According to the World Health Organization (2021), 1 in 7 children and adolescents worldwide experience mental disorders. The WHO and the National Action Plan for Mental Health in Greece - emphasise the importance of integrating mental well-being into educational policy and school programmes. Teachers face the great challenge of trying to produce academic outcomes in classrooms that are often culturally and academically heterogeneous and that are often characterised by conflict, disruptive attitudes, hostility, insecurity and are debilitating (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009). Participation in arts activities and particularly the implementation of community music projects within the school context has been found to be associated with social attitudes and behaviours such as self-awareness, social empathy and violence reduction (Veblen, 2008). The aim of the scoping review that was conducted, was to investigate the use of participatory arts in the school environment, while the aim of the presentation is to demonstrate, based on the scoping review findings, that the implementation of participatory arts programs within schools enhances the social and emotional skills of students and teachers, improves relationships between them and classroom climate (Higgins & Bartleet, 2012), and provide them with a safe context to express themselves emotionally, understand and manage their feelings (Poulou et al., 2022), anxiety, stress level, and ultimately begin to develop a sense of belonging to the group (Koopman, 2007). The presentation will link the above findings with the perspective that we, as music educators, promote relational pedagogy  (Hickey & Riddle, 2023;  Hinsdale & Ljungblad, 2023; Κοσμόπουλος, 1996) and contribute to promoting students' and teachers' mental health in the school context (Yada & Fenyvesi, 2023). 

• Social musical settings
• Inclusion, marginalization, bullying and exclusion
• Music education for social justice and equality
• Music and communities

Lida Stamou is professor of music education in the Dept. of Music Science and Art at the University of Macedonia (UoM), Thessaloniki, Greece. She is director of the graduate study program “Music & Society” and the Baby Artist early childhood music program at UoM. She has founded and coordinates the Group of Volunteers “Together with Music: Music and Musicians for a Better Society”. She obtained her Ph.D. in music education from Michigan State University and has a taught as an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is certified in Suzuki violin teaching, in the Orff method, and in Music Learning Theory. For a number of years, she has been president and member of the Board of Directors of the Greek Society for Music Education (G.S.M.E). She has been a Fulbright scholar.