Beat the Odds integrates activities from contemporary drum circles and group counseling to teach skills
in focusing and listening, team building, positive risk taking, self-esteem, awareness of others, leadership, expressing feelings, managing anger/stress, empathy and gratitude. The program serves a whole classroom at a time and is designed for delivery by persons with no musical experience. It is inclusive, culturally relevant, and does not bear the stigma of therapy.
UCLA researchers have shown that Beat the Odds can significantly improve total behavior problems, as well as problems such as inattention, withdrawn/depression, posttraumatic stress, anxiety, attention deficit/hyperactivity, oppositional defiance, and sluggish cognitive tempo.
Beat the Odds emphasizes process and not performance. It includes a therapeutic dimension involving guided interaction, self-disclosure, and reflection. and is delivered weekly for 40 - 45 minutes at a time over eight weeks. In addition, there is a booster session that can also serve as a demonstration session as needed.
Third through fifth grade students are ideally suited for this program because their peer centric developmental stage lends itself well to group-oriented activities, reflection upon behavior, and motor mastery; however, Beat the Odds can be easily adapted to any population, including teens, families, and older adults. A manual for Adolescents and Adults is currently being developed.
Beat the Odds was
developed with the combined expertise of a licensed clinical social
worker, a drum circle facilitator, and a public health
educator (bios below). Therefore, the ultimate product is clinically sound,
rhythmically engaging, and sustainable.
Many mental health professionals and teachers in the
Los Angeles Unified School District have received professional
development training in Beat the Odds. Those that have implemented the program have reported that the
program is useful and that the curriculum materials
are user-friendly.
Click on the following link to view a brief summary of Beat the Odds for administrators and interested persons: Beat the Odds - An Evidence-Based Program.pdf
Click on
the following link to view an excerpt from a documentary film about the Beat the Odds project in the context of the lives of underserved children in the Los Angeles Unified School District:
American Rhythms: Beating the Odds documentary - 11 minute film trailer
Click on
the following link to view a video clip of the Rock the Rhythm:
Beat the Odds project in collaboration with Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center at College of the Canyons. This project will deliver a Beat the Odds experience to every 6th and 7th grader in Santa Clarita Valley and culminate in a May 18, 2012 event with these 7,180 youth and world-renowned musicians to break the Guinness World Book of Records for the largest youth drum circle ever assembled. This event will celebrate a year-long innovative partnership to sustain the arts for a broader purpose ‒ to connect youth to each other, school, and the community.
Rock the Rhythm: Beat the Odds project - 6 minute film clip
Click
on the following link to listen to a half hour radio interview on Beat the
Odds, featuring program development team member, Ping Ho, on April 16,
2010:
All Talk Radio's Music 4 Life™ show with Judith Pinkerton, MT-BC
Beat the Odds Training Programs
Descriptions of the training programs can be found in this website by
selecting "Events" or by viewing past events within the Events section.
For additional information regarding training programs, email info@uclartsandhealing.net or go to the upper right corner of this web page to join the email list for notification of UCLArts and Healing programs that will include information about upcoming training programs in Beat the Odds.
See the FAQs section for answers to commonly asked questions about Beat the Odds and the training program.
Testimonials
Unsolicited letter from Carmen Lima, a psychiatric social worker in the Los Angeles Unified School District on June 26, 2009
Ms. Ping Ho,
My name is Carmen Lima, I am a Social Worker with LAUSD. Back in January you contacted me regarding the drumming to offer assistance, I was so nervous at the time!
I just wanted you to know that the classroom that I selected was an all boys class, several of them with serious behavior issues, a couple of the kids are on medications. However, once we started with the drumming, you would have never thought these children were nothing but well behaved young kids.
Dr. Gillenwaters, the boy's teacher was so taken by the drumming that she asked me to prepare the class for a presentation during "Dia De La Cultura Festival" (Culture Day Festival"), we ended having two presentations on each of the two days the festival lasted.
Mr. Hooker, the school principal who stated "Whatever works" when I asked him if he would mind if I did drumming with this classroom, he had the widest, happiest smile on his face during the festival. Other teachers asked Dr. Gillenwaters, if these were the same boys she started her class with! The parents attending the festival were hollering at the end of each presentations, they were so proud of their children.
Best of all, was the camaraderie that developed amongst the class members. They will not miss school on Wednesday so as not to miss the class. A parent came early to pick up a student on the day we had the last class, this student refused to go and the parent had to come back an hour later when the class was over.
Now my principal wants more drumming classes next year!!!!!
Thank you very much for encouraging me to do the class, also for the easy to follow directions of the curriculum.
I am looking forward to next school year, to more drumming and more happy discoveries!
