Guitars for Kids

Greetings from Musical Youth Foundation HQ,

A very grandiose sounding introduction indeed but I should point out that our Headquarters are basically wherever I can get a power source for my laptop and a Wi-Fi connection. Usually this means working from home, which can be challenging to say the least but today it means working from a local coffee shop, just a stone’s throw from the mouth of the River Liffey in Dublin. The buzz and atmosphere is a welcome change from my small apartment.

As usual the last few months have been completely hectic and as I sit down to write this update for you I am wondering where all the time goes!? It seems like only last week I was preparing for the start of the new school year and now here we are in June and I’m compiling end of term reports and planning for the new term in September. (Planning on where I’ll source the funds to keep classes going mostly.)

My grandmother always used to say to me “time flies when you’re having fun” so I guess I must be having a lot of fun, although it doesn’t always feel like that when you’ve exhausted every option and still don’t have the funds to help all the kids that currently don’t have access to Education Equality.

Fundraising frustrations aside I’m happy to report that we are making slow but steady progress and that is surely something to be proud of. We’re moving forward, creating new partnerships, forging new alliances and generally preparing to take our project to the next level. Over the coming weeks and months I will reveal more details as the time comes to show the world what we’ve been working on. Exciting times ahead for sure!

Next up will be the launch of our “Champions of Music Education” fundraising drive which has been designed to secure a basic level of funding for the Musical Youth Foundation to do its work and plan for the medium to long-term future instead of having to firefight for fundraising all the time. Our goal is to help a minimum of 500 young people over the next 18 months. Over the last few weeks we’ve been working with a very talented artist based in Dublin to create an exclusive artwork which will be given as a limited edition framed print to our “Champions of Music Education” in recognition of their support. Ah but I’m getting ahead of myself, all will be revealed in good time!

In the classroom…

Our Guitars for Kids programme is really flying now. We’ve got 17 programmes running every week in locations across Ireland. Over 200 students ranging in age from 8 to 16 are benefiting from our successful music education programme on a weekly basis. As lessons finish up for the summer holidays students are busy preparing for end of term performances. It’s great to see how excited and motivated they all are. I’ve been fortunate to be able to visit all the centres and present Certificates of Achievement to the young people on your behalf. You can see the pride in their eyes as they look over their personalised certs….many of these kids don’t get much encouragement never mind an award in recognition of their effort over the last year. I already know this will help to keep them focused on what more they can achieve next term.

With your support we’ll provide over 1600 hours of professional lessons and 3200 hours of practise sessions by the time this year draws to a close. Confidence is sky high and the results are evident outside of the music lessons as the young people engaged with our programme are demonstrating improved academic results.

In short your donation is helping us to do all this and in areas where without your support these young people would be surrounded by nothing but misery. To give you an idea of the surroundings many of our young people are growing up in we have 3 centres helping over 40 children all within 5 minutes’ walk of where 5 out of 7 recent gangland murders have taken place in the last couple of months alone.

As I walk the streets of Dublin 1 where we operate a number of Guitars for Kids programmes I pass dirty streets littered with human excrement (sorry, but I’m really not exaggerating) and overflowing litter bins. In the last week alone I’ve seen old fridges dumped on the side of the road along with a variety of other odds and ends that people just discard on the side of the road…someone else’s problem now I imagine they think though in truth people prepared to dump their rubbish on a public street where young people are growing up probably don’t give much thought to anything outside of their own self-interest. I regularly see drug dealers selling to junkies in the open, making no secret of their activity and I wonder how all this impacts on the young people who are growing up around these mean streets of Dublin City!? I’m talking about an area that is between 5 and ten minutes from the very heart of Dublin. It’s no wonder many young people get sucked into anti-social behaviour and much worse in some cases. I’d say it is a miracle if you can avoid such things when growing up around such deprivation.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, there are many wonderful things happening in these and other communities and the Musical Youth Foundation is having a real and lasting positive impact and that is with thanks to YOU! Seriously, without your donations all we have is a wonderful idea but it is your donations that make it possible for us to deliver our programme to hundreds of vulnerable young children in Ireland and make a world of difference to their lives.

What the kids say…

I got chatting with some of the young people that recently finished their lessons for the summer and here’s what they had to say;

“I never thought I’d be sad to see the summer holidays but I’m really gonna miss my guitar group.” – Layla, age 14

“Deadly, I never got an award for anything before. Maybe my Ma will stick it up on the fridge.” – Rob, age 11

“I’m gonna practise all summer long and master all the chords in time for September.” – Luke, age 15

“Really love doing the performances, it makes me want to do more and better.” – Kate, age 12

Instrument Bank

While financial donations are what we need most of all to keep the show on the road we’ve been lucky to get many instrument donations too. All working instruments are distributed amongst our partner community centres, youth groups and schools around Ireland where the young people can try them out and if they like them they can take them home to play and practise with. I recently presented a young African girl with her very own guitar…having recently moved here under difficult circumstances she has never had her own guitar but was attending a local centre and getting some one on one lessons with a youth worker. She was in tears when I gave her the guitar. She eventually was able to explain that she loves music and playing the guitar helps to distract her from missing her family and friends back home. Not having a guitar of her own meant practise was restricted to the times she could visit the centre for lessons…now she can practise whenever she likes.

That’s all for now, I’ll have more news and updates for you in the coming months. As always, thank you for your help and support so far and please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have!

Links:

• RTE Winning Streak meets the MYF

Greetings from Musical Youth Foundation HQ!

