Document Actions
A Line to the Song Room
The benefits of children partcipating in the creative arts are well documented and research has long demonstrated that involvement in the arts enhances learning and social development. As a national not-for-profit organisation, The Song Room is committed to creating opportunities for all children throughout Australia to participate in the arts and music, particularly those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Song Room provides free, long-term and tailored music and creative art programs in disadvantaged communities around Australia, including those that have large numbers of Indigenous and migrant families where English is spoken as a second language or are geographically isolated. A significant part of the strategy is to make the programs inclusive and this means ensuring they are offered free to children in their formative years where siblings and parents can also be accommodated. This whole of the family approach leads to broader engangement in the learning process by a community which may also be shouldering other challenges including high unemployment, large numbers of disenfranchised youth and residents with health related disabilities.
The Song Room reaches children by employing Community Liaison Officer/Workshop Coordinators and Teaching Artists to establish programs in schools and communities. In Western Australia, music and creative arts workshop programs have been underway for more than a year in the Mandurah region. These programs are funded by the National Community Crime Prevention Program, an Australian Government initiative. The teachers and Principals involved in the programs have reported very positive outcomes:
"Your Teaching Artist is fantastic, a great source of ideas and inspiration. We have special drama groups, drumming groups and an indigenous guitar group. The Song Room has really helped the school to set up a positive environment through the performing arts. It has also given me renewed enthusiasm for my job. Thanks for ordering the drums!"
Cristy Ockelford, Teacher, Dudley Park Primary School
The Song Room also arranged a week-long school holiday program for students at Coodanup College that included a range of drama and circus skills programs.
"My feedback regarding the holiday program is very, very positive. To my surprise, some of the school’s most difficult and disruptive students were involved in the program which was good for two reasons: Firstly they engaged in doing something that was positive as opposed to creating trouble in the community and secondly, they have come back to school with a much better attitude and focus. These kids have difficult lives but they are much more settled at school and I can only put it down to the holiday program providing them with a safe and enjoyable place to go. In conclusion, I would say the program was very successful and of great benefit to the students involved and this community. It was of great credit to all involved.
Digby Mercer, Principal, Coodanup Community College
The Song Room’s funding sources are diverse including philanthropic trusts, corporate foundations, government grants and individual donations. These funds have enabled the Song Room to deliver long-term school based workshops, community holiday programs and performances and to over 40,000 disadvantaged children and families in 250 programs across Australia each year.
With the vision that all Australian children are provided the opportunity to participate in music and the arts to improve their educational, social and personal outcomes, the Song Room is currently implementing a National Program. A part of this strategy to extend its reach to other areas of need in Western Australia and the organisation has devised a project, Western Out Of School Hours (WOOSH), to be implemented in the Perth suburbs of Balga, Westminster and Girrawheen.
To obtain financial support for the WOOSH initiative, The Song Room met with members of the Lotterywest Grants Team to brief them on the vision and program model. As a member of a National organisation based in Victoria, they needed to demonstrate that Lotterywest support would be used exclusively for the Western Australian based initiative. Of the application process Paul Curran, from The Song Room, offers the following advice:
Consult with Lotterywest as early as possible about the nature and scope of the proposed program and how it will meet the criteria of the particular grant program. The application should address those criteria in a clear manner. It is also important to demonstrate to Lotterywest the objectives of your organisation, its governance structure and practice, and the ability of your organisation to acquit the grant monies in the manner specified under the grant agreement.
Following a consultative process that identified the project’s requirements and armed with supporting material and commitments from program partners, the Song Room received a Lotterywest grant for $298,928 towards the WOOSH project costs over a three year period.
With financial support in place, the next step is to establish a steering committee of Song Room Program Management, school staff and key members of the participating communities.
Caption:
The students from Coodanup Community College practice their balancing skills during the school community holiday program’s circus workshop.