Three new trustees have joined our Board to help guide the Sing Up Foundation's strategy moving forward. This summer, we welcomed three new trustees to their first Board meeting following a period of recruitment which we began in 2019. As we all know, the pandemic has caused much upheaval over the last 18 months, so this was our first meeting since December 2019 which was, of course, held virtually over Zoom. The three new trustees - Dr Andrew McWilliams, Dr Jeremy Sleith and Dr Motje Wolfe - have joined us with expertise in fields which are fundamental to the Foundation's development moving forward in helping us support young people and adolescents with their mental health and wellbeing through singing. We're really pleased to welcome them to our organisation, and their advice and guidance has already been incredibly valuable. Dr Andrew McWilliams is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and researcher with a wide variety of experience working directly with young people and also running research projects in clinical settings including studying the impact of arts and health interventions. Having founded St Helen's Music Service, Dr Jeremy Sleith has over 30 years experience working with young people and music practitioners in music organisations and music hubs and has been developing a variety of arts on prescription models through his role as Head of Service. With a keen interest in music education, singing and research, Dr Motje Wolfe is a Senior Lecturer in Education at DeMontfort University and is a member of the steering committee of 'Singing in Music Education' of the European Association of Music in Schools. We're really excited to welcome our new trustees on board and are looking forward to developing much needed programmes using singing to help young people and adolescents to improve their mental health and wellbeing in this time of great need. For more information on our Board of Trustees, please visit https://www.singupfoundation.org/boardoftrustees There you will find, full biographies for each of our Trustees. Charlotte Law, Learning Executive at Sing Up, is also a Sing Up Foundation trustee but was unable to attend our Board meeting this summer.

Over the past few months, we have been hosting a series of focus groups exploring singing for mental health and wellbeing, bringing together experts from across the field with experience running and managing these singing sessions. We started looking at these singing sessions and getting a clear idea of what makes them different from 'regular' singing sessions. You can read up on that discussion on our blog . Following on from that, we started to explore what is needed from the leaders to deliver positive singing sessions for mental health and wellbeing. Through the conversation and thinking about their own experiences, the group decided that the characteristics, knowledge and expertise could be organised into broader personal and professional domains, ultimately thinking about what a singing leader needs to DO, KNOW and BE to deliver a positive experience when leading singing for mental health and wellbeing. We eventually organised the groups' ideas into the following and realised subsequently that they could be presented as a Leadership Schema (see the figure below). DO Practice Music Leadership Skills and Knowledge Learn repertoire thoroughly Prepare and be flexible Have wide and varied repertoire Use ice-breakers appropriately Deliver appropriately paced and pitched workshops Teach and lead groups effectively KNOW Appropriate Mental Health Awareness Awareness of mental health conditions Know clients’ triggers Have techniques and tools to deal with specific behaviours Observe (read the room) Understand the context/environment/people Trauma and mental health informed The 'DO' and 'KNOW' parts of the schema are pretty self-explanatory. The group had a lengthy discussion about the innate and learned leadership qualities that make up what has been grouped under 'BE'. When working in singing for mental health and wellbeing, given the context, the participants' needs and the purpose of the activity, there was a feeling that there really are special personal attributes that will make a leader more likely to flourish leading singing for mental health and wellbeing. It is of course important for all leaders to have some of these skills to varying degrees, but the context of the work makes some of them more critical. BE Authentic & Self-Aware Understanding Genuine interest and drive Be real/authentic Emotional intelligence/perceptive Be you! (Leave your baggage) Inclusive Non-judgemental  Do normalise the group singing experience Just sing – singing not just being ‘done’ to the group Innate Qualities Be warm and funny Sensitive – awareness of non-verbal communication Demeanour – body language Be unshockable/unphasable Have an understanding and recognition of resilience Know yourself Learned Qualities Respond sensitively to clients’ needs Be able to respond appropriately and sensitively (empathy) Be encouraging Be Resilient Be Flexible (musically and personally) Be adaptable Be patient Being part of a team Team player Organisational support for leader Change of face Knowing ‘Team Teach’  Knowing your own levels and limits Needs to be supported (self-care) Taking it further Thinking about the way the identified domains – DO, KNOW and BE – could potentially be presented, the figure above was developed. Depending on the participants’ needs and the context of the singing activity, the leader’s use of their knowledge, skills and interpersonal qualities would fluctuate between the domains themselves using their expertise to guide their practice. In other words, each leader would recognise the needs of their audience and then weight their skills appropriately towards those needs.  We could also potentially plot different contexts against the domains to help determine and recruit leaders to deliver singing for mental health and wellbeing. The group felt that this schema could be a useful and flexible tool for those commissioning singing for mental health and wellbeing and also those wanting to work in the area. Could this schema potentially help to provide a framework for recruitment or maybe help vocal leaders think about the gaps in their own knowledge and skills? Questions to think about Is this a useful tool to have? How could you use it? Do any of the circles take precedence over the others? What do you think could go in the centre of all three circles? What are your thoughts? We're keen to continue developing the conversation and would love to hear what you think. Please join in and add your comments or get in touch.

