This past December, we celebrated the 2021 class of Doing Good! Doing Good is a 25-session intensive after-school entrepreneurial program that provides guidance to high school musicians who want to positively impact their communities. The unique curriculum challenges students to view their curiosity about the world as a window through which they can see the needs, gaps, and opportunities they are best equipped to address. Throughout the semester, students ideate, plan, and implement a community based project under the guidance of Project 440 staff and teaching artists.

This cohort’s projects addressed social issues around mental health/wellbeing, homelessness, music education funding, and neighborhood beautification. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, our students were able to navigate virtual collaboration and teamwork to make their visions come to fruition. We are proud of the resilience and hard work put in by each member of this graduating class!

Rave Trio Benefit Project

Devin Casas, Joseph Castro, Grace Opong

Mission: Our project Rave Trio Benefit Project helps to grow middle and high school music programs. We perform as a trio in order to raise awareness about the struggling music programs in Philadelphia and raise money to donate to these programs. In addition, we help to create sustaining solutions for growing the music programs.

Healthy helpers

Meko Watson, Kaiya Brabham, Anisah Hedgespeth

Mission: Every two months, Healthy Helpers plans to help out the fellow people of this city by visiting neighborhoods and organizing locals of the neighborhood to help pick up trash, pull weeds, etc. to make the neighborhood look as clean and liveable as possible. As a reward for everyone’s hard work, we play a free outdoor concert.

hats organization

Raymond Lin, Vicki Lin

Mission: HATS Organization supports people who are homeless by sharing Chinese traditional classical music and raising funds.

Music for mental health

Hajra Kahn, Aqsa Kahn

Mission: Music for Mental Health provides high quality music therapy services to students in grades 6 to 12 with mental health issues.

Tranquillo

Jordon Rosh, Mandy Jiang, Maya Lindsey

Mission: Tranquillo works to descrease the stress levels of the younger generation through low-stress study spaces and informal performance opportunities.