Youth on Record

As a white Executive Director of an organization that works with BIPOC youth and marginalized artists, I understand the way my identity impacts our organization.  What's clear to me is that my work is -- in part -- about advancing the next generation of changemakers into leadership positions. If awarded, I plan to use the funds in four critical ways:

1) Further develop collaborative and inclusive leadership by mentoring and supporting the future BIPOC leaders of our organization, 2) Continue to advance the "Inner-Life" leadership & culture model I helped to build; 3) Scale the work of YOR and our new social venture, and 4) Work with a cohort of white executive directors to determine how we can be more effective in advancing racial justice without hijacking a movement, jobs, and leadership roles.

I feel strongly that art has the power to change hearts and minds. It is also a central economic driver. Colorado needs our artists to continue to grow their artistic contributions, while advancing their economic mobility. Elevate Prize's investment in my work -- and in Youth on Record-- is an investment in the financial future of our region, our creative economy, and our collective culture.

I live at the intersection of two communities –- a community of friends, colleagues, and artists who I work with to advance racial equity, and the law enforcement community. Both my dad and brother are officers, and my dad is a decorated Chief. My upbringing and my community have shaped the way I approach my work – with urgency, compassion, and a solutions-oriented commitment to understand the challenges we face as individuals and a community.

 Advancing equity requires all of us, and it’s something I’ve been committed to my entire life. My “inner knowing” tells me that I am here to leave this world better than I found it, and my approach is intersectional. Our success at Youth on Record requires me to both understand multiple sectors of our community, and how they overlap. This includes 1) publishing position papers about new approaches to housing and homelessness, philanthropy, environmental equity, black lives, education, etc.; 2) advocating for equitable access to public art and artmaking; 3) serving on city-wide mental wellness advisory groups ; 4) hosting candidate forums leading up to local elections; and 5) serving on thought leader panels about a variety of urgent community issues.

Youth on Record envisions a world where marginalized and youth artists have more agency over their stories, finances, and futures.

The Problems: 1) Traditional education (including arts) often exacerbates inequities. Our students face multiple forms of oppression, including systems of white supremacy, which can stifle their potential and make it increasingly difficult for them to survive and ultimately thrive. 2) The US music industry has historically been in the hands of a few who have perpetuated disempowering artists for personal and economic gain.

Our Interventions: 1) We use music programming to address systems of oppression by providing young people with personal, artistic, and professional tools to navigate and dismantle these systems. Our trauma-informed interventions equip young people with the skills needed to advance their academic success, increase their career skills, and strengthen their community connections. 2) We’re building the first agency in the US designed to advance racial and social equity.--  informed by an advisory group of US musicians.Our goal is to grow a musician middle class by providing musicians and music industry professionals culturally responsive artistic support and professional development, membership and client services, access to diverse economic opportunities, a creative business incubator, and impact investment opportunities.  

We combine the practices of community organizing, liberatory education, entrepreneurship, and a holistic approach to company culture to achieve our mission and meet the ever-changing needs of our community.

Here are a few things you may not see anywhere else:

• Our team is 90% professional, local musicians. Yes, this includes our administrative team!
• Colorado has two governor-appointed Statewide Music Ambassadors. Both have chosen to work at Youth on Record because of our values, innovation, and community impact.
• YOR is a leader in company/business culture and has been named two years in a row as one of Colorado’s Best Places to Work. In fact, YOR has an entire framework, developed by YOR’s Executive Director, to advance bringing your whole self to work.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion aren’t concepts to us, but instead are the very work we do on a day-to-day basis. We’re often called to train educators and community leaders in this work.
• Over 30% of our staff are former program participants.
• All staff are encouraged and paid to participate in meaningful and intersectional community and artistic work outside of their “assigned” work at YOR.
• Jami Duffy has recently been named a “40 Under 40” leader in Colorado.

YOR recognizes that education alone cannot solve for systemic injustice, nor can it alone liberate young creatives. This fundamental recognition sets us apart from traditional educators. We also know that art is a powerful tool, but it also cannot bear the sole responsibility for creating more equitable communities. Still, education and art, when integrated under the right framework, are powerful tools toward liberation and equity.  YOR’s education, music, and community programs (led by 30+ BIPOC, local community artists) support 1,200 young creatives each year in becoming more free, more rooted in their personal power, and better able to thrive in spite of systems and circumstances that dis-empower and marginalize them. THIS MODEL HAS SCALED -- AND HAS ROOM TO GROW LOCALLY AND NATIONALLY.

