Our Mission

To provide music therapy and related music services which will enhance the cognitive, communicative, emotional, physical and social development of the children with special needs throughout Duval County and the Northeast Region of Florida.

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My name is Minda Gordon, and I am a board-certified music therapist with Connecting Thru Music. Connecting Thru Music is a non-profit agency that provides music therapy and music enrichment to students with special needs in Northeast Florida. Karen Demuth, Founder and Executive Director are here with us tonight. I am honored to be here tonight with my former intern, now music therapist with UpBeat music therapy, Emma Lyons.

When we started at Palm Avenue in January, I asked Emma to create a movement intervention that focused on recalling a 4 movement sequence and reinforced the concept of communication.

Emma introduced the song, Brave by Sara Barrelies with a sequence of 4 movements and the students instantly adored it. They quickly picked up on the movements and identified with the song, both because it is familiar and because of the message.

The students began to request the song at each session, and Emma and I knew that this song had a much deeper meaning for the students. During one session, we asked what makes them brave and how are they brave. Many of the students stated that their faith, family, and teachers give them the support that helps them be brave, and they are brave by going to school and work and trying new things.

Because our overall goals in the Connecting Thru Music Music Therapy program at Palm Avenue PAL are to grow leadership skills, empowerment, and self-advocacy, with the students’ input we decided to create a music video in which each of our three classes would record their version of the song and dance, and each student would pose in their best “Brave” stance.

When the project was completed, we had a screening day, and the student’s responses were overwhelming. The students were not only proud of themselves, but they were cheering for each other. Some students were shed tears of happiness, and some made profound statements about the impact that the video had on them. The energy and pride in the room were palpable.

We are delighted to have 4 students who participated in the project here to perform Brave tonight. I hope that you will feel the same energy and pride that they feel in presenting Brave for you tonight. We hope to empower you to be Brave and strong, use your words to advocate for yourself, and never, never give up.