I hope you had a lovely Easter Break!? While personally I'm not one to celebrate the religious aspect, I can't deny I do enjoy the odd bite of chocolate and who can argue with the chance to spend a little quality time with family and friends? It was a long weekend here in Ireland thanks to the Bank Holiday and there was much excitement in the air due to the 1916 Centenary celebrations that kicked off in Dublin and attracted hundreds of thousands of families to the streets of Dublin and to towns and villages around the country.

Most of the schools are still closed for the mid-term break which means I'm busy getting everything ready for the new term which will bring us to the end of June and the summer holidays. I can never get my head around how fast the weeks fly by. There's lots to prepare with over 200 children now accessing our weekly Guitars for Kids classes across 17 different locations in Ireland. Not to mention the on-going drive to source and secure more and more funding so that we can help even more vulnerable children in Ireland.

Knowing there are literally thousands of vulnerable children across Ireland, and beyond for that matter, that could really benefit from our proven, life-changing music education programmes if only money wasn't an issue is a matter of constant frustration for me. Money shouldn't be an issue; our programme is extremely cost effective and ultimately has the power to save the Social Welfare system hundreds of millions of euro. Almost half of all early school-leavers in Ireland end up dependent on social welfare at an average cost of €20k per annum in payments and lost revenue or €800,000. per person over a life-time which is calculated at 40 years - I can see a massive problem with this number straight away given we are all, touch-wood, living much longer. The real cost is significantly higher. Just imagine all the good that could be done to alleviate the many social problems with the savings!

In contrast music education can ensure young people remain engaged with the overall education process at a cost of approximately €6. per person per week. Imagine if for 10 years from the age of 8 to 18 we provided weekly lessons to all students. The cost would be between €10,000. to €15,000. per person (the costs go down as we scale up) but would ultimately save many multiples of that in the long-term. And what of the massive cultural impact? We'd certainly be taking a big step in protecting our musical heritage and too the music industry. Mental health too would be greatly improved. Music makes people happy and is a fantastic stress-reliever.

Education is the greatest gift any society can give its children and currently thousands of children in Ireland are being let down in the most important way. They don't have access to music lessons. They don't fit into the one dimensional education system and there's no one at home promoting the value and importance of education because Mom and Dad where also let down by the system. We don't all learn in the same way, music education can help to bridge that gap.

Together with your support we can use people power to ensure every child in Ireland has access to #EducationEquality and from there, who knows? We can change the world by bringing music education to everyone, everywhere! Well it's important to DREAM BIG in order to achieve BIG RESULTS. I can't do it alone; I need you standing with me to make this difference. Will you join the fight by making a donation today and asking a friend to do the same?

There's an interesting TED Talk here about how the way we think about charity is all wrong. It's by Dan Pallotta and worth viewing to the end.

So what else is going on?

I'm really excited about the coming months, despite the on-going financial challenges. We were recently featured on Ireland's national broadcaster, a two minute video seen by approximately 400,000 people. I'll post the video on our website and social media channels as soon as I get it. It's this kind of exposure that is key to our growth and development. There's also some really exciting stuff in the pipeline; I've recently teamed up with a global tech company and together we're working on building a game which will help to spread our message far and wide while also helping to increase donations. There's a major bank that wants to help us collect all the unused musical instruments from around the country and re-home them with kids that otherwise wouldn't ever have the chance to own and play a musical instrument. I'm also in talks about bringing a group of 20 volunteers from another software giant on a journey to build and launch a music festival, all for the benefit of raising awareness and funds for the Musical Youth Foundation. These and many more things are giving me reason to hope that it won't be long before we reach the next stage of our development and finally get a little money behind the cause so that we can start to implement our plans.

Classroom Update!

Most importantly of all our weekly guitar classes and practise sessions are really flying now. I get such a buzz out of visiting each project and seeing the growing groups of young people busily learning to play their instruments. We've got waiting lists across all 17 locations which is great from a popularity perspective but I can't see past the kids who want to learn but can't because of money, small money too. You can help me to change this, seriously! You work hard but are time poor between work and family etc. but you have the power to enable me to help all the forgotten children. So why not set up monthly donation here via GlobalGiving and together we will do something wonderful to make the world a brighter place!

Many of our students got to perform on stage for the first time in the last few months and they really loved it. Here's some of what they've been saying;

"I was so nervous on stage I forgot to smile but I didn't want to miss a single note with everyone watching and listening. I smile now though, every time I think of myself on stage and at the end when everyone stood up to clap." - Sinead, age 13

"The Christmas show was a deadly buzz. I can't wait to get on stage again." - John, age 14

"I used to be so shy to even put my hand up in school. I'd turn bright red when teachers ever singled me out with a question. Even if I knew the answer in my head, it never made it to my mouth. Since joining the guitars group and playing on stage with the group all that's gone now. I think I nearly gave my teacher a heart attack on the first day back after Christmas when my hand shot up voluntarily to answer a question." - Janice, age 15

Well, that's all the news for now. There's much more to come but for now please, please do consider what you can do to help the Musical Youth Foundation reach its full potential. I'm really not joking when I say together we can make a real and lasting difference to the lives of thousands of children. With your help we can spread the message far and wide. It shouldn't be too difficult then to find 300 companies to donate just €500. each - this would help us to bring music education to almost 1,000 kids and would allow us to take a step up the growth ladder.

Will you donate and ask the right person in your office to consider becoming a MUSIC EDUCATION CHAMPION by donating just €500. or €9.61 per week?

As always, thanks for your help and support so far and please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have!

Peace and best wishes,

Chris

Links:

• Dan Pallotta - The way we think about charity is dead wrong