Respectfully,
Carmen Lima, PSW/PIC*
*Psychiatric Social Worker/Primary Intervention Counselor for Manchester Ave. Elementary School, a socioeconomically disadvantaged school in the Los Angeles Unified School District
Unsolicited statement by Karen Timko, Coordinator of Primary Intervention and Elementary Counseling Services for the Los Angeles Unified School District ‒ who arranged for all her counselors to be trained in Beat the Odds
As a supervisor of a counseling program in the LAUSD, I am always looking for ways to motivate, support, and rejuvenate my staff who are deployed in the schools hardest hit by the influences of poverty, gangs, drugs, and violence. They have responded with amazing enthusiasm to drumming and recreational music making. I am thrilled that several of our schools have purchased the drums and see the health benefits for themselves as healers and as a tool for facilitating healing and hope in our students.
As far as drumming and recreational music making, I know of no other intervention that has sparked the interest, enthusiasm, and hope in the counselors I supervise. The process seems to motivate the counselors to use the method with their students while bestowing measurable health benefits in the counselor delivering the intervention. It is a win-win for all involved.
The value of the arts in healing, whether through writing, dancing, drumming, painting, or any method of self-expression is experienced immediately by the client and virtually no "side effects". The arts have a way of touching the place within where the soul, the mind, the heart, and the soul converge, awakening the body's ability to heal itself and to come to terms emotionally with the meaning of the client's unique experience.
Unsolicited feedback on Beat the Odds from Jana Gruss, Music Teacher, Newhall School District
I just wanted to let you know how awesome the program is going with our Peachland 4th
and 5th grade and Newhall 4th grade. We are on lesson 5 this week. I am sooooo amazing
at the transparency of the students. This week we did the drumming of "I am valuable oh yeah".
One boy said, "I feel valuable when my dad spends time with me. He doesn't very often because
he smokes and...." at that point he looked down. I think the class felt his pain even without him
finishing the sentence. We went on to talk about how we make others feel valuable. Right after
class the kids had recess and one of the boys was really mean. The others kids looked at him
like "Really? We just talked about this." He was very embarrassed by his own behavior. Now
that's positive peer pressure.
We also, talked about trying new things and taking risks and not letting fear of failing stop us
from trying new things. I teach 4-6 grade chorus. I have NEVER had so many kids try a short
solo. They sang in front of about 75 kids. Wow! That is risk taking.
I could go on and on. The program really is about giving kids a 'home' within their school that
feels safe and loving. At least that's what our drum circles feel like to me. I LOVE leading them.
Thanks for training me and giving me this amazing experience as a teacher.
- - - - - - -
Jami and I just finished the eight week "Beat the Odds" lessons with 5 different classes. It is just
wonderful. I was most uncomfortable going into the visualization lesson but ....it was great. I
thought that the kids wouldn't really buy into the whole process but...what do you know they
love, love, loved it.
Last week as the kids were leaving a 9 year old girl told me that when her older sister screamed
at her she...."walked away, took a breath and counted to ten and then went to her comfort place."
The kids really used their imaginations in making their comfort places and were so willing to share
about it...in detail. Some of the teachers even are thinking about using the visualization process
before creative writing.
The work with empathy was so well received from the students. When asked how it can help on the
playground, "girl drama" was brought up. The discovery for them was that empathy causes one to
reject gossip because it's soooo destructive in our community. That was 5th grade! Wow.
Also, today we were reviewing by drumming some of our affirmations. After class I had a couple of
kids come up wanting a copy of the affirmations. I typed it up and sent them to the teachers. Cool!
Anyway, thank you. We begin with 5 more classes this next week. Our kids are finding tools to live
life by because of your work.
- - - - - - -
Had a cute thing happen in drum circle. I was walking across the playground at lunch and a group
of 5th grade girls ran up and told me that they were chanting the affirmations that they have done
at the lunch table. They said, "We just can't get them out of our head!". Good work!
Unsolicited message by Jenny Owens, Upper Elementary Special Education Teacher, Quincy Jones Elementary School, Los Angeles Unified School District, written to her principal
As you know, we have been having problems with Alex in my class. On Tuesday he attacked two
students in my class, and threw objects in the classroom because I would not print something from
a website he had visited. He had not been given permission to be on the computer, but remained
there despite being told five times to get off it. He was still carrying a grudge about this at breakfast
on Wednesday morning, when he refused to sit with the rest of the class at breakfast, muttering
that he wanted his print out. He sat there scowling for 15 minutes. After breakfast we moved into
the multi purpose room for drumming, and he followed us. Within 5 minutes of starting the drumming
class, his whole face and manner changed. He started smiling, joined in the drumming with
enthusiasm, and later volunteered to lead the drumming. I think the drumming is very therapeutic
for students with emotional problems like him.
One-year follow up interview with an elementary school counselor in the Los Angeles Unified School District (excerpted from Ho,
Ping; Chinen, Kazue; Streja, Leanne; Kreitzer, Mary Jo, and Sierpina,
Victor. Teaching Group Drumming to Mental Health Professionals. EXPLORE:
The Journal of Science and Healing, 7(3):200-202, 2011).
