Music school with inclusive design and specialized programs for persons with disabilities
Inclusive Music is the first inclusive music school located in the heart of Skopje, North Macedonia that offers accessible, affordable and inclusive programs for learning instruments. The programs are developed in joint collaboration between professional musicians and special education workers in order to provide an interdisciplinary approach towards 'development through music'. Classes can be taken along with, in consultation with or without a present special educator as per the learner's wish.
Local
North Macedonia
Skopje, Skopski region
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Yes
IPA : Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
Re-granting under a local project 'Social Entrepreneurship for Youth'
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Inclusive Music DOOEL Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Damjan Last name of representative: Danevski Gender: Male Nationality: orth Macedonia Function: Manager and educator Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: MANAPO 3-1/25 Town: Skopje Postal code: 1000 Country: North Macedonia Direct Tel:+389 75 441 574 E-mail:danevski.damjan@gmail.com
Inclusive Music is a private for-profit school for music which aims to support 'development through music' by introducing a new educational method - an interdisciplinary collaboration that makes learning music available for people with disabilities, but also to offer high-quality musical education and high standards for physical space design. Therefore, in cooperation with local special education workers, a design was created for both inclusive learning programs and inclusive and accessible learning space.
The school functions as a regular music school that offers specialized programs on demand, so that learners can choose between group or individual classes, or between special education program led in consultation with an in-house special education worker (where the lessons are led by the trained music educator), special education program led jointly with an in-house special education worker (where both special and music educators are present during class) or an entirely tailor-made program as per the request of the learner.
Inclusive Music has already equipped a physical space and has turned it into a modern, urban, accessible and functional music learning corner for all. With it, the initiative does not only implement a new unique service for persons with disabilities, but really tries to raise the standards for the whole private music education sector in North Macedonia by providing high-quality, contemporary, inclusive and aesthetic physical space designed to take into consideration all aspects of inclusion, from providing wheelchair access to the school to procurement of silent drums for audio-sensitive persons and guitars for left-handed people.
The services have been set to an optimal price to make them as affordable as possible. Next step in the development is the creation of a free website for music learning in local language, so as to reach low-income families that may not be able to afford face-to-face classes.
Inclusion
Development
Interdisciplinary
High-quality
Culture
The school started operating regularly in January 2023 after a three months pilot work and has already received sufficient number of clients that enables it to kick-start and operate without major obstacles. Prior to the finalization of concept and establishment of the company, it took almost five years to develop and polish the initiative in a way that will offer real sustainability. For this several parameters were researched and analyzed:
- the market scope and demand for special education,
- the market scope and demand for music lessons,
- the gaps in the music education market and the gaps in the special education market, as well as the opportunity to fill them with this interdisciplinary model of education
- the needs of persons with disabilities and the level of their integration into the cultural and social life in Skopje, as well as their access to extra-curricular and leisure activities (such as sports, theatre, music, concerts, painting or other)
- the benefits abovementioned integration has on persons with disabilities,
- the benefits instrument playing has on the cognitive and social development of persons with disabilities;
Based on the findings, establishing a for-profit company was selected as most sustainable model, as it can offer higher personal engagement, it can operate and further invest by the profits made on long term. However, the profit margin was set on minimum, as the idea is to be affordable for as many people as possible. The high-quality modern space and equipment increases the interest of the learners, as no similar space is currently available by the existing music schools in Skopje. The uniqueness and unavailability of the interdisciplinary service by others further contributes to the sustainability of the model, as it guarantees the consistent inflow of learners.
As described above, Inclusive Music focuses on the overall positive experience of its learners and has invested heavily in the physical design in terms of quality, accessibility, functionality and overall visibility. With this it has far bypassed the currently available spaces offered by existing music schools and has hopefully set an example of how an inclusive and mindful design of a music learning space can be created to breathe a sense of belonging into the learners.
With disabilities often overlooked in both formal and informal education, Inclusive Music has been created to be a place not only for learning, but also for a first space of contact of typical and atypical children, where they can learn about their similarities and differences in a safe and monitored environment. For many of the children enrolled into classes so far it has been a place for free expression, while for their parents it has been that long-expected place that has finally embraced their children's uniqueness and their special abilities.
The future cultural benefits of the Inclusive Music activities, even though yet not obvious are immense, as by offering this service to people that did not have access to instrument playing before, we have opened their doors to becoming a professional musician or cultural worker, thus contributing to the diversity of the cultural sector. On a larger scale, this leads to more people with disability being part of the cultural sector and with it ensuring that the sector will bend and break the current old-fashioned and homogenous concepts that only serve the fully able-bodied culture lovers, thus contributing to a resilient and mindful cultural sector in the city.
