Micaela Connery was 15 when she became an entrepreneurial change maker.
As a student at Conard High School in West Hartford, she realized that “theater was a great equalizer,” allowing kids to unite, play different roles and tackle adversity with creativity. She had also observed first-hand the challenges facing her cousin Kelsey, who lives with development and physical disabilities. It’s wrong to assume a person simply “can’t” do something, Connery said. “When I got to high school, I noticed most students with disabilities weren’t included in their school activities or respected as equals. I wanted to do something to change that.”
So in February 2002, she started her first Unified Theater group production. After graduating from the University of Virginia in May 2009, Connery returned to Hartford to become executive director of her own nonprofit organization, Unified Theater.
According to Connery, the nonprofit is made up of student-led theater groups that are entirely student-written and equally feature students with and without disabilities. She says Unified Theater “is totally different from other school productions, not only in the way it accommodates and supports different physical and development disabilities but also in that they are student-led, student-written, and student-produced.”
To date, Connery says over 1,500 students with and without disabilities have participated in Unified Theater’s programs in nine Connecticut schools and one in Rhode Island. Among the schools with Unified Theater programs are Conard, Sedgwick and Hall high schools in West Hartford, King Phillip Middle School, also in West Hartford, and Middletown High School (Middletown, RI).
“Unified Theater represents what we want to be as a school. Having a program in our school makes the goals of excellence in education for all a reality. Everyday students, parents, and staff have the opportunity of seeing what it looks like to be a school that welcomes and embraces every child with no exception, none! Unified Theater has become the symbol of our commitment to serve all our children,” said Juan Melian, Sedgwick Middle School assistant principal.
“When I left the university and told people I was going back to Hartford to work on developing a nonprofit, I can’t even tell you how often people told me it’s ‘not really the time for a start-up’,” she said. “And yes, I realize that, but it was the right time in my life. When you’re 23 you can handle long hours, spontaneity and not necessarily making lots of money. If I was graduating and saw that someone was fulfilling the purpose of Unified Theater, it would have been a different story. But, since I had had the initial concept in 2002, there is still nobody in the market doing what we are.”
At this point, the nonprofit is funded by individual gifts and a recent AmeriCorps grant. It’s looking to expand to corporate and foundation funding in 2010-2011, said Connery.
It’s the schools’ students, trained by Unified Theater staff, who drive the entire theater process and by 2015, Connery says Unified Theater plans to work with 40,000 students.
“In some ways, I see funding cuts within our schools as an opportunity for Unified Theater. We’re, in a sense, a consolidated service-provider to districts,” she said. “We tell a good story, demonstrate a need and emphasize our unique model and innovative approach and hope that makes us stand out to our funders.”
In five years, Connery hopes she will be building an endowment for her annual operations and, perhaps most importantly, she plans to permanently change the dynamic at schools across the nation.
“I hope we’re just seen as a ‘norm’- that schools have a Unified Theater group just like they have a drama club, student council or football team,” she said.
Connery was recently selected as one of five Do Something Award Winners by DoSomething.org. She was honored at a VH1 event and received a $10,000 grant for her organization.
“National recognition that serves somewhat as a seal of approval saying “this organization is one to watch! It’s connected us to lots of individuals who want to support us, start a group, or get involved somehow. Plus, all the footage they have provided is an awesome visual representation of who we are and what we want to accomplish as an organization,” she said.
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Gift Aids Ballet Expansion
Connecticut Ballet has been awarded a $225,000 grant from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving in support of a planned three-year expansion of its Hartford performance season and community outreach programs. The grant will assist in the production and marketing of Connecticut Ballet’s annual seasons at The Bushnell and Riverfront Recapture, and provide for the hiring of additional marketing staff to bolster earned revenue from ticket sales, in-school residencies and outreach classes. Together with a recent City of Hartford grant in support of a full-time program manager, the Hartford Foundation grant will enable a significant expansion of operations leading to the company’s 30th anniversary season in 2011-2012.
Joanna Smiley writes the weekly Nonprofit Notebook column. Reach her at jsmiley@HartfordBusiness.com