Provide Life-Changing Music for Fragile Students

Thank you to each of you who is supporting GITC’s effort to bring musical learning to students in Home Hospital and Transitional Support environments. 

Your donation is empowering GITC to make a critical difference by providing us the opportunity to offer something extraordinary - free weekly ongoing training to the teachers of these fragile students! You are helping us deliver creative, accessible, effective and exciting new teaching strategies and skills for the teachers in these special learning environments, and ultimately, for their students. Teachers call this training their own “music therapy.”

Because of you, students with life-altering medical conditions as well as students who’ve been removed from their homes by Child Protective Services are, for the first time, gaining access to the healing and life-changing power of making music in hospitals, care centers, group homes, and, for many medically fragile children, in their own homes where they are cared for long-term by family members. Teachers in Home Hospital programs work in all of these environments. You are creating access for their students by helping GITC train them.

These "Home Hospital" teachers & therapists are training with GITC in workshops and classes. In 2022, they will continue to receive specialized training & adaptive instruments & tools to make a difference for students in restricted places with very special needs, thanks to your support. They’ll learn to support students to create and experience sounds, and to play instruments "their way." These students will also experience the health benefits of music through playing rhythms that regulate their breathing and calm their heart rate, and with melodies and harmonies that reduce Cortisol (the “stress hormone”) and relax their bodies.

One teacher in the program explained that " hard to reach" kids need music as much as traditional medicine because it reaches beyond boundaries and limiting expectations. Music is especially impactful for kids who make their own and are involved in the creative process. She also said that integrating music when teaching kids helps increase her own motivation, especially during the times when she has to teach remotely. Thank you for giving her, and so many other amazing teachers a new way to make a powerful difference for their students. We are most grateful for your continued gifts this month. They will empower us to keep going with this groundbreaking work. 

A home hospital teacher who is participating in the training now sums it up like this: “Students who are unable to do so many things are finding something they are good at! Music is a positive outlet and they look forward to it!” 

We are sending you our deepest gratitude with very best wishes for the New Year.

Gail