"Arts Aftercare comes with no extraneous agenda. Every Thursday they simply show up, hang out, and play music; young folks aren’t pressured to engage, they aren’t plied with incentives, they are simply offered the presence of positive adults who want nothing more than to sit and play music with them; this sincere, natural approach brings people in. Sometimes impromptu lessons take place, sometimes jam sessions generate, sometimes philosophical discussions, sometimes song writing, and sometimes it’s just the filling of space with beautiful noise."

"One of the things I really like about you guys coming in is that the approach you have is very much about you helping the young people learn different musical skills, but also being able to learn from them and recognizing that they are very talented... letting them teach you and being willing to be the student in the situation. There have been a couple times where I've seen two youth... playing together or singing together who normally don't associate with one another and might belong to different groups who don't hang out and might even be rivals. So it's really cool to see music bring them together and finding that common ground and way to express themselves and what they're going through, because a lot of times they are going through some rough situations... they just don't have a way of being able to see that, and I think music is very powerful in that way. [Your program] sets a really good tone in here... if things are chaotic it helps keep it calm, or it can keep up with the energy that's already happening."

-Brooke Beckwith (Community Outreach Volunteer/Activities Coordinator, from an audio recording)