Six Ways To Well-being - Music

photo courtesty of http://network.youthmusic.org.uk/

This week we are thinking about how to connect with people through music as part of our ‘Six Ways to Well-being’ programme in Maidstone in Kent which is funded by Kent County Council, with investment from Artswork and the Royal Opera House Bridge.’ Music is all about connections
- connections with people, ideas and creativity. As music organisations we create safe spaces for young people to connect with each other, share their interested, be creative, perform and share their work and celebrate their achievements. Here Lucy Stone, our Strategic Director reflects on the minutiae of music making and how music making enables young people to connect with peers and their communities.

Much of our work at Rhythmix aims to improve the life chances of children and young people in the most challenging circumstances by supporting them to achieve their full potential through engagement and progression in music-making. We hope to develop the resilience of children and young people through musical and wider development. These are big aims with what we hope are life changing outcomes but I’m not sure how often we think about the smaller changes that take place in our sessions.

Six Ways to Wellbeing encourages people to make small changes to their lives which can make a big difference to the way they feel and the way they cope with challenges in life which gives us an opportunity to look more at the minutiae of what we do. I’ve heard tutors talking about these small things - a young person staying in the room for the whole session, a father in an early years group removing his hat, a young person sharing a packet of crisps- but there are so many of the big changes that that these smaller ones don’t always make it to the evaluation of a programme.

You can read the rest of the article at: http://network.youthmusic.org.uk/learning/blogs/rhythmix/connect-people-through-music-six-ways-wellbeing