At the Life Skills Project, Genesis Trust offers people access to a range of health and well-being activities that are practical, creative and therapeutic. Our aim is to provide activities that are relevant and of interest to people, meeting them where they are at in their lives without judgement or agenda, with the hope that our activities will be a part of their journey towards a healthier more fulfilling life.
One of those activities at the Gateway Centre is a drumming course led by Wes Sanford and Matt Prescott who have been running drumming courses together for a couple of years now.
Wes, who has accessed Genesis services in the past and is a very talented musician and artist, has been giving back to the Bath community by leading drum circles for Genesis and other charities. Wes has been teaching the group some basic traditional, African drumming patterns using Djembe style hand drums.
Matt is one of our Life Skills Facilitators and leads courses like the Faith Group and online art and animation. He is trained as an animator and artist.
The main goal of the course is to help participants grow in confidence through drumming together in a supportive group. The course provides a safe space to learn and master basic drumming skills. This strengthens our clients’ self-confidence in the realisation that they can master a new skill and perform as a group in front of others. In the past, the drumming group even performed in public at the Pump Room restaurant.
It also helps them experience connection and bonding with others which is so valuable to their mental well-being. We cannot take for granted the importance of social interaction. I think many of us have realised over the last year just how important social activities are to our mental well-being and how detrimental isolation can be. Even more so for our clients who are vulnerable to isolation and can have many obstacles to healthy social interaction.
So a big thank you to Wes and Matt for their desire to support homeless and vulnerable people in the Bath area on their journey from despair to hope and from crisis to independence.
