My Voice Music: Recruiting and Training for Statewide Expansion

Authors: Alfonso Hernandez (Guatemala), Rebecca Kim (USA), Jenny O’Connor-Madsen (Ireland), Evangelos Saklaras (Greece)

BACKGROUND

My Voice Music (MVM) began in a residential facility serving youth with mental health and behavioral challenges. Founder Ian Mouser, then a counselor and guitarist, organized a small band for a talent show. Staff observed fewer behavioral incidents and better class attendance in the days that followed. The experiment suggested that structured music making could reduce stress, increase engagement, and offer a constructive outlet within rigid treatment settings. MVM launched in 2008 to reach youth beyond institutions and now serves more than 1,500 young people ages eight to twenty four each year in Portland, Oregon. Participants include youth in crisis, patients in mental health hospitals, foster youth, those in behavioral rehabilitation, and recent refugees. Programming ranges from small group mentorship and hip hop labs to open studio access and satellite classes in partner facilities. The mission is to amplify young voices and catalyze self discovery through music.

BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL

MVM operates a teaching artist model that blends creative instruction with trauma-responsive practice. Classes emphasize original songwriting, collaboration across ability levels, and supportive peer cultures. Delivery happens in a central studio at the Sunnyside Community Center and through satellite partnerships with residential programs. The organization’s core staff includes a studio director, program leaders, and a licensed social worker who embeds facilitation practices suited to clinical environments. MVM’s brand and culture are youth forward and production oriented, which aids recruitment and retention. Grants, awards, and community partnerships underwrite most costs. The Lewis Prize Accelerator Award in 2020 provided five hundred thousand dollars to build a new East Portland studio, launch a statewide expansion concept called MVM Across Oregon, and publish a practitioner guide known as the Manualfesto.

STRATEGIC CHALLENGE

MVM plans to extend services to rural regions where access to mental health support and creative youth development is limited. The organization must recruit and prepare teaching talent outside Portland, identify host partners and venues, and preserve program fidelity while adapting to local context. The sudden loss of founder Ian Mouser in 2021 created an added leadership transition. The central question is how to scale reach without diluting MVM’s facilitative pedagogy or overextending staff and cash reserves.

VALUE-ADDED CONCEPT

The case team proposes a structured online recruitment and training pipeline that doubles as professional development and market discovery for MVM Across Oregon. The idea is to deliver interactive workshops that introduce MVM’s facilitative teaching approach, link attendees to the Manualfesto, and surface prospective hires and partners in target regions. The series would be open to musicians, educators, counselors, and youth workers. Sessions would simulate MVM’s plan do reflect cycle, with participants co-writing short pieces, receiving coaching on trauma-responsive facilitation, and debriefing practice choices. Graduates who demonstrate alignment could be invited into in-person mentorship at the Portland studio, followed by supported launch of local satellite programs.

IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS

Designing the pipeline requires careful sequencing. First, MVM can use surveys and outreach to map interest clusters in rural counties and to learn which institutions are most receptive, such as schools, clinics, youth shelters, and cultural centers. Second, the team can codify a short online curriculum that translates the Manualfesto into teachable modules and creates a consistent experience across cohorts. Third, MVM can add a selective practicum by inviting promising trainees to shadow summer programs in Portland, observe facilitation, and co lead short sessions under supervision. Fourth, the organization can work with trainees to identify local venues and assemble starter kits that include equipment lists, budget templates, safeguarding protocols, and referral pathways for clinical support. Throughout, MVM should plan for measurement and learning, including attendance, progression of trainees, youth engagement, and basic wellbeing indicators.

There are risks. Online workshops may attract interest but not yield viable hires. Travel and mentorship require staff time that could pull attention from Portland programs. Maintaining quality across dispersed sites is complex. These risks can be managed by gating progression through clear performance rubrics, using small pilot cohorts, and committing to defined expansion targets rather than open-ended growth.

IMPACT ANALYSIS

A recruitment and training pipeline aligns with MVM’s strengths. It leverages the organization’s culture of original creation, its facilitative method, and its studio production assets. The approach can expand the pool of qualified facilitators in regions with few arts education options and can convert professional development into a hiring channel. For youth, access to songwriting and recording outside Portland can increase agency and belonging while reducing barriers to care. For partners, the model offers a credible program with documented practice, which can strengthen grant applications and local fundraising. The pipeline can also create earned revenue opportunities over time if MVM offers tiered certification or consultation based on the Manualfesto.

Financially, the model diversifies growth costs. Online delivery lowers early recruitment expense, while short residencies in Portland concentrate in-person investment on candidates most likely to launch viable sites. Clear unit economics for a satellite program will be essential. MVM should model staff hours per cohort, participant caps, space and equipment costs, and expected subsidy levels from grants or local partners to determine the number of sites it can responsibly open each year.

DECISION POINT

MVM must decide whether to prioritize the online recruitment and training pipeline as the primary engine for MVM Across Oregon, or to grow through a slower partner-led model that adds sites only when local institutions can staff programs without MVM’s direct training. The first path offers faster reach and greater control over pedagogy but requires up front investment in curriculum, mentorship, and measurement. The second path reduces central workload and risk but may limit scale and dilute practice. The choice will determine how quickly MVM expands beyond Portland, how consistently it can deliver trauma-responsive music education, and how the organization sustains founder vision through the next phase of growth.