Many of us made resolutions at the beginning of this year. If your resolutions included helping children in need, then you need to check out Little Kids Rock.

As a middle school orchestra teacher myself, this program hits really close to home. I have seen music programs in my district get their budgets cut, and I have seen teachers lose their jobs because their administration decided that music wasn’t a priority. This not only affects the teacher, but it also deprives the students of a well-rounded education.

Little Kids Rock was founded in the Bay Area of San Francisco by David Wish, a former elementary school teacher. Wish was dissatisfied with his school’s lack of funding for music education and decided to take action: he started offering after-school guitar classes to interested students. When his classes became more popular than he could have imagined, he decided to expand his program on the national level.

The program attracted interest from legendary blues musicians John Lee Hooker and BB King, who gave Little Kids Rock its initial support. With their help, Little Kids Rock transformed from a program with a handful of students to a nationally-recognized non-profit organization that has helped thousands of students across the country.

Little Kids Rock now has locations in over 20 cities across the nation, and counts Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, BB King, Ziggy Marley and Slash as its Honorary Board Members.

Little Kids Rock trains public school music teachers during a two-day workshop. After training teachers in the unique Little Kids Rock curriculum, the teachers are then free to run the program at their school, either within the core curriculum (during the school day) or in an after-school program. Because the instruments are donated free of charge, there is absolutely no cost to the school. In addition to providing curriculum and instruments to schools, Little Kids Rock also provides free resources, such as curriculum available through iTunes U and YouTube.

Even though the program continues to thrive, they can always use your support. Whether you are a wizard rocker who is also a public school teacher (I’m looking at you, Bryce Cone!) or a fan who has some experience with arts administration, there are a number of ways you can get involved with Little Kids Rock. You can sign up to receive newsletters here, or make a tax-deductible monetary donation here.

For even more information on this amazing program, have a look at their PDF press kit.