August Update

Greetings from Musical Youth Foundation HQ in Dublin, Ireland and Welcome to our quarterly Guitars for Kids project update. This is our chance to inform you on how we’ve invested your donations, the impact your support is having and of course any other exciting news we’ve got to share with you!

While the summer months see most of our weekly music education projects take a short break to coincide with the annual school summer holidays there’s no such leisurely break for the team working behind the scenes to keep the Musical Youth Foundation projects alive. While August may be a month off for our students the rest of the team is busy planning events and raising funds for the new term in September. Never an easy task with so many important and deserving charitable causes fighting for your attention and ultimately your vital donations.

Before I reveal our ambitious plans for September and onwards let me give you just a quick overview of how exactly your support has helped vulnerable young children in Ireland over the last few months;

• Provided 100 at-risk kids with access to free weekly music education programmes
• Delivered over 266 hours of professional guitar lessons
• Delivered 798 hours of on-site practise sessions
• Delivered 100+ instruments to young people (guitars, bass, drums, keyboards)

The impact these lessons and practise sessions are having on the young people we are working with cannot be over stated. For most of the kids we work with the weekly music lessons and practise sessions are the highlight of their week, the only thing they have to look forward to and the only time they’ll receive positive praise, feedback and encouragement. The knock-on effect can be seen in all areas of their lives, and in particular with ensuring they remain engaged with the overall education process.

We couldn’t have achieved any of this without YOU! No really, without your support the charity could not continue to operate – it’s that simple. So on behalf of myself as CEO and from all of our participating students…THANK YOU for supporting the Musical Youth Foundation!

And so to the future…

Our mission has always been relatively simple – we want to ensure every child in Ireland has access to the life-changing benefits of music education. This will not only help the young people themselves but will have a much wider impact on our community going forward and ultimately make Ireland a better place to live, work and visit!

The last few years have been frustrating to say the least. The economic turmoil has meant a detrimental drop in funding support from all sectors and while we’ve got a proven system for helping vulnerable young people the financial support needed has been extremely hard to find. Despite this and with your support we’ve managed to do a lot with very little and now as the new school term approaches we want to do even more to help Ireland’s at-risk young people.

So what’s the plan?

Between now and the end of October we’re going to more than double the number of vulnerable young children we support annually by creating an additional ten new Music Education Partnerships around Ireland. That’s ten new centres! This will allow us to help an extra 120 kids and bring the total number of young people we assist to over 220 and counting. Onwards and upwards!

So how can you help?

Simple, we need your donations today. Give what you can afford and please give regularly if you can. Every little helps and it all adds up!

A Chance to win…

Please make a donation today and in return we will enter you in a draw for a unique piece of Instrumental Art (pictured) titled ‘Cottage Violin’ created by artist Brian Gallagher and valued at €500. +. The draw will take place live on the Soul Kitchen on 103.2 Dublin City FM on Thursday October 8th 2015 at approximately 10.20pm.

Tell a friend…

While your financial support is vital please don’t forget the power of your voice. Tell a friend about the work we do, why you have chosen to support our cause and encourage them to help out. There’s no better form of advertising than word of mouth and together we can spread our successful music programme across the island of Ireland and make a better future for our nation’s children!

A date for your diary…

On Friday September 4^th 2015 the Musical Youth Foundation will host an alternative to the annual Electric Picnic music festival by staging a “No Tent Required” mini music festival in the Grand Social venue at 35 Lower Liffey Street. The event kicks off at 9pm and will include performances from; Fox E & The Good Hands, The Mariannes, Mongrel State, The Scareblues Band, Johnny Rayge and DJ Karl Tsigdinos (River of Soul). Tickets are just €5 and available from the door on the night.

As always I thank you for your support on behalf of the children and welcome any queries you may have. I’m always happy to hear from you, our supporters!