Disability-friendly music group launches in Lancashire
published on 5 May 2023
Disability-friendly music group coming to Lancashire
The inaugural session of a disability-friendly music group for residents of Lancashire is set to launch early next month promising to be inclusive and accessible for all.
The Salvation Army’s Music Man Project Lancashire will launch on Tuesday, May 9, at the church and community centre in Clitheroe, on Lowergate, in a bid to provide an inclusive, safe and confidence-boosting music service for children and adults with learning disabilities and their carers.
The sessions will take place from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm, on the second Tuesday of every month, and will encourage participants to sing, use Makaton signing and also provide opportunities to play instruments and take part in music making, using music for wellbeing, inclusion and interaction.
Daniel Elson, mission specialist for Music and Creative Arts at The Salvation Army will be part of the team delivering the sessions. He said: “Music is a great way to communicate and can speak to the very heart of who we are in a way that goes beyond words.
“At our Music Man Project groups in other parts of the country we have seen people who are non-verbal find a new way of expressing themselves, people who were socially isolated gain confidence and people who in the past have experienced all kinds of barriers finding opportunities to develop relationships through the power of music. We want to give people an opportunity to experience that for themselves at Music Man Project Lancashire.”
The pioneering workshops will include original music and refreshments will also be provided throughout. The monthly sessions will take place on a drop-in basis with no need to book, and a range of instruments will be supplied for people to try out during each session.
The Music Man Project, a national initiative which takes place around the country, will see Lancashire’s cohort as the only regular Music Man group in the north of England and the project has proved successful with groups throughout the UK and internationally, in countries such as USA, Nepal, India and South Africa working in schools, colleges and in the community.
