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