Inclusion of people with disabilities is the foundation of the initiative and main focus of the concept. In order to fully enable access and functionality Inclusive Music has identified, transformed and put into operation an interactive physical learning space/music classroom designed to fulfill the following criteria:
- enables wheelchair access to the facility by identifying raised ground floor space with ramp available,
- enables enough clear space in the classroom for free movement and independent wheelchair movement,
- has a fully interactive classroom with all instruments available, so as to offer as much engagement as possible and conform to the needs of persons with ADD and ADHD in keeping the focus in the room
- ensures safety and full monitoring in the classroom to avoid potential threats,
- has high sanitary standards in place,
- has adapted toilets for persons with movement impairments,
- has equipment specific for persons with autism including adaptive lighting systems, silent pads for drums, and in due time expects the delivery of already procured electronic drums, guitars for left-handed persons.
In addition, the offered regular and specialized programs are versatile, so as to offer learners to choose between classes in the presence of, in consultation with or without a special worker, so as to find the most comfortable model for all.
Lastly, price affordability was a priority and has been set as an average price in regards to other options offered on the market for both music and specialized schools with currently none to minimal profit margin, focusing on high reach and inflow of students instead of high-profit generation per student. In addition, if supported through this program, the school intends to build a free-of-cost learning platform for everyone, hoping to enable persons of low-income families that cannot afford face-to-face classes to find learning materials of high-quality in local language.
As can be seen from the objectives and summary above, inclusion is the building brick that connects interdisciplinarity, culture, education, aesthetics, positive impact and social growth into an intricate model that seeks to not only deliver service to those left behind, but to really maximize and scale up the positive social and economic benefits and show that inclusion can be of great value for the local community on several levels:
Individual development of the learners with impairments - Researchers and special educators claim that the benefits of playing an instrument are of great importance for people with disability (especially cognitive impairments) as it offers a way to tap into building new neural pathways and improve cognitive skills. In addition, in Skopje there are numerous special education centers, several arts, sports and crafts centers, but none that offers instrument playing, so the school will also be a place for socializing outside of school or in the leisure time.
Sensitization on the inclusion topic - With inclusion being relatively new concept in formal and informal education in N. Macedonia, many children with typical development and their parents are unaware of the different impairments that can be obvious or hidden. As a place of first contact, Inclusive Music brings down barriers and prejudice towards people with disabilities.
Benefits for the community with disabilities on a larger cultural scale - As laid out above, the more disabled people are musically educated, the more people have the potential to be involved in the music or culture sector in the future making the sector more welcoming for their community and more resilient. Potential economic growth might arise for those pursuing career in music performance, education or similar.
Benefits for the general population - Enriched cultural and social life as a result of involvement of impaired persons, potential economic growth and higher-quality standards for schools.
As a locally-adapted concept, the initiative was envisaged by Damjan Danevski, professional musician and educator with academic background and 15 years of expertise and performance practice. He is also the founder of a local initiative for drummers "Skopje Drum Talks" where for the first time had the opportunity to work exclusively with children with disabilities and rare diseases through a collaboration festival with a local NGO. Further concept was developed by his partner Jana Vasilevska, who has years of experience in international development and communication with stakeholders in order to create a prototype model of the best practices and know-how available.
Upon conceptualization, a process of analysis of the market and mapping of potential stakeholders was conducted in cooperation with special education workers so as to assess the real need for the type of service and the realistic expectation of the benefits this activity could bring. In this process, connections with parents of children with disabilities have been established for the purpose of confirming the findings and map interest for the service.
Several schools that have already been implementing total inclusion were contacted and information was gathered on the success rate and best practices.
However, most stakeholder involvement and information was collected during the Open Days in January 2023, when in 3 days more than 30 parents visited the school personally, shared their needs and views, their tips and tricks for working with their children and their assessment on the practical accessibility and affordability of the service. Almost half have already enrolled to classes one or more children choosing between all modalities of learning. These findings will be gathered for internal use and put to practice in the day-to-day work, as well as shared and analyzed by the special education expert during a training session for the teachers and mentors that will be held in the end of February.
The initiative is a completely interdisciplinary activity that required many disciplines and personal soft and hard skills to be put to practice, that included professional musicians in the identification and development of programs, special workers in gathering of information, development of plan for work, specialized programs and case-to-case consultations, parents of children with and without disabilities for needs assessments, marketing and knowledge management specialist for development of concept, communication with the community and stakeholders mapping, teachers, musicians and persons of the everyday life willing to provide opinions and know-how, practical tips etc.
