Building Leaders and Community
Launched in 2017, MHI’s Summer Music Camp builds upon opportunities for peer mentorship at school by training youth to lead music lessons, which reinforces knowledge, teaches patience and improves planning and communication skills. The camp also gives children with no prior music training the chance to engage in creative, gender-balanced summer programming that increases access to music in a safe community space. Overall, this program enhances MHI’s model by increasing our capacity to educate children, deepening our impact on the individual and turning music students into role models who help create supportive communities.
Cultivating Peer Leaders
“Zazou is a teacher. … He still doesn’t have a drum set, but Zazou has a few pots and every now and then he drums on them. He shows other kids how to play the drums. Even I look at him play and learn how to do some things. It’s thanks to him because he has become a teacher in his neighborhood.”