Hello Insight was highlighted in a case study written by Peter Gerlings, Board of Trustees and Chair of the Research Committee of the We Are All Music Foundation (WAAM). The study showcases how Guitars Over Guns Operation’s (GOGO’s) music mentoring program has helped bring about some striking improvements in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) during COVID.
Guitars Over Guns’ mission statement is to “offer students from our most vulnerable communities a powerful combination of music education and mentorship with professional musicians to help them overcome hardship, find their voice, and reach their potential as tomorrow’s leaders”. Based in Miami, the organization was founded in 2008 and has so far served over 5,000 students in Miami and Chicago. The organization is extremely focused on data as well as scientifically and statistically reliable inputs that allow them to measure the positive impact they have had on their students. GOGO has been a member of Hello Insight since 2020 and has managed to gather both outcomes and experienced data from young people, even during the midst of the pandemic.
As the Co-Founder and CEO of GOGO, Chad Bernstein states:
Hello Insight, simply put, is a gamechanger. SEL is not something that you learn cognitively, it is something you develop experientially, and Hello Insight is the first tool that I trust to measure that. There is no replacement for our mentors (teaching artists) feeling empowered to grow and deepen their practice because they finally have a tool to understand and evaluate their impact.
Hello Insight has provided a cost-effective solution for GOGO, helping them share their impact, benchmark their success and improve their programs.
SEL impact measurements we have used prior are too long, use lofty academic terminology, and are not offered in languages other than English - all factors that compromise the validity of data. Hello Insight surveys are designed with students first. The reports help us communicate the story of our impact to funders and the opportunities for growth to our practitioners and the HI staff does an incredible job helping on both of those fronts. Finally, the metrics are baselined on hundreds of thousands of students engaged in programs throughout the country - the only alternative to that is to engage in research that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take years. - Chad Bernstein
The WAAM Case Study leverages data from Hello Insight and highlights the impact of GOGO during these extraordinary times.