DJ school in Rocinha?

It's hip and cool to get involved, especially when you name drop Rio de Janeiro. Making a difference here doesn't get much cooler... until now.

There is a group giving the kids of Rocinha a shot at a dream and it is one hell of a good one: Rocinha Media School! Not all trades need to be boring and this program, spin Rocinha, is the opposite of that. They teach Rocinha lovers of music professional dj skills.

From their mission statement:

Rocinha Media School (RMS) was established as a venue for the pursuit of cultural practices that foster ideas and collaborations in electronic media, with a focus on the intersection between music, performance, technology, and culture. RMS supports the creation and presentation of digital media projects achieved through the use of affordable new, evolving, and industry standard technologies.

RMS’s arts education mission responds to an academic, and economic, shortfall and a community request to:  
• Honor and build on the community’s cultural diversity 
• Teach methods of artistic expression, from established to new technologies
• Create and reinforce opportunities to facilitate arts and media development
• Develop creative skills of emerging and established media artists and their practices
• Provide a forum for discussion of relevant issues among youth and the community
• Integrate media programming with relevant issues that engage youth
• Develop partnerships with other cultural institutions 

I believe that reaching out to at risk youths has to come in numerous forms. For me, this is a new and different kind of program. It has the potential to reach kids who have no interest in the normal outreach programs. In addition, music is naturally therapeutic and Spin Rocinha is giving these kids an opportunity to express themselves. Trust me, not all of them get that normally.

So how to get involved. Well, Jim at Qualidade da Vida is having a fund raiser to help get them an ipad that would greatly help with the technology aspect of the program. Crazy thing is that over half the people I know have one to play with, why can't these guys have it to take things to the next level? Anyway, that is a start.

You can also go visit their site and see how you can personally get involved. And remember:

SPIN ROCINHA is a youth empowerment and music development program, implemented by Rocinha Media School, in which Rocinha’s young people develop industry-standard DJing skills to produce music that is based on their experiences within the community. Using a process that enables youths to explore issues of democratic, community participation through media empowerment, the program advances the distinctive cultural narratives that help shape Rocinha and the region.