April has been full of blooming, outside and inside. Last week, I was awarded a grant of $3,800 from the Youth Philanthropy Project of the Whatcom Community Foundation. For the past six months, I’ve volunteered to bring the joy of music to kids at the Whatcom County Juvenile Detention Center. I’ve facilitated drum circles, ukulele lessons and songwriting lessons there. But I’ve probably learned more from the kids then I’ve taught.
Here is a description of my work, as stated in the grant application:
The vision of this program is to increase confidence and life skills among teens in the Whatcom Juvenile Detention Center by providing music education,
collaboration, and performance opportunities.
Goals of the program:
-Provide music experiences designed to inspire youth, foster collaboration, and offer personal growth with a
low barrier to entry for non-musicians
-Increase confidence and self-efficacy for music making by drawing participants into a simple, low-pressure
environment of a drum circle
-Measure personal growth in life skills areas such as self-awareness and increased capacity for creative
problem-solving
-Give students an appreciation of music that they can take with them for the rest of their lives
This program offers hour-long, weekly music lessons and song-writing sessions for teens at the Whatcom County Juvenile Detention Center. As the one who initiated the program, I’ve volunteered to teach these lessons on Tuesday evenings for the past five months. Over this time, I’ve come to see the benefits of music on self-esteem and creating community. I’ve seen teens eager to play, and even lead drum circles. I have shared in laughter with the teens and the guards and have been told the kids look forward to our classes each week.
Moving forward, I aim to run a 3-month program incorporating more instruments, more participant engagement in program design and delivery, and a plan to measure program outcomes. The goal is to provide lessons that everyone can participate in and benefit from. Lessons will be on the fundamentals of music, music appreciation, and musical collaboration. Various instruments will be provided
so students with different levels of musical experience can participate. Instruments include guitars and ukuleles already donated to the project, as well as Tubano drums and other percussion that I hope to acquire through this grant.
Students will get opportunities to design and lead drum circle activities. In one activity, a student will get to initiate a drum part and call on other students to join in. Another activity will be in call-and-response form, based on African drum circles. In this activity, students take turns leading with a call and getting a response
from the group. Students will also take a part we’ve learned as a group and create other parts that they believe fit.
Finally, the instructor will regularly ask students for ideas they have about the structure of activities and if they’d like to propose new activities. There is also a songwriting and performance element to this project, intended to provide a sense of creative empowerment. In almost every group I’ve sat with there has been someone who enjoys writing lyrics. These students have valuable knowledge to share with the rest of us.
At the beginning and end of the program, students will take a Life Effectiveness Questionnaire to gauge the impact of the program. This data will be used to evaluate the program and extend it in the future.
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