rubric.
Questions? Contact Vale Southard at vale@chorusamerica.org.