We're incredibly grateful for the support we received over the festive season from two wonderful organisations who chose to champion our cause through their Christmas concerts. West Wickham Scouts On December 14th, the 6th and 7th West Wickham Scouts hosted a heartwarming Carol Service at St Francis Church in Kent. Parents and community members gathered to enjoy seasonal songs and support a meaningful cause. Their efforts resulted in an impressive £420 raised for the Sing Up Foundation! The dedication shown by these young scouts and their leaders demonstrates how powerful community action can be. Their choice to support our mission of improving mental health through singing shows their commitment to making a real difference in young people's lives. London Oriana Choir The prestigious London Oriana Choir selected the Sing Up Foundation as their charity partner for their 2024-25 concert season, and their Christmas contributions have been truly extraordinary. Their Candlelight Carols, held at the beautiful St James's Church Piccadilly on December 20th and 21st, raised an incredible £1,425! Audiences were treated to choral favourites and beloved carols, with works from renowned composers including Sir David Willcocks, Cecilia McDowell, Gustav Holst, Errollyn Wallen, and Eric Whitacre. The magical atmosphere created by these talented performers not only brought joy to all who attended but also raised vital funds for our work. We're especially excited that this partnership will continue throughout their 2024-25 season, with more concerts scheduled for March, May, and July 2025. For more information about upcoming performances, please visit their website or you also can view their full concert programme . The Impact of Your Support At the Sing Up Foundation, we believe in the power of singing to improve health and wellbeing for all. With research showing that 50% of mental health problems are established by age 14, and 75% by age 24, our focus on prevention through singing programs for young people is more critical than ever. The combined total of £1,845 raised through these Christmas concerts will directly support our mission to produce, promote, and create opportunities for children and young people to improve their mental health and wellbeing through singing. A Heartfelt Thank You To the West Wickham Scouts, the London Oriana Choir, and everyone who attended these concerts and donated—thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Your generosity is helping us create a healthier, happier world, one song at a time. We look forward to sharing updates throughout 2025 on how these funds are making a difference in young people's lives. If you'd like to support us  or run an event or concert in aid of our work, please get in touch .

Our new Inspiring Voices podcast is coming this September. You can subscribe now to get the episodes as they are released. Join us as we explore the power of singing to transform children and young people’s lives. Through conversations with singers, leaders, researchers and other specialists, we’ll consider the unique role of singing, songwriting, voice exploration and creative music-making in improving children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. The Sing Up Foundation believes in the power of singing to improve health and wellbeing – so listen in and be inspired! Subscribe now on your favourite podcast platform - Spotify: https://bit.ly/IVPodSpotify Apple: https://apple.co/45ZCVTx Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/3raZXrF Google: https://bit.ly/IVPodGoogle Supported using public funding by Arts Council England as part of the Cultural Recovery Fund.

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.