Guitars for Kids

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