Community & Peace-building

Origins

In 1998 Mark Smulian co-founded the first Palestinian (from Gaza) Israeli pop/rock band. This led to a fuller engagement with peace building and developmental work in social cohesion through the medium of music. This inspired Mark with a very simple understanding:

Let the music lead

…meaning the music alone will create safe emotional spaces where people can discover that we are all much more similar then we are different…and from there change can begin.

And it has proved itself time and time again.

In the Mid 2000’s Mark was invited to advise the new NGO ‘Heartbeat Jerusalem’ that focuses on amplifying the voices of Palestinian and Israeli youth through music.

Mark helped develop the overall programme and was also actively engaged in workshops, musical engagement developing dedicated programmes for specific events and delivering insights into the power of music to enable safe spaces for interaction between Palestinian and Israeli youth.

Many of the young people who could not play instruments also wanted to participate in Heartbeat. At the time, this combined with other formal workshops Mark was doing in the in the world of business or corporate team-building, for hi-tech companies and local councils. These were based on the idea that musical groups are the best teams in the world.

This was the spark that ignited a desire to develop an instant access tool enabling music-making for all.

Back in the UK

On relocating back to the UK Mark continued with his work in social cohesion and music led practices with Salaam Shalom a Bristol based NGO that focused on introducing separate, and sometime divided communities. These were specifically school age, mixing different age groups.

Mark continuously worked with young people, many of whom had never engaged actively with music. This only persuaded Mark more than ever that there was a need to develop tools that allow immediate access to active engagement with music in order to take advantage of the power of music to empower goodwill amongst one another.

Northern Ireland

Since 2017, Mark and MindHarp has been working with Beyond Skin in Northern Ireland, engaging in social cohesion projects between multiple groups in: Schools, youth centres, NGO’s, music production with multiple ethnicities and more.

Since 2019 Mark has been using MindHarp in Northern Ireland as a leading tool when engaging in programmes with: 

  • Catholics and Protestants with youth and older communities

  • Refugees integrating into local life

  • Integration in schools and summer programmes dedicated to taking advantage of music’s cohesive power to enhance a sense of safety and well being

Community Training for Carers

In 2018, Stewart developed some strong relationships with dementia specialists, care charities and organisations devoted to this area. MindHarp focused its efforts on creating a tool to meet the needs of those living with dementia and their carers. With months of dedicated development, MindHarp was recognised nationally as a genuine innovation. Stewart then secured some significant funding to support The Banes Carer’s Centre (BCC). With The BCC we then implemented a programme of carer training in the community to use MindHarp. This was for people caring for husbands, wives, sons and daughters with a range of disabilities including dementia, MND and so on.