£100k Grant Will Bring Music To Children In Sussex Hospitals For Three More Years

A £100k grant from Youth Music, Rockinghorse Children’s Charity and Wishing Well Music for Health will deliver three more years of music-making to children’s healthcare settings across Sussex. 

Rockinghorse previously worked with Wishing Well Music for Health, a Sussex based non-profit, to deliver their Youth Music programme for three years from 2020. But this new grant will enable these sessions to continue for another three years, benefitting thousands of children spending time in hospital.

This project is backed by Youth Music, thanks to the National Lottery via Arts Council England. It aims to enrich the time spent in hospitals across the county for children and young people, their families, and the staff who look after them by bringing music into the heart of healthcare. 

The small team of talented musicians visit hospitals, spends time with individual patients and creates musical interactions to help their self-expression and bring joy to what can often be a scary environment.   

Along with sessions in the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton, Wishing Well will also deliver special sessions in the Trevor Mann Baby Unit, Chalkhill Hospital, the Hove Eating Disorder Clinic and the Sussex Discovery College that supports children and young people with mental health challenges.

These new sessions have been made possible by a generous grant from Youth Music, the UK’s leading young person’s music charity, who believe that every young person should have the chance to make, learn and earn in music and creativity.

Matt Griffiths, Youth Music CEO, said: 

“It’s crucial we enable more young people to make, learn and earn in music, whatever their background or goal. That’s why we’re excited to invest in innovative organisations like Rockinghorse Children’s Charity and Wishing Well Music for Health, who are bringing the transformative power of music to young people facing significant challenges in their lives.”

Jo White, CEO at Wishing Well Music for Health, said:

"We are absolutely delighted that this fantastic grant will enable us to work in partnership with Rockinghorse to create music with children and young people at this challenging time in their and their families' lives.  

“Bringing live music to the very heart of healthcare means that it can have the greatest impact where it's needed the most."  

Donna Holland, CEO of Rockinghorse Children’s Charity, said: 

“This incredibly generous grant from Youth Music will mean so much to so many children and their families spending time in hospital.“The work that Wishing Well does is incredibly important and helps children explore their emotions and feelings through music, helping them to have something other than their illness to focus on.

"And music is such a great way to communicate – everyone has some kind of music that they love, that they can relate to, or that moves them. And by bringing music directly into clinical settings, we can help to make a stay in hospital just that little bit better.”

To find out more about Rockinghorse's work or other projects, visit their website at www.rockinghorse.org.uk. For more information on Wishing Well, visit their website at www.wishingwellmusic.org.uk.