Awakening Musical Facilitators: An Innovative Creative Arts Training Programme for Community Health Workers and Community Health Volunteers

ABSTRACT

This report documents a music-centred training programme for community health workers (CHWs) and untrained community health volunteers in South Africa. The five-day programme is run not only to provide CHWs and volunteers with enriching musical experiences but, most importantly, to enhance their capacity to facilitate musical interactions with those they serve, thus supporting and supplementing their skill set. The pedagogical foundation of the course has been developed upon principles from both community music and appreciative pedagogy, with additional theoretical perspectives also drawn from the notion of musical capital. Six of the activities presented within the course are discussed: drumming, storytelling techniques including “musical dialogue,” “four-piece poem,” and “story creation,” and activities entitled “sonic sketch,” and “body sculpture.” A theoretical and empirical underpinning is provided for each activity, followed by a description of how the process of experiential learning is facilitated. Examples are offered, demonstrating participants’ experiences either during the course or in their workplace after completion of the training.

Keywords:

• body sculpture
• community health volunteers
• community health workers
• community music
• drumming
• improvisation
• musical dialogue
• poetry
• sonic sketch
• story creation