Further, as we re-imagine and rebuild the music industry by launching a new-model artistic management agency and creative business incubator for the Western United States, we anticipate serving 200+ additional BIPOC and traditionally marginalized artists in our first three years (2022 - 2024), and SCALING THE MODEL NATIONALLY WITHIN THREE YEARS.  We’ll offer professional development, access to diverse economic opportunities, culturally responsive artistic support, business coaching, and a safe, shared community.

Present:1,600

Within one year: 1,800

YOR offers key programming pillars in areas of: academic success, economic opportunity and community activation. We sit at the intersection of UN Sustainable Development Goals 4,5,8,10, 11 (Quality Education, Gender Equity, Economic Growth, Industry Innovation, Reduced Inequalities, and Decent Work).

Over the next year, we will:

Provide academic success and economic opportunity programs to 1,600 traditionally marginalized teens;

1. Support 700 students in three school districts through the teaching of for-credit classes to advance education outcomes;
2. Engage at least 30 young people each week in YOR’s economic opportunity programming;
3. Create pathways to quality work by hosting a youth-led virtual music festival; employing 10 students in YOR programs; graduating 40 youth from our career development program
4. Advance gender equity by providing music and mental wellness programs to 50 young women in our FEMpowered program
5. Provide professional development trainings for 160 music industry professionals and musicians
6. Provide impact management services to 10-20 artists ; 10-20 artists will increase their revenue from 5K per year to 40K per year in the first three years of working with YOR Agency
7. Provide DEI and trauma-informed trainings to 50 music industry professional in an effort to reduce racial and social inequalities in the music industry

With great ambition to make things better comes many barriers – and for us those include 1) people not continuing to support us because they think we “don’t need it,” 2) being met with resistance from the music industry because we are pushing them to be more equitable, and 3) burn-out internally because the pace is so fast.

We’re having an incredible moment -- and momentum moving forward is key! YOR attracted the attention of MacKenzie Scott, who awarded our organization $1M in unrestricted funding. While this seems like only a blessing, our work is to drive momentum forward and to dispel any myths that we are somehow “set” and that our work is fully funded. It’s not.

To address these barriers we are 1) releasing a YOR Million Dollar Momentum campaign to clearly tell our community what we’re building and why we need their support, 2)  we’re working with partners within the music industry to open doors to C-Suites so that leadership and executives see us as an asset and partner, not a threat, and 3) doubling-down on our company culture of inner-life care, support and healing by increasing employee benefits to include mental wellness support. 

Brand visibility is a central focus of staying relevant and growing our influence and impact in our community and beyond. I, along with our Giving & Growing team members, am confident in my ability to share our story with a wide range of supporters, and would no doubt meet the moment of winning the Elevate Prize. For context, I was the only Executive Director featured on the Today Show after MacKenzie Scott awarded nearly 300 organizations funding. This credit is shared with our remarkable team, who were proactive in increasing the momentum and visibility of the contribution, and who actively sought platforms for us to share our story.  We will do the same with this prize, if we're awarded, because we understand the power of visibility.

I am experienced and ready to partner in the following: podcasts, speaking engagements at conferences & panels, television and film appearances, keynote addresses, radio interviews, print interviews, thought leadership series & online blogs.

Social Media: YOR is active on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and is growing its TikTok and Clubhouse platforms, with a goal on increasing awareness about our impact, and inspiring the community to have fun and do good.

At YOR, the whole person is encouraged to show-up at. This is my leadership commitment. We recruit and hire diverse people, and we don’t expect these folks to fit into a traditionally normative workplace culture. When our employees feel comfortable bringing their whole-selves to work, especially when they are invited and encouraged to do so, the outcome is a workplace that values each individual’s strengths, stories, and identities.

Over 80% of our team are local, professional musicians and poets who come from the same backgrounds and communities as our students, and 30% of staff are former students. We offer care and development for our employees, and seek their wisdom and guidance when developing, implementing, and evaluating our programs.

Our inclusive company culture shows up these ways:

• Each individuals’ strengths, stories, and identities are out in the open
• Our crew dresses, speaks, and express themselves at work authentically, and in a way that honors their unique identities
• We’re a close team that shares our interests and pursuits
• We self-reflect openly in meetings
• We’re growing together, which makes us each stronger
• We know we’ve created an equitable environment because our employees and students feel safe to be themselves.

The creative leaders who are working at Youth on Record (and who I am grateful to walk beside) teach me every day, and I have grown in my understanding of racial formation, education equity, trauma-informed leadership, community organizing, and inequities in the music industry because of their influence.

 Our team (including myself) has a combined 25+ years of creative artmaking experience and professional community building wisdom. That, coupled with the profound life experiences, uniquely equips this team to accomplish our ambitious goals.

