A veteran with a valid dd-214 or active duty military student and a diagnosis of PTSD or Depression (and some physical limitations are also considered) is provided a loaner guitar and an instructor to provide 16 one on one classes provided at 1 hour per week. The students are allowed 2 makeup days, if they can not attend for health or acts of mother nature those will not be counted. At the end of the 16 week course the student gets a diploma package that will include a brand new, handmade in the USA, electric guitar, lap steel or bass, depending on their lesson selection, that is theirs to keep. They will then be invited to continue to take lessons at a minor cost of $5 per week donation to help with the maintaining of the space we get to use for this program. If a student surpasses a 32 week program they will be inducted into our Player Hall of Fame in which ever category they have chosen to learn to play in. They will also at that point be evaluated and offered the chance to teach what they have learned to a new flight of students. Students will also get an assessment once monthly to track the progression of their PTSD or depression to help with informational metrics and to help determine if they need to be referred to any mental health specialists to further their recovery.
Our program is specifically designed to help create a coping mechanism to help the student focus their mind in a positive direction instead of a self destructive path. We can not emphasize enough that we are not a medical program we are a supportive program and our program works best when a student is enrolled in some form of counseling or is seeing a medical professional on a regular basis. We embrace the drug free approach of counseling blended with our program as the best method in all but the most extreme cases.