Where words fail, music speaks.
- Hans Christian Andersen

THE AWESOME MUSIC HOUR

Using Music and Storytelling to Connect, Explore, and Improve Mental Wellbeing

The Awesome Music Hour is a youth-centred program that offers a series of workshops aimed at nurturing self-expression, boosting confidence, fostering resilience, and creating a stronger sense of community through the art of making or engaging with music, storytelling and other art forms.

This is achieved through mentorship, peer-to-peer discussions, and educational activities, all rooted in the transformative power of music.

The program is primarily delivered through community partners like the Canadian Mental Health Association Grove Hubs, Stella’s Place, Wilfred Laurier University and the YMCA Newcomer Program.

The goals of the program are to:

• Share how music can be used to connect with others and process emotions, feelings, events and memories.

• Demonstrate how song stories can help us talk about our own story or relate to another person’s story.

• Build confidence and create a sense of community through inclusive engagement using rhythm.

• Explore how storytelling can help us process emotions.

• Illustrate how the process of writing can help bring words to feelings, emotions and thoughts.

• Share how music can be used to improve wellness, including how science and music are connected, the importance of making time for wellness, and how to make music part of your wellness journey.

• Explore how to connect with yourself through movement to music.

• Use art, storytelling and music to be expressive, step outside our comfort zone and strengthen self-reflection and personal resilience capabilities.

• Open doors to other services and supports in the community.

Support the Awesome Music Hour

$25 - Contributes to foundational program funding.

$300 - Buys a session with an accredited music therapist.

$500 - Sponsors a guest artist appearance. 

$3,000 - All of the above, plus one full month of foundational programming.

$6,000 - Supports one complete Awesome Music Hour program.

In Memory of Frankie Commisso

The Awesome Music Hour was inspired and is generously supported by The Commisso Family in honour of their late son Frankie, a talented young musician who passed away in June 2021. 

Frankie believed music has the power to heal us and to find common ground with one another. The Awesome Music Hour is a part of the legacy he leaves behind and a continuation of his impact on the lives of those he has left behind.