The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and Youth Orchestra and Communities In Schools of Jacksonville have launched “Jump Start Strings,” following a $27,000 grant from the Jim Moran Foundation. Under the new initiative, 81 first-, second-, and third-graders will learn to play a stringed instrument at three afterschool enrichments sites in Jacksonville. Students will be provided with an instrument and professional music instruction one day a week, plus supervised practice time four days a week. The program is inspired by the El Sistema educational model in Venezuela. Children in the program have been selected from the Communities In Schools TEAM UP afterschool program at Woodland Acres Elementary School, Pickett Elementary School, and Reynolds Lane Elementary School. Communities In Schools is a Jacksonville-based provider of in-school dropout-prevention services, including case management, afterschool, literacy, and mentoring services to 6,000 children. The Jim Moran Foundation, based in Deerfield Beach, Florida, supports a variety of youth and family programs in Florida.
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