About Us
Who are we?
Northwest Collaborative Center (NWCC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operating in Bellevue, Washington and the neighboring regions. We are an all-volunteer organization, having no paid staff; funding is provided by the public donations.
Northwest Collaborative Center aims to increase educational access for the socioeconomically disadvantaged youths, currently through musical means: we give opportunity for these youths to engage in and collaborate with other youth musicians.
We empower our local communities with tools and resources to make greater
impact and bring positive social change, and believe that collaboration with music
and education will cultivate healthier family and communities.
NWCC works to improve educational equity
Our Activities
We host a free music instruments lesson once a week. We invite any young people who desire to learn instruments and practice it individually or all together as a chamber. It takes normally 2 – 3 hours to complete each session. While giving lessons to those young people, we address our ideas how to be grateful in sharing each
person’s talent with others. Most of them who participated at our program later wish to contribute their valuable times voluntarily to teach new students.
We plan to expand our free lesson opportunity to academic aid program. While interacting with young people at school age, we have witnessed how many smart, bright, and talented students are frustrated because they have no fair opportunity in learning due to their limited financial resources. We currently develop a curriculum
for several core subjects and provide needy students with no charge academic program to achieve goals on their own.
Our Vision
In our communities, there are a number of private music clubs providing various programs where they learn to play instruments. The average monthly price for weekly 30-minute lessons is $144 and the cost gets much higher if an instructor has more experience. This cost may be considered not much for some people, but it can be a burden depending on households’ financial circumstances.
In our communities, there are many youths with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. People with ASD often have problems with social communication and interaction, and restricted or repetitive behaviors or interest. According to many scientific researches, music provides avenues for students with ASD to interact with teachers and peers in
spontaneous and creative play. That means a child with ASD can benefit from a music education and contribute to a musical ensemble, just like any other child.