Intro Working Together is a collaborative action research project between More Music and the International Centre for Community Music (ICCM), working with partnerpractitioners in the Music for Health in Morecambe project. Music for Health in Morecambe is a music social prescribing project funded by Spirit of 2012 and coordinated by More Music. It includes three music groups that aim to reduce isolation of people in and around Morecambe: a singing group with older adults experiencing isolation, who are referred by their GP and who self-refer; a singing group with young people who are accessing mental health services, funded through the NHS; and, a drumming group with adults accessing local wellbeing services. The focus of this research has been to work with partnerpractitioners to understand some of the differing and overlapping ways that they perceive their work together to be valuable.
Specifically, to gain insight into what influences perceptions of value and how this manifests within the ways that the project is designed, delivered and communicated. There were two main reasons for undertaking this research: 1. When beginning this project in 2020 there was little research in arts and health that specifically explored partnerships. Particularly, how they operate and articulate value 2. More Music sought to explore sustainable resourcing and development within the Music for Health in Morecambe project, following a pilot in 2019/20
“[This report] documents the process of working together through research and outlines the ways that partner-practitioners distinguish between valued evidence and valued experience. Specifically, the implications this may have for how the project is communicated and understood within and beyond the project partnership.”
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