MARS

The MARS Course was a high level, specialized and certified training in psycho-social music intervention within under-resourced, deprived and marginalised communities, funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union (Strategic Partnership for Vocational Education and Training) and coordinated by the International Music Council (Project n° 2015-1-FR01-KA202-015277).

From the project description:

Music And Resilience Support (MARS) responds to an urgent and ever increasing need to develop efficient and cost-effective strategies in support of deprived, marginalized communities in diaspora due to military/political/social conflict, both within Europe and farther afield. The project has developed a full training course in psychosocial music intervention, for community musicians, music therapists and health and education workers. This will contribute to the development of a specialized workforce trained in psychosocial intervention, as a protection against multiple risk factors emerging in under-resourced and marginalized communities, where chronic high- or low-level stress affects emotional, cognitive and social functioning, in particular in children and adolescents, undermining the community’s capacity to care for itself internally and to respond to the external environment with adaptation and flexibility.

Although the project is now complete, the online course is still available: all its resources are available for free.