Conceived of and started by Deborah Wanderley dos Santos and named after The People's Music School founder, the YOURS Project (Youth Orchestras United Rita Simo) is a special initiative of the People's Music School. Its mission is to develop social and cultural awareness, foster responsibility, and provide necessary tools for success. This is done in the context of building a system of youth orchestras in inner-city Chicago, modeled after the El Sistema program developed by economist and musician José Antonio Abreu in Venezuela.

The YOURS Project's goals are social, using intense immersion in an orchestra-school training program to broaden horizons and develop potential. The Project aspires to be a city-wide network of "nucleos" (locations that house these orchestras), the first of which is located at the William G. Hibbard Elementary School in Albany Park.

Deborah, Milan Miskovic, and a group of idealistic volunteers launched the YOURS Project in October 2008, using donated instruments and makeshift accessories to teach 35 kids after school.

In 2009, the founder of El Sistema, Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu, visited the People’s Music School and requested that he "be considered a member of this School."

Today, in partnership with the Ravinia Festival, the Hibbard Nucleo has over 150 students in three different levels of orchestras. The program takes place every weekday morning, after school, and on Saturdays.

Students from the YOURS Project have played in venues all over the city, including Symphony Center, and in October 2010, members of the top orchestra traveled to Turin, Italy to participate in the Terra Madre 2010 music festival.