Salem Tsegaye, NYCT Program Officer, Arts & Culture:
viBe Theater Experience is a theater company that works with girls and young women ages, 13 to 24. It provides opportunities to create and present work in theater, video, and music; and also helps them to build their leadership skills. So they’re working with an external consultant that will take them through some intentional succession planning, thinking about things like administrative systems for HR, technology, financial management, but also providing ongoing coaching to the executive director, to a committee of board members, and junior board members that are overseeing the transition as well as a new artistic director that has been brought on to explore a two-pronged leadership structure. For arts and cultural groups, oftentimes the priority is really on making and presenting creative work.

Salem Tsegaye:
So less attention is given to administrative infrastructure, which is really needed to sustain that work. So, The Trust makes it a priority to help these groups with capacity-building so that they can strengthen management and sustain that work for years to come. viBe is really intentional about recruiting and training young women of color. Often the women and girls that participate in their programs actually go on to hold positions at the organization and beyond at other nonprofits and in schools. In New York City, a vast majority of the cultural workforce does not reflect the city’s diverse population, so our investment in viBe is also an investment in sustaining viable pathways to leadership for these young women.