I used the one drum I had to talk about the problems and have kids give information verbally and
with rhythm on the drum. A lot of them would synchronize their words with the rhythm, which
enabled them to at once have a show and also a useful experience. The kids loved it. Sometimes
I had kids who were referred for acting out; others [were referred] for withdrawn behavior and poor
self-image. I would balance the groups to optimize them. I noticed improvements in behavior with a
greater sense of cooperation between the children. Working in groups with music can be helpful
with kids because the children who were shy or acting out would bring each other's qualities out
in one another to level each other out. Some of these children if put together previously would
have been fighting. Then they became a group and you don't beat up a member of your group.
I really appreciated the training.
Unsolicited message from Melissa Fabbi, K-12 Music Specialist From Clark County School District, Las Vegas, NV
Thank you so much for the fantastic workshop last weekend. The training was so well organized
and flowed so well. One of the best I've ever been to, academically or otherwise...
...As a side note, I tried the first lesson with a focus group of 5th grade students today, and already
saw positive feedback from them. When I asked one student how he felt at the end, he said. "Good".
I asked him to tell me more about that and he said, "I didn't leave the class." (He walks out or has to
be escorted out of my room every week...if he even makes it to class at all from prior disturbances.)
I even teared up a little! And that was just the first day, and me having no idea what I was doing!
This program is truly inspired.
Thank you so much!
Graduation Speech by a 5th Grade Participant Reflecting Themes Addressed in the Program
The following speech was delivered by a fifth grade girl during the culmination ceremony at Napa Street Elementary School on May 30, 2008. The girl's class had just completed participation in Beat the Odds, the thematic content of which is evident throughout her speech (boldfaced). Two other speeches were also delivered on that day by students who did not receive the intervention; neither of those speeches included any thematic content related to Beat the Odds.
Welcome Napa staff, students, and parents. My dream for the future is to be an artist because I like to paint fairy tales. I hope my classmates have that desire and that wanting in life to pursue their careers they want, as they grow up. I will remember my classmates because we are a team, we all have had good and bad times here at Napa, sticking together we can accomplish even more in our upcoming challenges that middle and high school will give us. Napa is the best pace for people to learn, starting as early as kindergarten. One of the things I've learned is that you have to care about each other. I personally learned how to be responsible and to be mature and also to own up to my actions taking responsibility for what I did wrong, an example would be helping my classmates when they need help. We are a community together. I thank my family for teaching me something new everyday, especially my mom and dad, they have always been there for me, supporting me with my goals and dreams, and never giving up on me. I also want to thank my prior teachers and the Napa staff for teaching me their beautiful writing styles and principles of becoming a better person. In particular I want to thank two wonderful people, Mr. B and Mrs. Gilmore for giving me that extra push when I was down and motivating me to keep on going.
Beat the Odds Program Development Team
Ping Ho, MA, MPH is Founding Director of UCLArts and Healing, which facilitates the use of arts-based tools for mind-body healing in the community as a vehicle for empowerment and transformation (uclartsandhealing.net). UCLArts and Healing is an organizational member of the UCLA Collaborative Centers for Integrative Medicine, of which Ping is a Steering Committee Member and was the founding administrator. She was also the founding administrator for the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), which led to the privilege of writing for Norman Cousins and co-writing the professional autobiography of George F. Solomon, M.D., founder of the field of PNI. In addition, Ping has an extensive background as a health educator and performing artist. She has a B.A. in psychology with honors from Stanford University ‒ where she was appointed to spearhead the still-thriving Health Improvement Program for faculty and staff, an M.A. in counseling psychology with specialization in exercise physiology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.P.H. in Community Health Sciences from UCLA School of Public Health. Ping was recently appointed to the Council of Advisers for the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care, a national network of educational organizations and agencies in complementary and alternative medicine.
Giselle Friedman, LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker who is bicultural and bilingual in Spanish and in English. Giselle received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her master’s degree from USC School of Social Work. As a psychotherapist, she has worked in school settings, agencies, hospitals and private practice, with a focus on children and families. Giselle spent four years as a treating and on-call therapist for Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center’s Rape Treatment Center, Stuart House, and SM-UCLA Psychotherapy Group. She has been working as a full time psychiatric social worker for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) since 2000. In this capacity, Giselle provides individual and group therapy to students and their families at several elementary schools. She also leads parenting classes and educates teachers and staff on topics such as children’s responses to trauma, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, childhood depression and anxiety, classroom behavior management, and addressing bullying behavior. Giselle is a member of the school Student Success Teams, and she participates in her local district's LAUSD Resource Coordinating Council and neighborhood community meetings.
Mike DeMenno came across a magazine article in 1993 featuring Mickey Hart and Arthur Hull where the mission was to use drumming for community building and personal well being. Within a year, Mike began facilitating drum circles for kids at risk throughout Los Angeles. In 2003, Mike became the Manager of the first recreational music center. Under the mentorship of Remo Belli, the REMO Recreational Music Center in North Hollywood, CA, has developed into an extraordinary place dedicated to bringing rhythm and music to people from all walks of life. Mike has also not only found himself working closely with Mickey Hart on several projects over the years, but also has been under the mentorship of Arthur Hull for the past ten years. Mike considers drumming to be his life raft. He maintains his passion for the drum set as well as helping others to experience playing music for personal joy.