Giving Hope Through Music at a Salvation Army Shelter

At The Salvation Army's New Hope Leslieville shelter in Toronto, a monthly jam session gives residents an opportunity to experience the joy of music, thanks to Harmonies for Hope.

The program is led by a volunteer, Rob Dixon, who shares how an encounter with a man experiencing homelessness inspired Harmonies for Hope, and how the program creates moments of beauty and dignity for people who otherwise would not have access to music.

On this episode, Rob takes us behind the scenes at one of the sessions, and we meet Tony, who shares his musical gifts and his story.

Transcript

Kristin Ostensen

This is the Salvationist podcast. I’m Kristin Ostensen. At the New Hope Leslieville shelter in Toronto, a jam session is about to begin. Dinner has just wrapped up in the dining room, and a group of about a dozen men linger, watching with curiosity as Rob Dixon, a volunteer, puts a collection of instruments on a table near the front of the room. This is Harmonies for Hope.

Rob Dixon

Some of you know me, and some of you have been here before. I’m Rob, and—just going to enjoy some music for the next hour and a half. As you can see, I’ve brought a bunch of instruments. It’s like a jam session, so I’ll just keep playing some songs, hopefully some stuff you guys know, and anyone’s welcome to grab some instruments and play along, or sing along, or request a song that you like. Whatever you want. You can listen or not listen; you can join in or not join in. Just here to enjoy some music together.

[music]

Rob Dixon  

Harmonies for Hope is a charity that I started about 10 years ago, and it brings music opportunities to people experiencing homelessness in various locations, such as shelters like New Hope and other locations that are serving the homeless community, like drop-in centres that may not necessarily be an overnight shelter—kind of anywhere where people experiencing homelessness congregate. I'm willing to show up. And what I do is, I run jam sessions where I bring a number of musical instruments, couple guitars, usually a lot of percussion, because percussion, I like to say, has a low barrier to entry. I always say anyone can bang two sticks together. And it can get really noisy at times, which is really beautiful. Yeah, guitars, percussion and some—like, more so than just little handheld percussion things, a couple of drums, a cajon, if you know what that is, or a little bongo drum. So, yeah, there's a lot of options. And some people sing along, and some people grab an instrument and play, and some people just kind of sit and bob their heads and others ignore it entirely.

Kristin Ostensen  

OK, very cool. And how long have you been doing the program at New Hope Leslieville? And how did you get into that partnership with the Army?

Rob Dixon  

As a fun side hustle, I'm a street musician or a busker, and I would be out on the street playing music, and other than the expected experience of just bumping into people, you know, outside bars or restaurants, and people would want to listen and, you know, throw a bit of money, in my case, I started having a lot of interactions with homeless folks who were out and about. And there was one particular guy who I used to see quite regularly at the same place each time I was there. And it might have been the first or second time that I met him—he asked if he could borrow my guitar, and he told me that he had played guitar years ago but hadn't touched a guitar, and I think he said, like, 15 years. And I let him play, and he absolutely blew me away, not just because it had been so—like, he was just super talented, regardless of whether he'd had a 15-year gap or not. And then the fact that he hadn't touched a guitar in 15 years made it even more impressive. And there was a crowd of people gathered around, and they could kind of sense what was happening. And it was this really special moment. Everyone really saw that this guy had, you know, grabbed my guitar and was kind of blowing us all away with his talent. And I was singing, he was playing, and it just got me thinking about—the thought I actually had was, how could I create an opportunity for a guy like this to actually get in front of an audience? I wasn't thinking jamming in a shelter, necessarily, and I hadn't quite gone that direction yet. But getting to know him, I learned very quickly—and it's kind of common sense—that it's very difficult to, you know, have an instrument, or have access to an instrument, or a place to store it, or the ability to keep it safe and dry and whatever else, when you're experiencing homelessness. Then I started to think, how could I bring music opportunities to people who are experiencing homelessness? And that's kind of how the idea came about. Unfortunately, Brad, who's the fellow that I had met, he passed away about six or eight weeks after I met him, but I'd seen him kind of weekly up to that point. I ended up getting to know his sister, and she lives in Leslieville, and after his death, she became very involved in kind of activism around supports for people experiencing homelessness and safe injection sites and things like that. And she became aware that The Salvation Army was getting ready to open a shelter in Leslieville, and she knew the idea that I had, and she said, Hey, I'm connected with the people who are opening that shelter. I could introduce you to them, and maybe they'll like your idea. And maybe you could, you know, start doing your sessions there. And that's how it came together.

