Imagine a world without music! This is the reality for many talented youth living in under-resourced communities who have never touched, handled or played a musical instrument.

The Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center is committed to changing the inequity that exists within the urban and under-served communities where access to music education is another path to building life skills and overall success. Research has shown that playing an instrument can improve reading and comprehension skills, math skills, and language skills. Even within the public school system, the opportunities to learn a musical instrument are limited. This program creates access to music education in a world where budgets often fall short. Music education should be more than a luxury for those with means.

The Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center is named for Helen L. Fox, who was a Kalamazoo community icon that dedicated her life to community service and provided music education as part of that service, teaching piano lessons to students at a cost they could afford. Funding for the HLFGMC will allow student scholarships, additional instruments and expanded locations.

Note To Our Donor Advisors:
You’ve already shown your love for this community by creating an Advised Fund at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. Through Partners in Philanthropy, we offer you an opportunity to demonstrate that love again by supporting one or more of the projects highlighted with a grant suggestion from the fund you established. The programs shared in this publication are among the recent funding requests we’ve received from local nonprofit organizations.

To support this program, download the grant suggestion form and select Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center or make a grant suggestion using Kalamazoo Connect at https://connect.kalfound.org.