- Connect with Us
Our Approach
A Student-Centered, Community-Driven Approach
The challenges facing our communities are systemic and deeply connected. To respond, we work with over 50 community partners to ensure young people have access to music, care, and essential resources. Music labs are built across Philadelphia in shelters, schools, trauma clinics, foster care settings, and anti-violence programs — meeting youth where they are and connecting them to broader community support.
BTB's Ecosystem of Support
Systemic Problems Need Systemic Solutions
Students in invitational programs can try out BTB programming throughout the city in locations such as youth shelters, diversion, trauma clinics, foster care, and rec centers. Music Labs are built by BTB in the partner programs spaces and then run by our community based teachers. Students can continue on in the partner programs for as long as they would like (students often stay in locations such as shelters for transitory periods of time). When students identify that music is something that they enjoy they can then join one of our receiver programs.
Once students identify that they enjoy music we use our transition team to not only help students join BTB receiver programs but work to ensure that they are connected to additional resources through our wide network of community based partners. Students in invitational programs fill out daily reports skiing if they want to do additional classes with Beyond the Bars and if they have additional needs such as shelter, food, counseling, clothing or education. We then work to connect our youth to additional Beyond the Bars programming in their neighborhood and connect resources and partners to our youth to help ensure that their basic needs are being met.
Students can then join our larger receiver programs that receive students coming from partner exposure programs throughout the city. These self run programs last throughout students’ adolescence and can help them with performing shows, recording their own music and engaging in career counseling towards their personal goals. Our Receiver programs are ongoing programming sites that are located in our students’ neighborhoods so that they do not have to travel far to express themselves with music and be supported by a compassionate community. In receiver programs students can perform shows, write and record their own music and grow according to their artistic goals.
The student teacher programs works with tenured students to develop as leaders and learn how to be music educators and peer mentors and mediators where they are then hired by community partners such as Parks and Recreation to be employed to be co-teachers as music labs that we helped build. We additionally hire our student teachers to teach throughout the city and start music programs at their schools where they did not previously exist. When students graduate high school our student teachers join our adult teaching ranks and grow further as leaders in the organization. The student tech team further helps refurbish computers and build the musical spaces throughout the city. In this way our youth are helping build accessible resources for our city (student tech team) and then staffing and lead them (student teacher program)
How We Operate
How Our Work Takes Shape
Beyond the Bars works to use music as medium for our students to engage in accomplishing their own goals for their growth. We work to first assist them in supporting our students in using music as a means of self expression where they showcase their emotions in positive and healthy ways according to their particular interests. As students further develop their skills in music we work to foster self efficacy in helping our young people realize the incredibly talented artists and leaders that they are and their capabilities and skills. As students develop their passions and realize their talents we then work to use music as a means of self exploration where students receive career counseling and informational interviews to be working towards identifying what careers they would be like to pursuing next in life. Music is a powerful channel by which our young people can accomplish their goals in life and BTB works to support them in their journey.
How Our Programs Flow
From First Exposure to Ongoing Support
Students are frequently first exposed to Beyond the Bars through attending one of our intro level partner programs where we collaborate with orgs throughout the city where youth attend. We work to create as many intro pathways for students to be exposed to musical programming as possible so that our youth have the choice of whether they are interested in music or not.
When students identify music as an interest in their life we then work to assist our students into a transition team where they receive more focused support and foundational musical songwriting skills. Once students have passed through the transitional team they will then move onto either a Student Driven Music Academy Program if they are interested in instruments of a Practical Producers Program if they are interested in production.
In both of these programs students receive deeper and more ongoing supports from our musical community where they can continue to grow. Lastly when students have identified an interest to teach or lead we further work with our youth assist them in a teacher training track where they receive supports as they grow to be a paid teacher for the next generation of students.