Mental Health Awareness Week - Projects Spreading Kindness
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, a national campaign aiming to raise awareness of good mental health practice and inspire action to promote it. There’s no doubt that the current coronavirus crisis is having a negative impact on the mental health of almost everyone in some way, even more so for young people already facing challenges. Many of the projects we support have said that creative music-making has a positive impact on young people’s mental health – with outcomes including greater self-expression, reduced anxiety and better social connectedness with others. One of our previous articles highlighted a number of projects specially designed to work with young people who are experiencing mental ill health.
As the theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is Kindness, we wanted to share some recent examples (these are just a few!) of what our funded projects have done that have spread kindness (especially with our world turned upside down during the pandemic) and in turn have had a positive impact on the mental health of both participants and facilitators. This also ties nicely in with it being Creativity and Wellbeing Week, the theme being Positive Futures.
Music Fusion – ‘Studio in a box’ initiative
On a recent blog post on the Network, Jinx, CEO of Music Fusion (a young person’s music studio based near Portsmouth) talked about their ‘studio in a box’ initiative. He said “We were right in the middle of recording an album with 50 young people…before the lockdown happened. Our young people suffer from a range of challenging life circumstances. This includes serious mental health issues, most commonly trauma. During the first few days of the lockdown we watched our young people slide into dark, lonely (and on a few occasions) dangerous states of mind. We found a way of continuing to engage with our young people that is proving to have a powerful impact.”
Jinx says “The music leaders work with the young person via Zoom to compose a backing track, write lyrics and practice their performance.” The ‘studio in a box’ is then dropped off to the young person’s house where it is left for 3 days before use (to prevent infection). Then, via online screen-sharing, a producer works with them to get a high-quality studio recording and experience. “The results of our pilot show a level of engagement and learning that surpasses even our traditional methods. It’s amazing what you can do when you have a captive audience.”
Online Compilation Videos (Music At The Edge & Freedom Road Creative Arts)
Music At The Edge have been doing some amazing collaboration videos, and providing free online music lessons on their Facebook and Instagram pages as a forum for young people to connect with each other, get creative and be heard. The online collaboration where anyone can download a backing track and submit videos of themselves playing along to a song is a great way of engaging young people, building confidence and increasing mental wellbeing. They also held a Give a Gig Online event for Youth Music on Friday 1 May which we are very grateful for – thank you to Tom and Terri!
Freedom Road Creative Arts have also been doing some fantastic collaboration videos, with a cover of Caravan of Love! It's lovely to see all of these videos working so well and involving so many talented young people.
Babigloo – Online early years videos
Babigloo have been providing lots of great online content for babies and their parents. They said “we knew that it was going to be very difficult for families living in isolation. Imagine an 8 month, 3 years old and 5 year old combination, in a small flat.” Providing a moment of space for parents, while their children can be entertained in an interactive way during lockdown is important and they’ve been having some great feedback. For example “I am front line NHS so work 3 days a week and watch it with Bee on catch up and Babigloo know this and kindly still mention our names. Such a lovely personal touch in a busy world. So please we are able to do this.” Supporting good mental health should start from birth and if parents are able to use resources like this to help them unwind with their children, it can only be a good thing.
Rap to Unmute
AudioActive, based in Brighton, have been running a project called Room to Rant, an ‘alternative support group’ for vulnerable young men to come and express themselves through talking, writing, rapping and freestyling to process what they are going through. Sessions are led by Jon Clark (MC and artist practitioner) and local freestyle legend MC Gramski with the help of a YMCA Mental Health professional who supports with safeguarding and one to one support. Jon said it has been going really well and doing the sessions virtually is likely to be helping “socially anxious people in our communities…become more included.”
Participants are from a range of backgrounds and many don’t have a permanent address, with one commenting that “Room to Rant has really come at the best time. When I was at my worst it helped me pick myself up, helped me confront my mental health, using music and rapping to vent and get out how I’m feeling…they create a happy place for me and others to express ourselves and feel safe.”
In Jon’s post on the Youth Music Network, he said “I’m looking forward to this Thursday. We’ll laugh, rap, take the mick out of each other and bang saucepans for the NHS when 8 o clock rolls around. It’s something healthy and powerful.”
Further reading on the network
We recently held online networks including one on Singing for Health and another on Wellbeing. These are very much relevant to looking after mental health so do have a read.
Dan Axon from Upfaders shared some learning from their research project with NHS Mental Health Clinicians and academics on an online creative collaboration platform for young isolated people experiencing mental health issues.