On local level, no mainstream initiatives of this type are available currently. Concepts for involvement of people with disabilities on short-term measures such as festivals and concerts, crafts, arts and some sports do exist, but there is no continuality of the actions, and they mainly exist as events targeted only to persons with impairments, which counteracts the inclusiveness model.
However, innovation is defined within the frame of purchasing specific and modern musical equipment and introduction of innovative interdisciplinary teaching methods as explained in detail above.
Furthermore, innovative approach is planned for the next phase through the building of an interactive music learning platform with high-quality audio-visual materials recorded and mastered in local languages for free usage and access to persons with low-income or otherwise unable to join face-to-face lessons.
The concept in its entirety offers the possibility for both replicating and scaling up:
Replicating the concept exactly as it already exists can be achieved on local level in other cities in the country where interest exists based on market analysis and stakeholder mapping. It can be replicated in the region and beyond where the need exists.
Scaling up can be achieved by taking up the inclusiveness and interdisciplinarity as separate elements and binding them to other sectors where inclusion is still in need for development, For example, it can be modeled to offer other leisure activities currently limited or entirely unavailable such as martial arts (with mixed groups of people with typical and atypical development), competitive or non-competitive sports, some crafts, outdoor activities like hiking etc.
A major economic and development scaling up can be envisioned in major economic sectors where official or vocational education is tailored through the same elements of the modality such as for example the tourism sector where inclusion is limited in both learning the trade and with it limited the possibility for these people to be involved in working in the sector, so the approach can be tailored to meet the learning needs of people with disability looking to work in tourism and even steered to meet the specific needs of the tourism sectors particular for a specific place/country/region. where it can also further the development process through a snowballing effect.
As can be seen by the details explained above, Inclusive Music has taken a holistic approach to enhancing the positive benefits for all - a quadruple win: for the learners as direct beneficiaries, the company as a private company looking for minor profit and major impact, the cultural sector as a potential indirect beneficiary due to achieved diversity and resilience and the general community as a result to higher-quality standards set for the music education sector and sensitization to the topic of inclusiveness. To achieve all these, the methodology had to take all aspects of individual, community and business development to each the best impact-yielding modality.
It tackles interdisciplinarity on practical level - even though more often than not most researchers work on interdisciplinary topics varying from medicine to linguistics, the collaborative and cross-sectoral work mainly focuses on the academic level and rarely do we see these interdisciplinarity reaching practical level in the sense of offering real services coming together under one umbrella. This is majorly seen in the international development sector, which in turn does not yield permanent results due to the limited duration of projects or funding or in the non-governmental sector where the lack of self-sustainability limits the scope of work that can be conducted.
With the pandemic, economic crisis and ecologic sustainability awareness rising we can also see a change in the mindsets of youth - more and more focus is placed on all that is high-quality, from materials to services, as well as sourcing locally and supporting small local businesses as the backbone of local economies. This modality of work fits just that - small-scale economies that can make big community impacts and positive social changes.
Inclusive Music is already a registered entity under the Macedonian legislative and operating since September 2022. Since then, the physical space has been put to use and made fully operational as of January 2023 when the school opened its doors for learners. Learners have been actively pursuing the free pilot classes serving to gather information on the interest and needs of the customers.
For the upcoming period the school plans to finalize the procurement of the abovementioned specific musical equipment including electronic drums and guitar for left-handed people. This investment is supported under the Social Entrepreneurship Grant awarded.
In addition, once the enrollment is completed by 15th of February, and data is collected on the number and types of services required, comments, practical information from parents/learners and related data, a training is planned to be conducted for the employed personnel for the purpose of teaching them how to set up their programs, how to practically work with children with different disabilities and other practical guidelines for their daily work, as envisaged by the special education worker that will be selected to train the mentors. In addition, guidebook with selected practices will be issued and will be implemented and used throughout the work in the future.
Furthermore, and especially if this project is selected for this respected award, the enterprise will invest the money in the creation of a web platform that would serve as a free interactive site for people of low-income families interested to pursue classes, but that cannot afford the face-to-face lessons. This platform will also serve to collect data on the interest for particular topics and instruments, so as to improve the services offered both offline and online.
As the initiative has official form of an entity, proof of evidence will be provided as links to contact details and existing partnerships. Documentation is available in Macedonian only.
