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.