Maggie Wheeler is a Trustee of the Sing Your Heart Out project which provides free singing workshops to support mental wellbeing, and celebrates 20 years this year. As 150 singers come together from all the groups across Norfolk to celebrate with a ‘Big Sing’ today, she explains more
I last spoke to you about a project called Rosie’s Plaques, where a group of us try to redress the balance of women commemorated on our streets and buildings. Since we last spoke, we have been helping woman and girls in Norfolk and beyond to join us in our cause and create plaques for unsung women. I am also involved with a project called “Sing Your Heart Out” which is what brought me to you this time.
The last couple of years have been busy with the plaques project, and various other volunteer activities. I am involved with the Friends of Waterloo Park which has recently been awarded Garden of Sanctuary status.
Sing Your Heart Out provides free singing workshops to support mental wellbeing and help people with mental health problems. This year we celebrate our 20th anniversary. We are not a choir, as we recognised early on that not everyone wants to perform, and it can be stressful having to rehearse. We want to make it as easy as possible to just turn up to one of our sessions and simply sing and discover they can be part of making a beautiful sound. Our secret is that we have some very talented singing tutors, who lead our groups gently and skilfully without any pressure. You don’t even have to join in if you don’t feel like it.
There is a lot of evidence that singing in harmony is good for you both physically and mentally and can help reduce stress. The act of singing exercises the brain and body together and improves breathing, posture and muscle tension. Singing with other people is a joyful experience as you hear and feel yourself being part of something – it can take you out of yourself
We have grown beyond recognition since 2004. Starting as a small group at Hellesdon Hospital we quite quickly moved into the community in Norwich, expanding over the years so we now run workshops in Sheringham, Yarmouth, Kings Lynn and Hingham as well as the city. In 2019 we became a charity. When Covid stuck we went online. It was a good way to keep in touch, but harmony singing doesn’t really work with different band speeds! However, singing together was one of the last things allowed, so we coped, and had a lot of laughs in the process. We are now back to normal, with our regular sessions in person.
During our 20 years we have won awards, including the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (a sort of MBE for voluntary groups) featured in the press locally and nationally, and attracted interest from all over the world – two of us were invited to Japan to talk about the project!
We have also commissioned research from UEA which demonstrated the effectiveness of the project, so we know we’re doing the right thing!
We have plans for our 20th birthday which include a “Big Sing” where we are getting singers from all 5 groups together for a day. We are also inviting all those who have supported us over the years, including some fantastic local funders who have shown real faith in us, and continued to help us financially, so we can keep our sessions free. The event will be in Swanton Morley Village Hall on June 10th. There will be lots of singing, and lots of cake.
We always need funds, so our fantastic singing tutors, all of whom are singers, musicians and songwriters organised a series of fundraising concerts during March across the county.
Where next? Well, we never dreamed 20 years ago that SYHO would have grown so much and gone on so long. There will always be a need for projects that protect and promote good mental health. There will always be a need for groups that are accepting, and non-judgemental. If we can carry on doing that, as well as making a joyful sound, I will be happy.
Visit Sing Your Heart Out (syho.org). Fundraising concerts in March raised £4,000 for the non-profit organisation. To donate, visit Donations.
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