Listen With Love Concerts Invite Peterborough to Rethink What Belonging Looks Like for Children

By Scott Arnold

Two October concerts will use music, storytelling and one local family’s experience to start a conversation about inclusion and what it means for every child to feel like they belong.

Five Counties Children’s Centre is hosting Listen With Love concerts on October 20th and 21st in Peterborough, featuring staff member Hannah Bailey sharing her family’s inclusion journey through music, storytelling and lived experience. (photo provided by Five Counties Children Centre)

Five Counties Children’s Centre is bringing its new Listen With Love initiative to Peterborough this October, with two concerts designed to get families, community members and early childhood educators thinking differently about inclusion.

The concerts will tell the story of Peterborough mom Hannah Bailey, who is raising her son Max, who has a rare genetic condition. Through music and storytelling, Bailey will share her family’s experience navigating Max’s heart condition, rare genetic diagnosis and childhood apraxia of speech, and how that experience changed the way they understood communication, behaviour, regulation and belonging.

There will be two opportunities to take part.

The Tuesday, October 20th concert is open to families and members of the general public who want to learn more about inclusion and Bailey’s journey.

The Wednesday, October 21st concert is aimed at early childhood educators in the Peterborough area. It also falls on Early Childhood Educator Appreciation Day, making the evening both a celebration of the profession and an opportunity to look at inclusion from the perspectives of a parent and ECE.

Doors open at 5:30pm, with both concerts beginning at 7pm. Pre-registration is encouraged for both events.

The concerts will also introduce Roots of Belonging, a new Five Counties initiative that will begin in early 2027 with a training and learning series for local ECE leaders.

The goal is to help child-care settings build more inclusive environments for children and families, including by looking at policies and practices that may unintentionally create barriers to participation.

Five Counties says the initiative will encourage ECE leaders to consider accessibility and inclusion proactively, rather than waiting until a child with a disability arrives before making changes.

At the heart of Listen With Love is a simple message: creating spaces where children can belong as they are and where adults approach differences with curiosity, connection and understanding.

Scott Arnold is a Journalist and Content Creator at PTBOCanada Media Inc

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