We’re looking to grow our Board of Trustees by recruiting a new Chair and two new Trustees to join our team helping to drive forward the Foundation in an exciting time. This is a unique opportunity to help shape a relatively new Foundation at the beginning stages of development. After helping us to establish the Foundation and guiding us through the first few years of development, our current Chair, David Sulkin OBE is coming to the end of his term. He will be stepping down as Chair but staying on as a Trustee on our Board. The new Chair will lead the Board and support the development of the Foundation’s strategy with particular interest and experience in culture, health and wellbeing. With a senior leadership background and track record of delivering successful programmes, you will also have previous governance experience within a charity or social sector organisation. The Chair will be confident in taking an ambassadorial role and helping to build and develop strong networks for the Foundation. The Trustees will bring previous high-level experience and we have identified the following areas of expertise that we’re interested in adding to our Board: Health sector experience with a special interest in mental health and wellbeing Fundraising experience with specific interest in trusts and foundations Experience in research with a background in science Local or regional experience within the mental health sector specifically with young people and adolescents Both Chair and Trustees will have an interest and experience with adolescents with a passion for improving the lives of young people. The Foundation welcomes applications regardless of sex, gender, race, age, sexuality, belief or disability. We’re also happy to have an informal conversation regarding the Foundation and the roles. Please download the full role specifications below: Sing Up Foundation Chair Role Profile Sing Up Foundation Trustee Role Profile If you’d like to apply, please send in your CV with a covering letter by 30 November to info@singupfoundation.org with ‘Sing Up Foundation Board’ in the subject line. ----- The Sing Up Foundation believes in harnessing the power of singing to improve people's mental health and wellbeing. With 50% of mental health problems established by the age of 14 and 75% by the age of 24, we believe it's critical to focus on prevention by working with young people. The benefits of singing, especially in groups, are wide-ranging with extensive research supporting the physiological, social, psychological and behavioural benefits. The Sing Up Foundation aims to produce, promote and create opportunities for children and young people to improve their mental health and wellbeing through singing.

We want to know about your experiences of children and young people's mental health and wellbeing. As part of our work, we're looking for your views and experiences of children and young people's mental health and wellbeing. If you work with children and young people either in school (primary or secondary) or out of school, we'd love to hear your views. Teachers play an important role in identifying and supporting their pupils' emotional wellbeing and we're interested to know your experiences and how the Sing Up Foundation can help support your work. Please take our survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/8GRWHPJ The Sing Up Foundation aims to produce, promote and create opportunities for children and young people to improve their mental health and emotional wellbeing through singing.

This week, Sing Up staff spread some festive cheer in Charing Cross Station and helped to raise money for Samaritans. As part of the #SingforSamaritans campaign, Sing Up Staff sung to raise funds for Central London Samaritans at Charing Cross train station on 12 December 2018. Samaritans provide support to anyone experiencing emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide. They are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and run various programmes and provide support via phone, email and face-to-face. Given the Sing Up Foundation's aim of using singing as an aid to mental health and wellbeing, we're particularly pleased to be able to support #SingforSamaritans this Christmas. Get involved There are many ways to get involved and support the work of Samaritans. If you're interested in running your own #SingforSamaritans event, visit https://www.samaritans.org/support-us/sing-for-samaritans. If you'd like to find out more about the benefits of singing to aid mental health and wellbeing, there's a wealth of relevant research to explore on our Singing & Health page. Here's a video of our staff carol singing in Covent Garden and at Charing Cross in aid of Samaritans.

As part of Sing Up’s 10th birthday, we established a new charitable foundation with the purpose of supporting and promoting singing for mental health and well-being. Taking inspiration from Sing Up’s work and the impact that it has had on young children’s lives, the Foundation will aim to take Sing Up's ethos and values forward in working with teenagers and young people. During Sing Up's funded period, the benefits of singing for wellbeing came to the forefront following years of Sing Up activity in schools. It became clear after the first few years of Sing Up funding that there were so many wider benefits to singing in schools – from greater social cohesion to building individual children's confidence and much more. Originally, the Institute of Education (IoE) which was tracking and evaluating the funding from government was never asked to track wellbeing as part of the study. Significantly, half-way through the funding period with so much anecdotal evidence coming back regarding wellbeing, the IoE was asked to add wellbeing to the study and eventually this came out as being one of the most significant impacts of Sing Up. Given the research and statistics, it's clear that mental health issues begin in early childhood. For this reason, we are clear that through the work of the Foundation, we will aim to focus on prevention with the youngest children using singing to build resilience, self-esteem and confidence helping to build a foundation for better mental health. For adolescents and young adults, the focus will be on prevention as well, but further work will also be developed to work with children and young people with more acute and established mental health needs. If you're interested in talking to us about your experiences with singing and mental health and wellbeing or if you'd like to talk about working together, please do get in touch.