A small purple ukulele sat inside Deacon Nelson’s office, waiting for its next musician. Deacon Nelson picked it up and started to play. “The ukulele is easy to play. It is a soft instrument.” Deacon Nelson’s connection to music is clear – music has the ability to heal, to calm the noise all around. A guitar player himself, Deacon Nelson wanted to give this same gift of music to the youth of his community. He landed on the ukulele because of its relative affordability and ease of playing. “The ukulele is smaller than the guitar, and has fewer, softer strings, making it easier to learn to play. “Many times the kids think it will be too difficult to learn a song, but soon they learn they can do it. Whatever effort you put in, is the result you get.” The parallels to life are clear, intentional, or not. His ability to connect and teach coping skills and life lessons is unassuming. The youth are disarmed by the ukulele all while they are learning. They don’t even see it coming.
Thirty kids, ages 7 to 16, came together four days a week for 6 weeks from July through August. This was the sixth year for the ukelele camp. The camp provided breakfast and lunch and a safe space for the youth in the community to come together. Deacon Nelson is the main teacher, alongside youth that were prior students, and get paid for teaching. Members of the community cooked home-made meals. Group sessions with social workers were also woven into the daily activities.
Nathalie Cuadros was one of the three Licensed Social Workers (LSWs) who worked at the camp. They provided daily sessions based on topics that the kids chose. The topics ranged from family, friends, anxiety, depression and how to ask for help. On Fridays, the kids participated in arts activities made possible by a collaboration with coLAB Arts, a non-profit organization that generates community-powered projects and seeks to create art using new and established spaces.
“The kids love Deacon Nelson. He really connects with them and they respect him” said Nathalie. For Deacon Nelson, it came naturally, “The kids are easy, you listen to them, you give them respect and on occasion provide some guidance.” We talked about Positive Childhood Experiences (PCES) and how the connection to a caring adult outside the home builds resilience and can help to mitigate the effects of Adverse Childhood Experience (ACES). The kids shared with the group that they would have been dealing with the sound of gunshots at home or that many of them would have been alone while their parents were at work. The camp provided them with a safe space and a place to make connections with people from their community who have had similar experiences. The camp provided them with a sense of belonging, support from friends and pride in themselves and their community. And, of course, they looked forward to Deacon Nelson and his lessons – ukelele and life ones, too.
The Holy Family Parrish Ukulele Camp is a recipient of the NJ Office of Resilience’s round of microgrants for 2023-2024. The camp ran from July through August 2023. They are located at 56 Throop Ave in New Brunswick, NJ 08901. For more information about the Holy Family Parish and all their programs please visit: www.holyfamilyforall.org. For more information about coLAB Arts please visit: coLAB Arts (colab-arts.org).
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