Workforce Development
in the field of Hip-Hop Education through coalition building, programming, fellowships and scholarships as part of our strategy to scale the field and bring attention to high-performing organizations, curricula, and leadership models while creating economic opportunities through pre-apprenticeship programs for a new generation of leaders.
The HHEC custom designs project-based participatory learning curricula to harness the power of storytelling and teach youth how to create timelines, infographics, cultural mapping, and oral history projects using digital technology. Our curricula has been used in libraries, museums, and classrooms across the country to offer youth exciting ways to connect to history and community.
In partnership with Pockets Change, HHEC has created the Hip Hop FinFest, a financial literacy initiative in which Middle and High School Students are invited to explore challenges that build financial skills and then use that knowledge to write, perform and submit an original song.
In collaboration with the Arts2Work organization, HHEC is developing a Digital Archiving and Curation Pre-Apprenticeship Program. This program will be targeted especially for the over 4 million ‘disconnected youth’ ages 16-24 who are neither working nor in school. Through Arts2Work and their certificate framework, this training will provide direct pathways to employment.
To further investigate, organize, analyze, facilitate and professionalize the field of Hip Hop education, HHEC formed a Think & Do Tank to connect thought leaders and practitioners with emerging and seasoned artists, scholars, educators, administrators, and community leaders. The goal of the HHEC Think & Do Tank is to engage a range of constituencies that are using Hip Hop for educational purposes and to produce and disseminate research, tools, and best practices to the wider field.
HHEC has identified job opportunities for young people within Hip Hop culture and promote these opportunities through career cyphers; 4-6 week long workshops that introduce the STEAM fields of work including; journalism, media production, music production and tech jobs. This immersive learning experience of STEAM meets entrepreneurship teaches youth how to create & market their work, develop business plans and create budgets.
HHEC in partnership with Hip Hop Congress has teamed up with the California Department of Education Career Technical Education Arts, Media and Entertainment sector to develop the ‘Hip Hop Education and Equity Initiative’.The goal is to integrate Hip-Hop in curricula, school programming, after school, and student clubs while also recruiting a new workforce and creating employment opportunities for teaching artists as co-teachers. H2E2 distributes federally funded grants to schools interested implementing the initiative. HHEC is already working with over 50 schools across the country; focusing on arts, media, entertainment, and digital archiving.
HHEC cultivates problem solvers, education innovators, impact media producers, and social entrepreneurs to develop Hip-Hop Education ideas and the next generation of leaders and storytellers. Through our Fellows and scholars program, we have supported over 100 projects and initiatives.
Through our Scholars Program, we work with Hip-Hop pioneers and academics. HHEC supports research, historical documentation, and new pieces of work by scholars who amplify the Hip-Hop's history, elements, and innovation. Our visiting scholar program supports international research, scholarship, and community programming projects. Visiting scholars have joined us from Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Canada, Ukraine, and France to name a few.
HHEC has hosted three cultural envoy delegations with the U.S. State Department Office of International Visitors Bureau of Educational and Cultural Leadership. Over 150 artists from around the world were given guided tours to Hip-Hop landmarks and treated to dinners with local leaders, artists, and journalists. Collaborators have included the Next Level Program, The Schomburg Center, HUSH Tours, New York University, and Edward Tyler Nahem.