Our Mission
Where there is need, let there be action. Where there are dreams, let there be a path.
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything" – Plato
​
DUETKids provides no-cost musical education, instruments, and digital music creation for at risk, underserved, and low-income students. Through partnerships cultivated within the public school systems, local and historic emergency shelters, and after school programs for at risk populations, DUETKids has created a highly successful model pairing young students (referred by their music teacher within the schools) with high school and college students in our Student Teaching Students Initiative to conduct private musical instruction.
Multiple studies prove that music helps heal trauma and create new brain synapses and connections. By engaging older student teachers with elementary-aged students, DUETkids trains community volunteers and provides multiple opportunities in learning and pedagogy for Pre-K through College students.
Our Programs
Students Teaching Students Initiative
​
DUETKids partners with a local, award-winning charter school, headed by Kelli Horton, and trains students to teach younger students from at-risk, 100% Title 1 funded, elementary schools to learn how to plan a musical instrument. This program teaches high school students majoring in musical instruments to learn valuable job skills, such as success in the application process and interviewing, in addition to teaching. After training, students are either paid an hourly wage or given community service hours.
​
​
​
​
The Hitch Village Project
​
Once of our amazing programs includes giving music lessons to elementary and middle school students at Hitch Village, a historic government housing project in Savannah, Ga. These students rely only on programs the state provides in their schools, so they are not provided the access to one-on-one musical instruction. Hitch Village is a known gang-controlled environment, so DUETkids has offered the children in this project the opportunity for piano lessons and chorus practice. The project runs during the school year and will continue into the fall 2023-spring 2024 semesters. Beyond these weekly after school lessons, DUETkids has inspired the children in Hitch Village to continue their musical learning in more than just piano at the Savannah Jazz Academy.
​
​
​
Partnership with a Local Emergency Shelter
​
This past winter, DUETkids' student teachers taught at a holiday-themed camp in a local emergency domestic violence shelter. These children were in crisis and transient living situations, and our teachers instructed children ages 6-12 on the basics of piano in order for them to learned holiday songs that they can play anywhere they encounter a piano.
​
​
​
Upcoming Programs
​
-
The Hitch Village Project will continue alongside the public school system of Chatham County with weekly Chorus practice. Performances in piano and chorus will be initiated by the end of Spring 2024.
-
JEA Afterschool program will be an 8 week summer camp with twice weekly lessons serving up to 75 students.
-
Largo Tibet Elementary School will have virtual lessons for students identified to be in low income, at risk situations referred by the Music Specialist from that school.
-
Tharros House for Victims of Sex Trafficking opens summer 2023, and in the fall weekly lessons will be implemented for victims living in the shelter for ages 11-18.
