excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral . please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate citations to reliable independent third party sources . april 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message little kids rock inc. type non profit organization industry nonprofit education founded 2002 headquarters verona new jersey key people david wish founder website littlekidsrock.org little kids rock is a national 501 c 3 nonprofit organization based in verona new jersey that provides free music instruction and instruments to under served public school districts across the united states . their modern band curriculum is rooted in popular music rock blues hip hop reggae country funk etc. and their teaching methods are rooted in the teaching music as a language with a heavy emphasis on composition and improvisation . the organization is a 4 star rated charity by charity navigator 1 and is known for restoring and revitalizing music education in us public schools . 2 contents 1 history 2 supporters 3 amp up nyc initiative 4 references 5 external links history edit the program dates back to 1996 when david wish an elementary school teacher began giving free guitar lessons to his students . after a short time he started recruiting other volunteers to help him with his efforts including celebrity supporters like bonnie raitt 3 and carlos santana . 4 in 2002 little kids rock became a nonprofit organization 5 and in the following years the programme was extended to new york city and several other public schools districts . supporters edit little kids rock is supported by a significant number of prominent music industry figures . 6 in may 2015 red hot chili peppers drummer chad smith was given the livin the dream award at the first annual little kids rock family jam benefit at facebook s menlo park campus for his work to help expand public schoolchildren s access to music education . the benefit raised over 85 000 to help provide music education for students . 7 8 amp up nyc initiative edit berklee college of music and little kids rock have partnered 9 with the new york city department of education nycdoe to expand the district s modern band music program to an additional 60 000 students in 600 city schools . 10 the amp up nyc initiative is the largest private investment to date in a city s public school music education program . 11 the donated services and resources for this initiative are estimated at 10 million . berklee college of music and little kids rock will contribute teacher training modern band curriculum and thousands of new musical instruments . outside contributors include the walker family foundation and bohemian foundation . the program is already live in more than 70 classrooms . we are excited because we have been working with little kids rock for many years and we ve seen how effective their work is . we hope that this becomes a model for other large school systems in the united states to follow . paul king nycdoe executive director of the office of arts and special projects 12 references edit little kids rock . 1 les paul foundation 2 bonnie raitt supports little kids rock 3 carlos santana supports little kids rock draper richards kaplan foundation http www.littlekidsrock.org friends our big fans watch rhcp s chad smith jam with children for little kids rock event . rolling stone . may 25 2015 . retrieved may 25 2015 . national nonprofit little kids rock to honor chad smith at family friendly fundraiser at facebook hq . market watch . may 16 2015 . retrieved may 16 2015 . 4 berklee.edu 5 wall street journal 6 boston globe http vimeo.com 89878778 at 0 external links edit little kids rock s official web site retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title little kids rock & oldid 730326565 categories educational charities based in the united statescharities based in new jerseyverona new jerseyhidden categories articles lacking reliable references from april 2014all articles lacking reliable references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages fran aisportugu st rk e edit links this page was last modified on 18 july 2016 at 08 52 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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