Kristin Ostensen  

Very cool. And were you familiar with the Army's work before that introduction?

Rob Dixon  

So yes, I'm glad you asked. It's a bit of a full circle moment for me, because Salvation Army was the first church that I ever attended regularly. So, I didn't grow up attending church other than, you know, the odd kind of Christmas and Easter service, but in my early 20s, just through some friends, I ended up at North Toronto Citadel for, I'd say, regularly for two to three years. Prior to that, I think most people have a sense, a little bit of a sense, of The Salvation Army and what The Salvation Army does. But from spending, you know, two to three years regularly attending church there, I had a really good understanding of what The Salvation Army was all about. So, yes, wonderful question.

Kristin Ostensen  

Yes, wow, that's so cool that you have that connection as well. And going back to the program itself, so you mentioned it's more of a jam session. It's more loose. Can you talk about, sort of from the participant perspective, how are people engaging with it when you come? How many people come? What's the sort of response do you get?

Rob Dixon  

I'm always very clear: it is a jam session, not a performance, right? I mean, I come and I sit at the front, and I set my things up, and some nights, if there's low engagement, it feels a little bit like I'm playing to them, but that's not really the point of it, at least from my perspective. But also, just open to whatever the room feels like that night. I just come into the big open area at New Hope, which is very welcoming, and we mute the TV, and it's also right after dinner, so that most people either have just finished eating, or maybe they're just starting. So, there's a bit more foot traffic in the room. And I would say that on a given night, or at a given time—I'm there for an hour and a half—and people come and go, but there's usually, I'd say, about 10 people in the space, and sometimes more and sometimes less. And in the first few moments, it always feels like no one's going to participate tonight. That's all. It always kind of goes through my head like they're often a bit of a, like, a flat response. And then, you know, always one or two people start to engage. And then once they engage, others get a bit engaged, and sometimes, you know, the staff, depending on how busy or not busy they are, if they're able to come into the room—there's one staff member in particular who just grabs percussion instruments and starts putting them in people's hands, and that kind of automatically increases participation. And, yeah, it's just kind of mixed from night to night. Some nights there's more active participation than others, but every session is kind of beautiful in its own way.

Kristin Ostensen 

On this night, about 40 minutes into the session, a man approaches Rob and asks if he can play one of the guitars. He’s just come in from the cold winter night and rubs his hands together to warm them up before he starts strumming. He tells us later that he got frostbite in one of his fingers about a week earlier—one of many hazards of living on the streets in the wintertime. But that doesn’t stop him from playing and getting lost in the music for a few minutes.

[music]

Kristin Ostensen 

From the smile on the man’s face, it’s easy to see how much he’s enjoying this jam session. It speaks to be power of music in people’s lives—something Rob observes regularly as the leader of Harmonies for Hope. 

I'm wondering, now that you've been doing it for a while, of course, you mentioned meeting Brad, and he inspired the whole program. I'm wondering if, looking back, if you have any other stories you can share at times when you know you could see the program really connecting with some people, or just that sort of impact that it has on folks, being able to play music.

