Youth Music Production
& DJ Program

Give a Beat reaches over 1,000 young people annually in partnership with organizations who specialize in serving system-impacted, resilient youth.

Since 2015, Give a Beat has been dedicated to delivering music production and DJ programs to youth aged 11-26 in underserved communities and high-stress environments. As a member of the admirable Arts for Healing & Justice Network, our mission is to provide exceptional arts programming aimed at redirecting lives and transforming the juvenile justice system.

By leveraging the power of music and the arts as preventive tools, we offer avenues for creative expression, enabling youth to discover their talents, bolster self-esteem, and build resilience against racial and economic injustices.

Our Youth Music Production & DJ Program extends its reach to juvenile halls, camps, halfway homes, schools, alternative schools, community centers, and parks. Collaborating with commendable partners such as the California Arts Council, Jail Guitar Doors, Street Poets, and LA County Parks & Recreation, we bring a trauma-informed curriculum that aims to provide at-promise youth with a visionary experience. The program incorporates  life skills, technical proficiency, and basic business acumen that can be applied across diverse career, educational, and social pathways.

  • Building Self-Esteem

  • Creative Self-Expression

  • Redirecting Lives

  • DJ Unknown at Roosevelt Park.

  • Raashey (participant) and Malachi (Teaching Artist) in Fresh Tracks.

  • Teaching Artist, Spiñorita, going through the basics of DJing.

  • Malachi and student working on Ableton equipment.

  • Teaching Artist, Shaine, and students learning how to make beats.

  • Raashey and JC in the C.A.P.O. Center studio, Fresh Tracks.

  • Recording studio at Jail Guitar Doors C.A.P.O. (Community Arts Programming and Outreach) Center.

  • Two students collaborating and DJing B2B at the parks.

  • JC, Fresh Tracks participant, mastering his latest track.

 

“I believe if there were programs like Give a Beat before I got incarcerated it would have changed my life, because all I really needed was an outlet.”

— Sean

“I came in here just to focus on lyrics. Out of nowhere, I figured out I have a gift for making beats. Next thing you know, a brother told me ‘you have an ear for music, that’s a gift of a producer.’ It's really opened up a lot in terms of realizing what else I'm good at. Once I learn everything, I can help people that are in my position. That’s dope, I love inspiring people.”

— RaShay