We bring these experiences/titles to the work:

• Two Colorado Statewide Music Ambassadors
• Denver’s Cultural Affairs Commission Appointees*
• A Livingston Fellow*
• Denver’s 40 Under 40 winner*
•  International Women’s Forum member*
• Two graduates of the American Express Women in Leadership Academy
• multiple music industry and creative industries nationally recognized awardees
• former YOR students
• trauma survivors*
• multi-generational graduates of the school districts where we work
• varied levels of educational experiences from being forced out of high school to the completion of masters' degrees (one in Ethnic Studies)
• family linage in the neighborhood where we’re headquartered
• community care-takers*
• public policy advisors*
• nonviolent direct action & EDI trainers*
• culture-bearers*
• visionaries*

 *represents my experience

Shame dies when you share your story.

Seven years ago, YOR was struggling financially, and we had no culture of healing. I was carrying shame for not leading our team to sustainability, and I was quietly battling my own Dark Night of the Soul, fueled by addiction and family trauma. I was asking our team to grow and heal –- and expecting them to do that work with our students, but I wasn’t leading by example.

My healing journey started with me telling the truth to my team about my own pain and trauma. They met me with support, and encouraged me to engage in my own artmaking practice. So, I got sober (six years), and curated my art show Deeper Still: A Journey Through the Dark Night of the Soul, with the help of my team.

Telling the story of my personal dark night of the soul allowed the YOR team to see me as a whole person. Since then, the level of trust and authenticity in my work has increased -- and our collective work has grown. I am no longer attempting to show up in a predetermined role of a leader. I show-up as my whole self.

Recent Media Interviews

• Today Show - Jami Duffy interviewed
• 9News: Denver nonprofit is one recipient of MacKenzie Scott's nationwide donations - - Jami Duffy interviewed

Building a more just and equitable music industry: Music Policy Forum (Jami Duffy, speaker) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN1YVlxZ_yM

Founding Our Future: An Arts Declaration of What’s Possible (Jami Duffy, artistic director): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7TtLiZf6AM

Taking Action for the Betterment of Denver: University of Denver Fireside at Five (Jami Duffy, speaker) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQdyO5NCwJA

Civil Unrest Preparedness – A Conversation with Jami Duffy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_8vsrnc9ZQ&t=1s

Jami Duffy on Trying a New Artistic Endeavor: My Youth on Record Interrupted Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/myyouthonrecord/jami-duffy-on-trying-out-a-new-artistic-endeavor?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fmyyouthonrecord%252Fjami-duffy-on-trying-out-a-new-artistic-endeavor

 Your Superpower Heart: Warm Cookies of the Revolution (Jami Duffy, featured artist) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3QquhgyFdU&t=5s

 Deeper Still: A Journey Through the Dark Night of the Soul: (Jami Duffy solo art show): https://youtu.be/tR1SryHSlxs

My goal is to expand the impact of artmaking across the globe. To do this, both my personal profile and the profile of our work needs to increase. I am ready (and thrilled) to step into the next phase of my community work by advancing the next generation of leaders at YOR, and expanding my role as a thought and impact leader. Elevate Prize is truly the opportunity to do this, and the timing couldn't be better!

Elevate Prize will allow us to expand the staff capacity so that I can focus on our next venture (YOR Agency) and future ventures that will ultimately sustain our youth work, and grow our impact globally.

Making good "famous" is such a unique approach. And that "good" should be focused our work, though I do understand that people connect to story. I can represent our (and Elevate's) story with integrity, humor (you've gotta make 'em laugh), and authenticity, while also elevating the voices of those we work with and for.

Finally, I would love to engage with and work with other prize winners to see how we, as a collective, can shine a light on the intersections of our global work!

YOR works at intersection the whole community systems including education, the music industry, housing, justice (and reform), creative youth development, public health and safety, mental health, and the creative industries. Our intersectional approach and ability to get things done has earned us a reputation and a go-to organization that leads with big vision, integrity, and a framework that address both immediate needs and systems change. YOR will bring our 11-year experience and the support of our community to our “BIG Idea.”

Our primary partners include 1) musicians and music industry professionals and Music Policy Forum, 2) Denver Housing Authority, who generously has agreed to an additional seven years free rent of our current 4,500 square foot Youth Media Studio, 3) Colorado Creative Industries, who is partnering on our Youth Music Advisory Network and the Statewide Music Ambassador Program, 4) Denver, Aurora, and Poudre Valley public schools, where we teach classes five days per week 5) Coactive Change, a woman and minority owned consulting firm that partners with change agents seeking to advance equity and dismantle systems of oppression, and 6) Local community agencies in our neighborhood who partner on our annual Youth-Led Block Party & Music Festival.