Rob Dixon  

Yeah, I'd say a couple of stories. One, there was a fellow in the room. He had come into the room, which, that's kind of an active step of entering the room. And most people would enter the room and participate in some fashion, and he just kind of entered the room and sat there, keeping to himself for about an hour. Didn't seem super into it. Wasn't really engaging at all. And then at a certain point, he requested a song, which kind of caught me off guard. And it was a song I had never really played, but there's a great app on my phone where I can look up lyrics and chords for any song. I knew the song, so if I can see the chords and lyrics, I can, you know, sort of muddle my way through it. And I started playing, and he started just kind of quietly singing along, but I could tell he was quite into it, and by the end of the song, he was in tears. And he shared with me, after the song, that that was a song from his past that had a lot of meaning, and he hadn't heard it in a while. And he just kind of, after sitting there in the session very quietly, he just thought, Maybe this guy can play the song that I know that means something to me. And he was, I guess, touched that I was able to play it, and that it kind of, you know, brought him back to, you know, his memories of that song. And I'd say that ties in a little bit with one of the—you know, as I was early days of Harmonies for Hope, kind of working through the vision for it and everything, that was one of the driving forces as well, was kind of knowing that, I mean, for all of us, music is a real timeline to our lives, and certain songs can really bring you back to a certain moment. And someone said to me at one point, you know, one of the powerful things that's going to happen here is that you're going to be bringing music to people, and they're going to hear a song, or ask for a song that brings them back, maybe to a happier time in their life, and that it'll just kind of, you know, give them that memory for, even if it's just, you know, for a few moments. And I felt like that happened right there, which was very cool. And another—it's interesting, these are both kind of very early memories from the program. There was a fellow at the shelter back in the day who was a very talented drummer, and also said he hadn't touched a drum kit in a very long time. And I don't have a drum kit, but, like I said, I have a couple of little kind of hand drums and things like that. And he—I mean, both my stories end up with guys in tears. He also, the first time I went in, you know, like I said, hadn't touched drums in a very long time. We liked the same music. I mean, the demographic at New Hope is kind of, you know, it tends to be middle-aged men, and we tend to like kind of classic rock and stuff like that. And we all kind of know and like the same songs. So, we just kind of went through the songbook of classic rock, and he just drummed along to all of it perfectly. He had incredible rhythm, which is such a joy for me, because when I have a percussionist who has perfect rhythm, it really helps me to stay kind of in time. I have a tendency to speed up as I go, if I'm playing by myself. And he was kind of a bit over my shoulder, like, sort of beside/behind me, and he drummed away for several songs, and I was just kind of in the flow and going from song to song and interacting with the other folks that were there. And, you know, looked over and acknowledged him after a few songs, and noticed that he was in tears as well. So, I mean, yeah, I'm a big believer that music, you know, has a very deep impact on a lot of people. That's certainly my own experience with music, and I see it all the time.

Kristin Ostensen

Programs like Harmonies for Hope are part of what sets a Salvation Army shelter apart. We’re not just giving folks a place to stay. We give our guests opportunities to create meaning, to experience dignity, to find hope.

Tony 

I’ve been to a few of the shelters. This is, by far, the best.

Rob Dixon

Everyone says that.

Tony

It’s five star.

Rob Dixon

I’m glad you found it. 

Tony

Yeah.

Rob Dixon

It always feels like a—

Tony

Grateful.

Rob Dixon

—very good community.

Tony

Yeah.

Rob Dixon

I’m sure not everyone knows everyone. But I can tell people get along well, and the staff seem to be really caring as well.

Tony

Yeah, there’s a lot of us who are sick, and you just got to be patient with everybody.

Rob Dixon

Yeah, exactly.

Tony

We’re in a vulnerable spot, so.

Rob Dixon

Yeah. It’s a privilege to be in here, and be able to bring music because music makes me very happy.

Tony

It does. You know what?

Rob Dixon

It makes most people happy.

Tony

It takes me out of my—sometimes when I’m feeling sad, I can listen to a song, and it takes me to a beautiful place.

[music]

Kristin Ostensen

Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Salvationist podcast. For more episodes, visit Salvationist.ca/podcast.

[music]