Making Connections through Music

CPD training days are vitally important for our Kentown Support programme teams.  They not only provide a forum to learn new skills and share best practice, but they provide a regular space for colleagues to connect.

Our CPD day in September took place in Manchester and we were delighted to welcome Jessie’s Fund, a charity that creates connection through music, helping seriously ill children and children with disabilities to communicate and express themselves through the power of music. Based in York, Jessie’s Fund has grown into a nationwide charity supporting children in community settings as well as hospices and hospitals.

The morning and afternoon workshops included music and singing activities using a selection of musical instruments, ipads and musical conversations.  The activities helped to broaden the expertise of our programme teams but also provided the opportunity to explore different ways of connecting with each other and the families they support.

Rebecca Ellis, Executive Director at Jessie’s Fund said, “It was brilliant to see the team from Kentown Support come together and explore how they could use music to help the children, young people and families they support. Music can be a great way of processing emotions, such as anger, or feeling stuck, and they worked in small groups to create songs to help with this. One group even wrote a song and sent it to a parent, to tell a young person in hospital that they are proud of them!”