Our goal of $10,000 will allow us to provide music therapy through our drop-in program for a full year and supply the instruments. We are more than halfway there thanks to the 29th Annual RBC Charity Golf Tournament and your help will put us over the top!

Families arriving in Canada as refugees have overcome great obstacles and adversity. They bring with them their varied experiences that may include displacement, relocation, living in refugee camps, and trauma. Their challenges upon arrival include not only adapting to a new culture and learning a new language, but these children have often lived through years of conflict and their education has been limited, disrupted or non-existent.

Many children have spent long periods in refugee camps or a first country of asylum where only basic or even no education is available to them. In addition to language and culture, refugee children and their parents must negotiating unfamiliar customs and different expectations, and understanding new and complex systems.

First Steps is a program providing information and support to children ages 12 or younger and their parents, about 170 families a year, or 240 parents and almost 400 children. Parents or caregivers interact in a safe and inviting environment that can help with transitioning and settlement of families and prepare them for life in Canada. We want to introduce a new session to our regular drop-in program – Music Therapy. And all we need to do that we need some musical instruments and a music therapist.

We all know that music ignites all areas of child development and skills for school readiness: intellectual, social and emotional, motor, language, and overall literacy. It helps the body and the mind work together.

Exposing children to music during early development helps them learn the sounds and meanings of words.

Dancing to music helps children build motor skills while allowing them to practice self-expression.

For children and adults, music helps strengthen memory skills.

But most importantly, they feel welcome, and respected, and valued.