Health promotion: two case studies of youth orchestra community programs in Buenos Aires City

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: This study aims to explore the potential use of community arts –as well as its limits– to promote health and well-being among young people living in contexts of social vulnerability. It is related with one of the main problems of the health promotion field in Latin America: the distance between its rhetoric (based on a holistic health conception and its multiple determinants) and the practices actually delivered (based on conductive theoretical models). OBJECTIVE: To study two arts education projects for young people from neighborhoods in the City of Buenos Aires in terms of holistic health perspective, the Southern Youth Orchesta and Villa Lugano, and to analyze changes in the individual and collective health dimensions identified by their members. METHOD: 24 in-depth interviews were conducted among young participants, their parents and teachers; there were also three focus groups with young people, five months of participant observation and document analyses in each project. RESULTS: participating in both projects has changed individual and collective indicators of health and well-being, but also showed some significant differences between the orchestras. Furthermore, taking into account the comparison, the pedagogic strategy and the intervention methodology were essential to achieve these results. CONCLUSIONS: community art projects that have not been designed to promote positive health can become innovative strategies in this field.