What are the needs of the families and communities that you work with?

[Julie Palmieri]

What are the needs of the families that you work with?

What are the needs of your community?

How can music meet the unique needs of your families and community?

[Jorden Liteplo]

I think the main need I see is the need for community. Every year I have a class that starts together and winds up singing up for multiple sessions together because they like the structure and routine of a scheduled class and love that their kids enjoy and they get time to socialize with other parents. I also see a lot of dads coming in looks for ways to play and engage with their young child with strong desire but little know how.

In our area we are high density and extremely expensive, so the wait lists for community rec centre and library programs are miles long but private classes are not affordable to the average person on maternity leave. Also some of the programs are 45 mins to and hour long which is a very long time for small children, especially when factoring in travel time and nap schedules.

I think that music really fills in the gaps because it’s an experience rich and sensory rich environment. For this reason babies nap really well after class, which parents love. Parents(usually) like the education and development approach of a music therapy class. It gives them things they can take home and use outside of class, and some parents have told me that They just like to have more songs to sing at home because they are sick of twinkle twinkle.

[Sean FitzGerald]

Most of the communities that I work in at the moment are school based and I think that they really benefit from having the opportunity to engage in learning skills in a new way. Being able to utilize music and music based interventions to learn has helped some students to remain engaged in activities and motivated them to make more progress than they have had in other settings. Due to me not living close to the community I mainly work in, I am less aware of what the community needs outside of the setting I am in, but the community is largely hispanic and spanish speaking so I do my best to accommodate my clients who are less familiar with english. Music provides a space for students who are emerging bilinguals (I prefer that term to English language learner because it shows more respect to the fact that they already know and understand a language) to interact with their peers, their teachers, and me without needing to worry about language. I have also been attempting to utilize some of the skills I have learned here in my work by explaining what I am doing to the teachers when I can so they can see what I am seeing in sessions and understand more about what I am doing. Some of the teachers are not very familiar with music therapy and I am hoping that this is helping to build their knowledge of what music therapy really is!

[Kayla Stubblefield]

Great insight!

[Erika (TeamRH)]

Great insights about the communities you work in.

[Leah Strand]

I am honestly not sure the need yet. I have just moved into the area and started my job. I feel like after a year I may be able to answer this question more in detail, but for not I am still feeling it out and looking for what I can help with in the moment.

[Kayla Stubblefield]

Way to be reflective about your current stage of your career and how you may not know your community as well as someone who has been there for a longer period of time.

[Kayla Stubblefield]

The needs of the families I work with are having accessible and affordable resources to support their children academically, developmentally, socially, cognitively, and psychologically. The majority of adolescents that I work with come from impoverished communities with high rates of crime and drug use. Supporting families and the community using music in my caseload is facilitating a space where clients can engage with music in any way the feel comfortable, providing families with free and accessible music tools that they can use at home to generalize skills practiced in music therapy, and educating community members about how music can be used to support people of all ages.

[Angie Snell]

My work has included many years of working with children with disabilities and creating integrated spaces that equally welcome those with and without disabilities. The needs of families that I have worked with include being able to have meaningful interactions with their child. Families want to know others recognize their child’s strengths, not just the disabilities. The community has needed to understand how to interact with, include, and get to know those with disabilities. Music and music therapy provides a structure for a wide variety of responses and interactions that are all acceptable, joyful, and celebrated. Music also brings together people across generations and allows non-speaking forms of sharing quality time together and creating lasting memories.

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