Transforming Communities

‘Including Me’ shortlisted for RPS Impact Award

We’re thrilled to have been shortlisted for an RPS Impact Award for our Including Me programme, launched during the pandemic. The 1:1 online music programme is geared toward families with children experiencing a challenging time due to lack of social interaction, family circumstances or their additional needs not being met.

The aims of Including Me are to:

– Support ‘stronger families together’ through music
– Provide an antidote to ‘lockdown blues’
– Combat social isolation
– Boost good mental health and resilience

Including Me pairs a musician with a young person and their family for ten sessions, during which they explore musical performance, instruments, song-writing and improvisation. Musicians receive ongoing training in how best to transfer their work online while ensuring sessions remain engaging and interactive. Using a suite of apps to promote participation and inclusion, families and musicians compose songs together in sessions created for and led by the young people at the centre of the work.

“I just want to let you know what a great first session my son Isaac had with Iolo this morning! It’s the first time I’ve seen him smile for a while as he’s been quite poorly mentally recently.”

Huge kudos to our wonderful musicians and staff team for inspiring young people to keep on making music despite numerous lockdown challenges.

For more information about Including Me, visit the programme page here.