Community Music has emerged as a growing approach to music making in Canada. While the goals and intentions behind community music have been clearly differentiated from traditional music education in the literature, the specific approaches taken by teaching artists and facilitators have received less attention. A research team has connected three large Canadian Community Music programs: namely, Community Music Schools of Toronto, Sarah McLachlan School of Music in Western Canada, and the Lotus Centre for Special Music Education in Eastern Ontario. The team’s four-phase project looks at these programs’ structures, pedagogical approaches, and areas of impact on participants, eventually leading to a framework for other community musicians looking to create more inclusive communities of musical learning. In the first phase, the researchers identified themes emerging in the program models, organizational structures, program offerings and employment practices of the three schools. In the second phase which will be presented, the research team visited each site to allow observation of over 120 hours of programming. Focus groups were conducted with teaching artists at each site, allowing the research team to hear from over 50 experienced community music practitioners. Emerging themes from both the observational data and teaching artist focus groups will be presented, providing a clearer understanding how community music facilitators see their work and impact, and the strategies they use in practice to achieve their goals.