Growing Our Harmony Garden ECOsphere
As you may have read about, the past year has come with a lot of personal reflection and growth from all those who work at Harmony Garden. This reflection spurred us to create our Diversity and Inclusion statement which is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the change we are hoping to create in the community. We didn’t want to create this statement and have it be empty words – we wanted to create this statement and make some radical changes to how we operate and how Harmony Garden can make more equitable opportunities for our Jackson families.
Music therapy and early childhood music can be difficult to access for some families (transportation, finances, classes being held during the work day, the pandemic, etc.). Many of the individuals and families who could really benefit from our services are often unable to enroll. Music therapy and early childhood music would be accessible to all in a perfect world – so Harmony Garden is doing our part to try to diversify and broaden the populations we are able to serve.
At Harmony Garden, we are committed to celebrating and supporting diverse populations. This commitment is intrinsic to our values, beliefs, and our code of ethics because we are strongest when we embrace the full spectrum of humanity; regardless of what we look like, where we come from, our religion or spirituality, or who we love. We strive to root our music therapy practice in embracing, supporting, and respecting all of our clients, and creating equitable and safe spaces for all walks of life. We are dedicated to continually listening, learning, and validating our clients’ experiences and take pride in facilitating anti-oppressive music therapy practices.
The ECOsphere is an outreach initiative that has two branches: early childhood outreach and equitable client opportunities (both of which can be abbreviated to E.C.O!) Our early childhood outreach initiative was started to provide early childhood music to families who may not otherwise have the means to afford or attend one of our Harmony Garden Sprouts classes. Our equitable client opportunities initiative was created to provide opportunities to individuals who are unable to access our music therapy services due to financial reasons. Through the equitable client opportunities initiative, we hope to be able to provide reduced fee or free music therapy services for those who truly benefit from music therapy and are unable to afford our full price services.
