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Arts and music education helps students succeed, teaches important lifeskills

The National Capital Area affiliate of Guitars Not Guns is a community-based, all-volunteer organization that believes the best way to help disadvantaged and at-risk young people is through music. Guitars Not Guns provides free weekly guitar lessons to Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. students between the ages of 11 and 18. The lessons help give students the confidence, maturity, responsibility, and character it takes to learn to play an instrument and become a productive member of society. Students are loaned a guitar for the first level of instruction and are given that guitar when they successfully complete the program. Volunteers teach the free lessons, organize activities, and plan mentoring trips to concerts and recording studios.

The organization needs volunteers to teach guitar lessons, help find locations to conduct classes, and identify sponsors and partnership organizations.

The D.C. Arts and Humanities Collaborative aims to bring quality arts education to all D.C. school students. Since 1998, the organization’s "Arts for Every Student Program" has served more than 322,000 students and educators by bringing the arts into the classroom and taking students out to the Washington area's arts scene.

Available at no cost to all public and charter schools in the District of Columbia, the program brings artists into the schools for presentations, workshops, lectures, and performances. It also plans free field trips for students to visit museums and see storytelling, music, dance, and theater performances.

For more information, visit Guitars Not Guns and the D.C. Arts and Humanities Collaborative.