Organisations' Journeys Through Music-based Mentoring: Forest of Dean Music Makers
A Case Study from the Youth Music Mentors programme ...
This page is part of a resource pack on Music-based mentoring.
ABOUT Forest of Dean Music Makers
Forest of Dean Music Makers has now merged with Gloucestershire Music Forum and Music Mushrooms to create “Gloucestershire Music Makers”. The new organisation will aim to help people across Gloucestershire create their own music. There will be an emphasis on working with children and young people and those who face the biggest barriers.
FOREST OF DEAN MUSIC MAKERS and music-based mentoring
Mentors for a Forest of Dean Music Makers’ (FDMM) programme were established community musicians in the Gloucester, Cheltenham, Cinderford triangle with good reputations among referral agencies and young people on the local music scene. Their model was essentially one-to-one mentoring sessions with individual progression routes emerging. They were flexible about the number of sessions they ran. "Some young people are just a bit lost," says George Moorey, the coordinator and also a mentor. "I've one young person with his own personal difficulties but in addition he's new to the area. He self-referred and I'm giving him five sessions to help him find himself a bit and begin to settle in Gloucester. Another is a young man who's just dropped out of college, his girlfriend's pregnant and he too needs to explore how the music in his life can help him find some direction."
Other mentees are more traditionally challenged. Malaki, a mentor with a big reputation on the rap scene, worked with A. Now 18, A has a substantially troubled past. Abuse has meant he finds it very difficult to be alone in a room with another person. He uses drugs and drink, often doesn't eat. He has a court case coming up. And yet he's a very gifted rapper who has featured in a Tinchy Stryder concert. Malaki sees his job as being reliable and giving consistent personal support as well as helping A set up his own website, make money out of his talent and develop further his performance skills. Mark is "teaching guitar" to a young man with Asperger's but the strategy is also to help O make better relationships with his peers through the medium of a common interest. After initial one-to-one sessions, Mark has brought in another 16 year old for this purpose.
One feature of Mark's mentoring partnership with O was the strong relationship with others in O's network. A long standing link with a charity based in the Forest led Pam, its director, to ask Mark to work with O in the first place. The musician team as a whole also took autism training in the summer in preparation for this work. And Pam has been impressed with the links Mark has established with O's mother in order to develop a fully-informed joint strategy. Similarly, Malaki has a strong relationship with Sarah from a local community theatre company who had been working with A previously and who, in referring A to FDMM (because he'd met Malaki during a previous project) wanted to increase the support for him. "We speak twice a week," says Malaki, "and have had one or two three-ways with A. It enables us both to be on the same page about what might be the best way to support A and it certainly supports me with how best to handle our sessions."
This strong link with referral agencies also strengthened Lee's work with D, a young man referred by the youth worker at a local youth arts centre where he was volunteering, because he was facing substantial personal challenges. This enabled them to see the music mentoring – in this case focusing around drumming – as part of a joint strategy in which D went on to teach drumming to younger users of the centre.
AN EXAMPLE OF MUSIC produced as part of the music-based mentoring programme, at Forest of Dean Music Makers
I want to know you by Youth Music Network