The presentation will focus on the description and functioning of a practice group in a Community Social Pediatrics Center and mainly in an experimental project called The Music Garage (GAM) in Montreal, founded by Mrs. Trudel. It will promote the need to support this type of innovative program for vulnerable children through an integrated education program that is both transdisciplinary and trans-systemic.
«IT IS EASIER TO BUILD STRONG CHILDREN THAN TO REPAIR BROKEN MEN» F. DOUGLASS
The Music Garage does exactly that, which is to use best practices to orchestrate the lives of vulnerable children by giving them access to powerful tools to develop their full potential. It is based on the democratisation of the collective practice of music, of specialised and adapted school support and on an integrated practice of social medicine to attain the goal to equip all children for life. It is built on a strong partnership between doctors, social workers and lawyers for expertise, as well as on a strong relationship with the child, the extended family and the community as active partners along with professionals. GAM also gives children tools to advocate for themselves and improve their living conditions and their pathways to success.
The practice of music within a group has a strong impact on the developing brain. According to some studies in neuroscience, the brain of a child who lacks stimulation from birth will have almost half the volume of the brain of a well-stimulated child at three years of age. Starting school at the age of five, the under stimulated child will be much more at risk of developing adaptation and behavior problems, learning disabilities and chronic diseases. Substantial and costly resources will then be needed to fill in the gaps, frequently with poor and expensive results. Such negative pathways to failure and diseases are preventable with intensive actions early in life within the community.
The Community social pediatrics approach developed and taught by the Fondation du Dr. Julien has proven effective in vulnerable communities and it is now going through a process of scaling out throughout the province of Quebec with the support of the Government of Quebec, and also elsewhere in Canada. It succeeds in integrating best practices from science and evidence at the clinical level, one child at a time, all along his or her developmental pathway.
GAM brings community social pediatrics further ahead by integrating the collective practice of music and specialised academic support to the practice of social pediatrics, within a joint venture approach with the community, that ensures that all children have the same opportunities to develop their potential. It contributes to a fuller application of children’s rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and in a paradigm of respect and equity.
The participation of education and research sectors is essential in order to spread this innovative practice and to train professionals from all fields to this approach. McGill University and the Université de Montréal have recently created two interlinked research chairs in community social pediatrics in order to support the Fondation du Dr. Julien in this matter.
The Music Garage, the first annual lecture of the Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Lecture: Janusz Korczak, the Father of Children’s Rights, Turning Rights into Action series, took place on November 11, 2016 at the University of British Columbia.
The distinguished speakers were Hélène (Sioui) Trudel, lawyer and Dr. Gilles Julien, social pediatrician who are the founders of a transdisciplinary practice group supporting global health for children and youth in Montreal. Please see the Invitation to the Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Lecture at download section for the detailed program. We are thankful to Ms. Trudel and Dr. Julien for allowing us to include their presentations on this site. The event was very successful and the lectures were followed by a vibrant discussion. The program was moderated by Dr. Charles Ungerleider. The audience was welcomed by Dr. Mark Beauchamp, Associate Dean, Research, Faculty of Education, UBC and Jerry Nussbaum, the president of the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada. The main presentation was preceded by the award of a certificate to Claudia Diaz, the recipient of the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada Graduate Scholarship for 2015/16.
The Janusz Korczak Association of Canada would like to express their appreciation to the Dean of the Faculty of Education, Prof. Blye Frank for his vision in the context of the holistic approach to the wellbeing of children. Thanks to that vision we are now able to extend the How to Love a Child the Janusz Korczak Lecture Series and to progress from the discussion of the reality of the child wellbeing in Canada today, to discussing solutions in the new Lecture Series: Janusz Korczak, the Father of Children’s Rights, Turning Rights into Action.
Dean Frank has committed the Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Lecture to create an annual event dedicated to examining solutions to the execution of the rights of the child. We inaugurated this program with the invitation of two prominent advocates, Ms. Hélène (Sioui) Trudel and Dr. Gilles Julien who presented their holistic approach to helping children realize their full potential.
Event Gallery:
