Kids in a New Groove Mentorship through Music:
- free
- in-home and virtual
- youth, ages 5 and up
- youth affiliated with the child welfare system
Our music lessons are provided by our trained volunteers - music mentors - who are carefully vetted to work with and encourage students' growth in musicality, creating trusting relationships and overall self-confidence.
We aim to give our students all the tools necessary to be successful, by providing each student with a loaner instrument, lesson materials, instrument accessories, etc.
In addition to weekly lessons, KING students are given the opportunity to attend experiential workshops during the year. The workshops focus on building social skills and educating students on the different areas of the music industry.
Students are also given the opportunity to perform on stage throughout the year, improving their confidence and self-esteem.
Frequently Asked Questions
Kids in a New Groove currently serves youth in Bastrop, Hays, Travis, and Williamson counties. Our service area is constantly changing, and growing, so please reach out if you have a youth in Central Texas interested in the program.
To enroll a student, you need to complete an application. The application can be filled out by a connected adult, such as a biological or foster parent, CPS (Child Protective Services) caseworker, CASA volunteer, etc.
After we receive a student application, we proceed to match the student with a music mentor. This process can take several weeks, as we need to find a music mentor who is in your same geographic area and can teach the instrument your student is wanting to learn.
We currently provide music mentorship for youth affiliated with the child welfare system, ages 5 and up.
We can find music mentors for any type of instrument lesson, such as voice, piano, drums, clarinet, trumpet, guitar, and more!
Yes, all music mentors go through an extensive application process, including training, background checks, and reference checks.
The music lessons take place in the child's home to ease transportation difficulties. Kids in a New Groove requires a caregiver to be present at all times during lessons. Due to the COVID pandemic, most of our lessons have moved to virtual. When it is safe to do so, we will return to in-person lessons and/or a hybrid of both virtual and in-person.
We try to make sure that the lessons are around 30 minutes each week to ensure relationship development. We are less focused on the exact length of the lesson because we understand the importance of the student and mentor connection, and that sometimes life just happens.
A child can stay in the program as long as the child and the music mentor are finding the lessons productive. If a child is reunified with their family, adopted, or ages out of care, they can continue lessons if they wish to do so.
No. Partnerships for Children provides a loaner instrument if the child does not have one. We have a student reward component of the mentoring through music program, where the student works on reaching goals to earn their own instrument to keep.
No, your child just needs to have the desire to take lessons, and that's it!
Yes! Partnerships for Children provides all the youth needs for their music lessons (i.e. loaner instrument, music lesson materials, etc.).