Ohrenberger Students Learning Hip Hop After School

Students who attend the Ohrenberger School in Roslindale are "busting moves" hip hop style after school with the help of professional dancers provided by BalletRox. A group of 11 4th and 5th graders are creating a dance that will be performed as part of their school assembly before the end of the year.Over 30 2nd and 3rd graders also participate in this two-month experience and it is hoped that the program will expand to the Ohrenberger Community Center and the Beethoven Elementary School this coming year.

To learn more about how you might be able to start something similar in your own community - read more here.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Launches Inner City Afterschool Program

Inspired by a countrywide program in Venezuela that brings music to several hundred thousand low-income children, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has launched OrchKids. OrchKids will be piloted initially in an elementary afterschool program where students will be taught the basics of music in the first year and will choose an instrument to study in subsequent years.

Lawrence Music Afterschool Program Profiled

"For many at-risk youth in Lawrence, the violin offers a path to a gang-free life. Kids are "in gangs because they lack a sense of identity and belonging," Marcia Lier, director of Community Strings of Lawrence, told the Boston Globe. "A lot of kids in our program have difficult home lives, but [playing the violin] builds such self-confidence, such pride. I've seen some big-time attitudes fall by the wayside." Community Strings offers free violin lessons before, during and after school, on Saturdays and throughout the summer to more than 75 students in second through eighth grades. The program teaches students to give back to the community as well, scheduling performances in local hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers."

Listing courtesy of the Afterschool Alliance.


Editor's note: This is an example of an arts-based afterschool program and how the arts provide engaging and enriching alternatives for the Commonwealth's young people that can make a real difference in their lives.