Music Together Reaches Out
The Music Together community is firmly committed to its mission to serve all children. Music Together LLC actively encourages its licensees to reach out into their communities to serve families who might not otherwise be able to experience Music Together. The national organization supports licensees with two on-staff sources of outreach support: an outreach coordinator and a board-certified Music Therapist. In addition, the Music Together LLC Sponsored Outreach Discount Program offers financial support to licensees starting outreach programs.
Groups who have benefitted from Music Together Outreach include:
- children from low-income or at-risk families;
- children with special needs, including those with autism, physical disabilities, and developmental delays;
- teen parents and their babies;
- migrant workers and their families;
- the elderly.
Highlights of Music Together Parent-Child Outreach Programs
Trenton, NJ: Since 1999, Music for the Very Young, a project of the Trenton Community Music School, has brought Music Together to Trenton, NJ are families who typically would not have access to Music Together. Parent-child classes are conducted at centers run by Children's Futures Inc. and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Children's Futures' mission is to ensure that "every child is born healthy and enters school ready to learn and prepared to succeed. Music for the Very Young is helping them achieve those goals. Bilingual classes and Spanish-language translations of the Music Together songbooks are made available to Spanish-speaking parents. Music for the Very Young also reaches families through preschool classes in the Trenton Public Schools, Head Start centers, and the Marie H. Katzenbach School for the Deaf. Click here to read more about Music for the Very Young's preschool programs.
Bridgeport, CT: Music Together preschool and parent-child classes are an integral part of the Total Learning Initiative, a federally- and state-funded project designed to bridge the learning gap for minority families. Classes take place at Head Start preschools, in Bridgeport Public School pre-Kindergarten classrooms, and in other neighborhood facilities.
Click here to read more about the improvements in language, cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development for children in this program.
Newark, NJ: New Jersey’s Department of Youth and Family Services funds classes at Reunity House, a facility where families who have been separated due to neglect and/or abuse learn the parenting skills that will enable them to live together again.
Boyle Heights, CA: Migrant workers enjoy Music Together as part of a Saturday program that also offers English as a Second Language and other education and social services.
Saline, MI, and Milwaukee, WI: Children with Down syndrome attend classes organized through their local Down syndrome support groups.
Fairfax, VA: Children with hearing losses have enjoyed singing and dancing at classes at the Northern Virginia Resource Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
New York, NY: Parents and their children with severe motor impairment make music at Standing Tall, a school dedicated to giving the children as much mobility as possible.
Yarmouth, ME: Families of children with autism gather at a Music Together studio on Saturday mornings to make music and have fun.
New York, NY: Children at the Ronald McDonald House on New York City’s Upper East Side participate in weekly Music Together classes during their stay.
LaPorte, TX: A church congregation has supported a Music Together class for teen parents and their babies.
Intergenerational Classes
Across the country and abroad, in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and senior residences, elders are forming bonds with young families through Music Together. Typically, area Music Together teachers arrange to hold a parent-child class in a facility, with the express purpose of sharing music with the elders.
Click here to view a video of an intergenerational class in Stuart, FL.
Jean Young, Director of Music Along the Sound in Larchmont, NY, teaches an intergenerational class in nearby New Rochelle. She writes:
Everyone simply loves the class. A 96-year-old resident pointed out to a visiting mom and dad how much their younger child (who usually attends with his nanny) had developed during the months he had been attending. She also pointed out to me that two of the residents who were sitting on the couch were sleeping, and that I should not allow this: that I should pick them up and move them out of the way. She doesn't miss much!
The 65-year-old son of that same resident came with his mother to class another week.
Yoshimi Mita, who attends the class with her two children, said she enjoys the class because her daughter Haruka “loves her grandparents but she can’t meet them often, for they are living in Japan. This class is a golden opportunity for my babies to meet someone who looks like their grandparents.”
To learn more about Music Together outreach programs
call (800) 728-2692 x353 or email
outreach@musictogether.com.