Centering Access
We strive to make education accessible. Our Play It Forward initiative offers flexible pricing for individuals and organizations because we recognize the inequities in our society. Play It Forward is Bird City’s commitment to access and inclusion. Here’s how it works:
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Flex-Price Tuition: We use a pay-what-you-choose system that is built on honesty and trust. We ask our collaborators to choose a payment option that is in line with their financial ability. Options include a full price and several flex-price options. For workshops and personal coaching, we implement a sliding scale.
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Inclusive Scholarships: We offer scholarships for individuals who identify as BIPOC, Trans and/or Gender Queer. These scholarships are for individuals who are interested in our community-focused classes. We want to encourage diversity, while righting the historical wrongs of exclusion.
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Pay It Forward: Individuals with access to financial wealth are invited to pay a higher price, thus making available additional scholarships and financial assistance options for other participants.
We believe access to the arts and community experience is a right, not a privilege. It is a right for every human being of every shape, size, color, creed, age, and ability. We recognize that belief is not reflected in the world that we live, which is why we also facilitate low-cost workshops for community organizations and volunteer our time without pay to support community.
Resource Sharing
We invite you to support our Play It Forward initiative. Here are three ways for you to get involved, redistribute power, and spread the love.
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Share: We invite you to share our website with your network. Email, text, and social media are powerful ways to create a sustainable community. Writing a review goes a long way too.
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Donate: We invite those with access to financial resources to redistribute wealth and support our programming with a monetary donation.
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Hire: We offer corporate workshops, coaching, and professional development. For every training that Bird City Improv facilitates, we will offer another fully funded scholarship to an incoming student. This scholarship is in addition to the scholarships that we regularly offer through Play It Forward.
Getting involved with Play it Forward is a meaningful way to spread arts education to a wider audience, co-sponsor an artist, and give back to the community. If you have any questions about our initiative, or any suggestions on how we can expand our access, please send us an email.
Pay Equity
We practice pay equity. None of our services are without cost and we refuse to participate in a system that exploits artist and pressures them to work for free. Just as we strive to make education accessible, we strive to make payment equitable.
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We pay teaching artists 70-80% commission for their work and 50% for co-facilitations. We recognize that teaching artists deserve fair compensation for their emotional labor, wisdom, and artistry in the facilitation process. We want our collaborators to know and feel that they are valued and deserving of fair treatment.
Bird City Improv’s business model is radical by design, rooted in an ethic of compassion. To read more about our ethos, click here.