The psychological effects of domestic violence have been well-studied.  For example, battered women are known to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  Furthermore they are at a increased risk of drug abuse, pain, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.   Often battered women feel responsible for the abuse, or they feel at fault for the years they tolerated it.  This negative self-evaluation often leads women to feel a great deal of shame.  This shame is a bridge to a complete devaluing of their own self-approval, often leading them to feel unworthy or unlovable. These adverse effects do not end when the violence ends, and could last a lifetime.  Thus is it critically important for shelters and outreach programs to address and offer services to help alleviate the emotional complications resulting from domestic violence.   This is the need that Chords for Change has been created to address.

A Ford Foundation study in 1990 found that around 50% of homeless women were fleeing domestic violence. Studies have also consistently shown that 50 – 60% of women receiving welfare have been victims of domestic violence in their lifetimes [1].  These statistics indicate that battered women constituent a significant proportion of the women in homeless shelters and transitional housing units.  It is therefore important for Chords for Change to provide services to homeless shelters and transitional housing units in order to fully realize our primary objective.

At an institutional level, all the problems faced by these women and children are being compounded by the fact that due to the current economic times, resources available to low income women are dwindling under the strain of budget cuts.   These cuts could not be coming at a worse time, as the amount of homeless continues to increase due an overall recession and foreclosure crisis.  Now more than ever, a community-based solution is needed to bring music into the lives of these women and children.

Programs similar to Chords for Change are being implemented around the country with remarkable success. One such program, Harmony, Hope, and Healing in Chicago, as the following testimonial on their website:

“We moved on to a couple of the songs that they knew – and we started singing an old gospel tune ‘Wade in the Water’, and drumming along. A couple of the women started taking turns to make up new verses, and before we knew it, everyone was stepping up one at a time to sing what was on their mind: about giving up drugs; about life in the shelter; about not putting up with abuse; about protecting their children; about trying to get their lives in order so they could get their children back. Everyone gave space, everyone supported and encouraged each other, and the group had completely taken charge of the session in a wonderful way.”

The Harmony Project in Los Angeles is a non profit organization that focuses on providing musical instruction to underprivileged children in the Los Angeles area. Their stated mission is “To promote the healthy growth and development of children through the study, practice and performance of music”. Like Chords for Change, The Harmony Project’s instruments are entirely donated by the community. Their website offers the following testimonial:

“It has been beautiful that my daughter has had this opportunity. It has dramatically improved her self-esteem and, as a mother, this makes me VERY happy.”

There are currently no outreach groups in Sonoma County offering the services Chords for Change is proposing. With the use of recycled instruments, which are instruments entirely donated by members of the community, Chords for Change can use its volunteer work force to provide service at no cost, and extremely low overhead.

[1] Richard Tolman and Jody Raphael, A Review of the Research on Welfare and Domestic Violence, 56 J. of Loc. Iss. 655 (2000)