DESCRIPTION:
Songwriting Works™ is a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring health and community one song, family, and neighborhood at a time. Professional songwriters bring older adults, family care partners, health experts, and social advocates together to collectively compose songs that raise the voices of those rarely seen and heard, sparking breakthroughs in communication, celebration and brain power. Songwriting Works' research-proven Signature Songwriting and MusicTeam programs are culturally-aware, transformative experiences where young and old exchange the essence of what's important, sharing stories that deserve remembering.

In the first clip, SW's founder Judith-Kate Friedman facilitates a first-time workshop with residents of Providence's Heritage House at the Market, Seattle in the months following Hurricane Katrina. They write a folk-based song "Oh How the Wind Can Blow." Dir. Einat Kapak

In the second clip, participants at OlyCAP's Encore Program in Port Angeles work with Matt Sircely, assisted by Judith-Kate Friedman and Aimée Ringle. They write a Johnny Cash-inspired country song "I'm Satisfied (the Way I Am)."

A full transcription of the "Oh, How the Wind Can Blow" session is published in the book chapter "The Songwriting Works™ Model: Enhancing Brain Health and Fitness through Collaborative Musical Composition and Performance" in Hartman-Stein and LaRue, eds, Enhancing Cognitive Fitness for Adults: A Guide to the Use and Development of Community-Based Programs" (Springer, 2011). The case study illustrates Songwriting Works' 8 Principles of Active Creative Engagement: Access, Inclusion, Originality, Authenticity, Respect, Reciprocity, Restoration and Celebration.

Matt Sircely and SW's Keeth Monta Apgar and Daniel Deardorff perform "I'm Satisfied" on the Performance Reel on this YouTube channel.

Special thanks to the Ziv Tzedakah and Good People Funds for Seattle site production and filming, and to the Washington Health Foundation's Rural Health Initiative for support of Olympic Peninsula programs 2010-11. Very special thanks to film editor Ben Ericson.

SW is the proud recipient of the 2012 MetLife/National Center for Creativity and Aging in America Leadership Award, the 2010 Rosalinde Gilbert Caregiving Legacy Award, the 2008 Society for the Arts in Healthcare Blair Salder International Healing Arts Award, and the 2007 MetLife/American Society on Aging MindAlert Awards.

Learn more at www.songwritingworks.org
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