A music-based speech therapy summer camp for children is about to start up in Nanaimo thanks to cash from the Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island.
The camp’s creation was announced Tuesday morning during opening ceremonies for the foundation’s 2017 leadership summit, hosted at the Coast Bastion Hotel, when the foundation announced $3.2 million for community-driven health care programs for children, youths and families on the Island.
Money for the summer camp, to be run at the Nanaimo Conservatory of Music, is part of more than $240,000 earmarked for programs in Nanaimo that also involve Nanaimo’s Early Years One-Stop Fair series and the Nanaimo Child Development Centre.
The summer camp will use music as a therapeutic tool to help children ages one to eight with challenges.
“This year there’s a speech therapist involved and a certified music therapist to work with these young children to experience the healing benefits, the therapeutic benefits of music,” said Jane Butler McGregor, Victoria Conservatory of Music chief executive officer.
In all, about 32,000 children will be supported by the foundation’s 55 programs across the Island.
Veronica Carroll, foundation chief executive officer, said the foundation, which prior to 2012 was primarily focused on Victoria, continues to explore new avenues to deliver health care to children in Island communities.
“This year we made an intentional effort to find new groups that were doing really innovative things with kids, so we asked for submission for our grants and we were so lucky that we were able to approve and touch on every community across the Island,” Carroll said.
To learn more about the Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island, please visit https://childrenshealthvi.org.
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