Anyone attending the Sci Tech Band’s spring concert in April in the school’s gym would have seen several hundred high school musicians all dressed in black warming up to play under a huge sign that says: “Everything Matters.”

They would have heard several young musicians tell the audience what the band means to them, including Jesus, who said: “At home you have your family. At school, you have band.”

Multiply that sentiment by every Sci Tech student ready to blast the exuberant “Sci-Tech Cheer,” and you have some idea of the difference this band makes in a historically underperforming school.

The band, which has been called “the Pride of Springfield,” is a major point of pride for the school with its 500 members who are three times more likely to stay in school than non-band students. That’s because they’ve learned skills under conductor Gary Bernice and his colleagues not only in music, but also in leadership and community.

And that’s why the band is a 2024 recipient of a grant from the Emily List Fund, established in Emily’s memory in 2012 to foster inclusion in the performing arts. The Fund has given more than $100,000 to support 27 groups who are using the performing arts to reach a broad array of people who might otherwise be excluded because of income, physical ability or mental health.

Another of this year’s recipients is Theatre Horizon in Norristown, Pennsylvania, where Nell Bang Jensen, who grew up in Amherst, is artistic director.

Bang Jensen will use Emily’s grant to launch a series of one-day Autism Drama Workshops for students participating in the theater’s award-winning Autism Drama Program (ADP). The grant will allow the theater to offer workshops in which its 76 ADP students will have the opportunity to engage in master classes and specialized one-day course offerings to keep the magic going in summer and between ADP’s regular sessions.

Bang Jensen says, “our classes help students develop social skills, verbal expression, empathy for others and a sense of self-worth.”

Surveys have shown that ADP students are able to work more cooperatively, to more readily accept others’ differences and mistakes; to have more confidence in making friends and to express a sense of accomplishment.

A sense of accomplishment is something shared with the other 2024 grant recipients, including the Me2 Orchestra, made up largely of musicians with mental health diagnoses. Me2, based in Boston and Manchester, New Hampshire, focuses on erasing stigma through “supportive rehearsals and inspiring performances.”

Music Director and Conductor Ronald Braunstein, who has a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, started the orchestra because of the discrimination he faced in the music world and his desire to create a safe space for himself and others.

Emily’s Fund in its very first year supported Me2’s request for chairs and music stands when both the Fund and the orchestra were just starting out. Seeing the orchestra perform Brahms and Tchaikovsky in April made it clear how far the orchestra has come from those early days.

Finally, Melissa van Wijk, director of Born Dancing in New York City, will use her ninth grant from Emily’s Fund to focus this year on facilitating greater inclusion in dance though dance education.

Van Wijk recently led two immersive workshops for dance teachers in the New York public schools along with some of her company dancers who have disabilities.

One of her goals has always been to help her dancers with disabilities find employment in the field.

“A beautiful full circle moment came when I taught one of the sessions with one of our adult dancers who has Down syndrome and who started with us when she was 14,” she said.

Born Dancing also has a new contract with the NYC Dept. of Education to provide dance education services to students with disabilities in the city’s public schools, and Van Wijk hopes to create and provide a dance/theater internship for teens with complex disabilities.

As van Wijk works with dance educators, she wants “to expand the discussion not just from how we best teach students with disabilities, but what and how we teach all students — especially those who do not have a disability — about how disability belongs in dance.”

In some respects, Emily’s Fund has grown up with these stellar programs.

Emily and Nell Bang Jensen literally grew up together in Amherst. And Emily’s Fund has helped the Sci-Tech Band, the Me2 Orchestra and Born Dancing grow their programs.

It’s been a 12-year commitment to inclusion — one song, one dance, one show at a time.

But as Emily would tell you, when you’re talking about inclusivity in the performing arts, “everything matters.”

For more information about the Emily List Fund, visit emilylistfund.org.

Karen List is Emily’s mom and professor emeritus in the UMass Journalism Department.