Fall 2009 issue
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
Carol Ann Blank, LCAT, LPC, MMT, MT-BC
Are you a fan of Music Together on Facebook? If you are, you’re one of many in the Music Together family using Facebook to get the word out about Music Together and what’s going on at your center. (Note from Carol Ann: If this is Greek to you, have a chat with a student in your life or just go to facebook.com, open an account, and start clicking around. That’s what I did—it’s not that hard to figure out.)
A colleague of mine in New England took her Facebook page a step further recently. She used it to conduct a grass roots advocacy campaign. She noticed that a popular daytime television show was advertising a feature on a schizophrenic child, but wasn’t using “child first” language in its promotional spots. (Child first language means you put the child first, as in a child with special needs, not a special needs child.) So she posted a link to the show’s viewer response form and asked her Facebook friends to write in to the producers of the show, asking them to change the title of the feature to something that reflected the child’s individuality and that did not define the child in terms of the illness. The show did listen and used child first language in subsequent postings about the story.
On occasion, I have found that combining education about music therapy with a YouTube video can be an effective way to bring the message home!
While we are right to be concerned about how we represent ourselves in social networking groups, the fact is that many music therapists have Facebook accounts! As my colleague in New England put it, “People post so many of these videos because they think they're funny or awe-inspiring, but I like to spin it to relate to what we do and how we are or can be affecting our children.”
Engagement is key in our increasingly internet-connected society. By posting about an issue we are passionate about, we reach not only our own Facebook friends, but also become connected to the friends of their friends. The next time you say to yourself, “I really should do something about that,” remember that Facebook (and other social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace) can help you reach a large group of potential allies for your cause.
The original version of this article was co-authored by Carol Ann Blank and MJ Territo (March, 2009).
The "Reducing Barriers to Learning Act" HR3800 was referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor on 10/13/09. This act, sponsored by Rep. David Loebsack, is to establish an Office of Specialized Instructional Support Services in the Department of Education and to provide grants to State educational agencies to reduce barriers to learning. One of the nine co-sponsors is from the MAR - Rep. Albio Sires. Follow the progression of HR3800 by going to www.thomas.gov and subscribing to the RSS feed. You can also email your representative and voice your support of HR3800 and request that they support it, too.
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