Training Music Educators to Teach Youth & Adults with Autism

Access to tech and creative industry employment

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Some stats that seem unrelated but are critical to consider:
1/3 of people with autism in California live in Los Angeles County
In 10 years, the prevalence of autism has almost doubled to 1 in 36 American children, meaning that 75 million Americans (and counting) have autism. Of this 75 million, less than 10% have access to work & post-secondary opportunities There's a national crisis in the availability & accessibility of community-based services for people with autism due to factors including lack of ASD-specific provider training & uneven quality of services among programs
The # of music educators in the U.S. will rise 12% by 2026 & very few of these music educators are equipped to teach learners with autism
Research reveals music as a powerful tool that helps individuals with autism build academic, cognitive, motor & social skills 30%+ of the creative industry identifies as Neurodivergent. Jazz Hands For Autism aims fill to the inclusion & employment gap, one musician at a time.

Jazz Hands For Autism (JHFA) has spent the last 10 years providing opportunities for musically focused learners with autism and training our educators to help these learners succeed. We have: Created evidence-based & tech-enabled music curriculum and instructor best practices
Established close relationships with various school and music industry partners
Served hundreds of musicians with autism and other diagnoses (locally and nationally) by providing: Access to compassionate and well trained instructors and individualized music education
Not only have we developed proprietary Curriculum designed for Neurodivergent learners, but we have also: Trained our instructors to use tech-enabled, multi-sensory and explicit pedagogy in teaching musical instruments, music theory & music technology while providing in house instructional and technological support
We have already developed the curriculum, best practices and the blueprint for the educator training, we are now seeking funding to: hire an instructional design specialist to develop the scope, sequence and quality assurance metrics for the educator training program, hire a licensing expert to build out the licensing package in a way that protects our intellectual property and allows us to turn our educator training program into a scalable social enterprise and hire a sales person to market the program in Los Angeles County and beyond. We have already made strides on the process, we now need LA2050's help in finishing strong!

Thus far, Jazz Hands For Autism's tech-enabled services & supports has helped promote inclusion, expression & employment for over 170 autistic musicians, composers, sound engineers, songwriters and music teachers in Los Angeles County and across the United States. With the launch of our (very scalable) Jazz Hands Music Educator Training Program we can expand this impact by more than 1840% in Los Angeles County by the end of year 1. According to the most current available data from the Division of Special Education, LAUSD serves 13,846 students with autism annually. Through the Jazz Hands Music Educator Training Program, if we train LAUSD music educators that serve just 20% of the total number of students with autism, we would have provided the following to over 2700 autistic students in Los Angeles county:
Access to empowering and quality music education that will create
Access to work & post-secondary opportunities via a pipeline to employment in the Los Angeles creative industry

Year 1 Success of Jazz Hands Music Educator Training Program (JHETP) will be tracked using 2 simple & powerful metrics:
# of Music Educators Trained: Train Music Educators at 2 Culver City High Schools, and 37 of 183 High schools in LAUSD - GOAL: 120 EDUCATORS
# of students enrolled in music class/ music programs at selected school locations: Enrollment data to be retrieved from school sites at the end of Year 1 - GOAL: 2769 STUDENTS Beyond Year 1 here are questions I'm asking and the plans that will answer these questions: How do we make this an ongoing social enterprise? Approach LAUSD to contract and pay JHFA for these services. How do we institutionalize the JHETP? Forge a partnership whereby the Music Educator Training Program becomes a credentialed program at a local University
How do we expand our ability to serve students after HS ? JHFA to license music conservatory curriculum to local community colleges to increase college enrollment for individuals on the autism spectrum