We recently awarded a grant to Headspace Bolton, a Community Interest Company established by people with lived experience of mental illness and experienced mental health staff with experience of caring. They support people of all ages to come together and engage in a wide range of high quality performing arts led by artists.
The group was established due to a lack of opportunity to come together to learn about performance based arts in Bolton and are now producing a wide range of workshops including comedy, improvisation, spoken word and music.
This grant was for their Bolton Belters choir composed of twelve all female members aged between 52 to 68. The funding provided them with an experienced and skilled choir facilitator every Thursday for 10 sessions.
All members reported making new friends since joining and in particular alluded to the reduced isolation and connections they had made as well as enjoying their hobby and learning new skills. The choir has been and remains a lifeline for this group of people and the number of new members keeps increasing.
As well as the outlined sessions the group has been involved in two recitals over this period and are now embarking on an intergenerational project that will bring together their skills alongside a group of spoken word artists who all have lived experience of mental illness.
The feedback report Headspace Bolton returned to us indicated that they are now also exploring a male choir based on the success of this project.
Below are some of the statements from an anonymous survey they conducted:
"Social interaction with a new, supportive group has been very enjoyable and increased my pleasure in life."
"It has helped me feel more confident in myself by doing something that I really enjoy and I can forget my problems for a while and I am getting used to all the people in the choir."
"Great way to become a part of a community choir. It has become a second family and we are very supportive of each other. Music definitely warms the soul!"
"I feel like the choir has helped me to improve my mental health as its helped release some of the stress I felt due to work."
"It's great to be part of a community with same interests. It is a wonderful mutually supportive group. We have fun and make great sound too!"
"The choir is so uplifting. Stef is a fantastic leader and her song choices are fabulous. I’ve made lots of new friends. We all gel and have a lovely time."