A word from our leader....

'I am a mental health service user and have always loved to sing in choirs. I wanted to share this passion with others in order that they too may enjoy the health and well being benefits of making music as a group.

I developed the Mustard Seed Singers project in 2007 and have been conducting and leading the choir since then. I play a role in organising performances and rehearsals. I also always strive to empower the members of the group to have an input into choice of repertoire and overall style of the project. We have been giving performances, taster sessions and workshops to promote the health and well being benefits of singing for The Sydney de Haan Centre for Research through taster sessions and workshops throughout East Kent. They have now set up similar groups all over the South East one of which I am also running in Whitstable.'

Feedback from participants......

'Keeps me happy, is an excellent hobby. Sociable activity. Need no special equipment – easy to carry voice around. I have clinical depression, so it really helps me.'

'There is something about this group activity that makes it different from all others and makes it a truly communal experience. Other activities enable you to disappear off into your own world, troubled or otherwise, but for this everybody has to be focused on the here and now and on each other. You have to listen to everyone around you and attune yourself to them as you join in; you have to watch the person conducting and blend yourself in with the harmonies around you. When it all comes together the hair on the back of your neck stands on end.'
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Reg. Charity No: 1063552
Company No. 03374258

Registered Office:
Larkings
Chartered Accountants
31 St Georges Place
Canterbury, CT1 1XD

 
 

 

 

 


Community Choir

The Mustard Seed Singers, an all inclusive community choir started up and led by a service user, began life just before Christmas 2007 and naturally began singing Christmas Carols. Their first performances were at Connors House and St Stephen’s Community Church. During 2008 they began developing a wider repertoire of show tunes, spirituals, hymns as well as contemporary songs.

The Sydney de Haan Centre for Research had just launched a season of seminars outlining current developments in research and practice in music, singing and health, some of which were attended by members of the choir. In June, discussions with the Sydney de Haan Centre took place about the choir’s practical involvement in the design and development of the research into the health and wellbeing benefits of singing in a group for mental health service users. Meanwhile the choir continued to prepare for performances in October at the Mind the Gap Festival (part of an anti stigma campaign) in Whitefriars shopping centre and World Mental Health Day at St Andrews Church. The first taster sessions for the Sydney de Haan‘s research project were planned for Thanet and Sittingbourne in December.



This year the choir were invited back to St Stephens Community Church to perform and participate in their shoe box campaign, sending shoeboxes of basic items and toys to orphanages in Eastern Europe and Africa. We then began a busy series of taster sessions and workshops to help promote the Sydney de Haan Centre’s bid to set up similar choirs all over East Kent. From May this year we have provided taster sessions and workshops in Ashford, Faversham, Deal, Sheerness, Margate and Folkestone. On two of these occasions we ended up busking in the street. We have also performed as part of the series of seminars in Music, Arts and Health at The University Centre Folkestone on 16th June with Sandra Pearson, organiser of the Mind the Gap festival.

Following a recent taster session in Margate we have been invited to give a performance in June 2010 at Folkestone and District MIND Centre’s AGM and the Hereson Time Bank’s First Anniversary at St Luke Church Hall, Ramsgate on the 19th September. We also hope to be performing with some of the newly set up choirs at The Big Sing in this year’s Mind the Gap Festival on World Mental Health Day.

Participants come from a wide range of backgrounds from service users to their family members, staff and professionals.

The project receives no core funding but it did produce our first service user focus group which looks into writing bids for funding. This is becoming increasingly important so that we can pay for rental on a new rehearsal space, transport costs to enable us to plan, provide and attend workshops, taster sessions and give performances in a wider range of settings. We also need to buy new music and materials. We would like to thank councillor Graham Gibbens for our first donation which has helped us secure a large rehearsal space to accommodate the growing number of members.

We would also like to plan and develop more workshops and taster sessions for different projects to the point where we can actually generate funds to keep the choir going. We are also looking forward to working with the new choirs being set up on a shared repertoire.

 


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