Portfolio of Activities
Over the years we have run a wide variety of projects in Romania and we now have a portfolio of activities we can replicate or modify. In 2008-09 alone these included:
Annual Newsletter: We published and circulated, in the UK and Romania, the Music as Therapy International Annual Newsletter, compiled from music programme reports sought from our Local Partners.
Competition for Local Partners (Romania): We ran a fifth competition for our Local Partners, as an opportunity to win musical resources for their places of work. Entrants were invited to consider the role of music in therapeutic work with people with autism.
Discretionary Grant Schemes: Following a successful application for a Discretionary Grant from Aura Filip and Seitamet Seian of the Centrul Pilot de Servicii Comunitare pentru Persoane cu Handicap si Formare de Personal, Techirghiol, we supplied the musical instruments and written materials to support them in establishing a more comprehensive music programme for the 100 residents of the Centre. Laila Onu of Centru de Zi ‘Pentru Voi’, Timisoara, was also sucessful in her application and we supplied the musical instruments and written materials to support them in establishing a music programme for the adults with disabilities who attend a newly opened Day Centre. Finally, we responded to an application from Nina Palici and Dorina Foleanu of Centru de Zi ‘Podul Lung’, Timisoara, by supplying the musical instruments and written materials to support them in establishing a music programme for the 60 children with disabilities who use Centre. These last two grants were combined with additional training support.
Rewarding Longterm Practice (Romania): We continued our rolling programme rewarding the long-term practice of our Local Partners as they reach their tenth anniversaries of working with music.
Building Local Capacity: Among other initiatives, we have continued to advertise the opportunity for existing Local Partners to ‘earn’ new musical resources by organising their own peer supervision and local skill-sharing/networking events to promote the use of music in the recuperation of children and adults with special needs in Romania today.
Additional Training (Bacau): 18 Local Partners attended a two-day Additional Training course which focused on Boundaries in therapeutic work with music. This theme provided an opportunity for further discussions about working with Autism and Challenging Behaviour.
Academic Development (Romania): We have continued to seek out other organisations and individuals involved in the development of related training opportunities, both at a Vocational level and at a Graduate and/or Post-Graduate level, to gain insight into what role Music as Therapy International might be able to play in the future development of music therapy in Romania.
Academic Development (UK): We have continued our working partnership with Greenwich Teaching Primary Care Trust and Greenwich University developing two modules - “An Introduction to Music Therapy” and “Interactive Music-making as a Developmental Resource” - on a new Foundation Degree course.
Local Resource Research Learning Log (Romania): We invited our Local Partners to record the different sources of information, training and support which have contributed to their continuing work with music during 2008.
International Consultancy: We have continued to supply ad hoc consultancy for practitioners, within and beyond the Music Therapy profession, keen to learn from the experience of Music as Therapy International when planning and undertaking development work overseas.
We have more details and reports available on all of these activities, please send an email to cleojordan@musicastherapy.org if you would like further information.
We have also developed resources to support the ongoing practice of our Local Partners in Romania. These are viewable here.
