Jessie’s Fund: Changing children’s lives through therapeutic music

Jessie’s Fund was established as a registered charity in 1995 and helps children with serious illness, complex needs and communication difficulties through the therapeutic use of music. Based in York, but work throughout the United Kingdom, they are an excellent example of how the arts can be truly transformative.

We aim to:

• enable children in children’s hospices and hospital wards in the UK to access music therapy by establishing posts for music therapists;

• help children in specialist school and early years settings to participate in creative musical activities;

• train staff in specialist schools to use music as a tool for communication and learning

• provide access to music therapy for children and young people with complex needs in the community.

Our Work

Since Jessie’s Fund was established by the George family in 1995 in memory of their daughter Jessie, it has provided musical instruments for nearly all 54 children’s hospice services and worked in partnership to establish music therapy posts in 44 of them.

Our schools project has worked in nearly 300 specialist school settings across the country delivering creative music projects and staff development. The focus of our school work is to leave a legacy of creative music through staff training and demonstrating, through our musicians, how music can be used as a tool for communication. It is a tiered programme through which schools can progress, with one-day taster workshops, five-day creative projects and one-year staff development projects.

Our growing family music projects are helping to deliver early intervention to children with additional needs and offering advice and training to parents at this key time in a child’s development and learning.

Our expansion into developing music therapy and creative music activity in hospitals is ongoing, with two music therapy posts currently established. We have also funded or part-funded almost 12,000 music therapy sessions with children in the community.

Music Therapy

Louis received funding for music therapy from Jessie’s Fund in the spring of 2024. Prior to this, he was a quiet boy who did not reach out to others in his world. Since accessing moving therapy he is showing improved eye contact, joint attention, and confidence with new adults, as well as so much more shared enjoyment. His parents told us that ‘Perhaps most wonderful is the fact that the sessions have brought music and dancing into our home, and with them, joy and connection. We often now turn on the speakers and it is the most wonderful experience to see our little boy smiling and swaying along to the music, and even grabbing our hands to encourage us to join him.’

Creative music projects in specialist school settings

Jessie’s Fund ran a collaborative creative music project across three specialist schools in Merseyside, as part of a programme of Eurovision activities in the summer of 2023. The project culminated in a sharing performance at the Shakespeare North

Playhouse, attended by parents. The students showed great confidence in their performance as well as pride in their work, sharing songs about topics from broken ice cream machines to otters and teamwork. When asked about what the project had meant to them, one student shared:

I have learnt to use my imagination and put it into practice. The class have teamed up to work together, to share trust with each other and to express our own opinions. We have collaborated our individual opinions and built them up. It’s like a lego house. Everybody’s opinion is like a lego block and when you stack them altogether it turns into a joint success. Music is powerful. It allows you to have a ‘déjà vu’ moment when you listen to a song, it can take you back into your memories, and it is spectacular.

Jessie’s Fund partners with specialist school and early years organisations, including Portage, to deliver creative music projects and facilitate staff training and development. Families can apply to Jessie’s Fund for funding for music therapy for individual children with complex needs. You can find out more by visiting our website www.jessiesfund.org.uk

Next year is our 30th anniversary and we are looking for supporters who can help our fundraising efforts. This could be through donations and raffles at a concert or other events, taking on a challenge such as the Great North Run, or by becoming a regular donor through our website. We would love to hear from you if you would like to be involved.

Rebecca Ellis, Executive Director

Jessie’s Fund, 15 Priory Street, York YO1 6ET 01904 658189

rebecca@jessiesfund.org.uk www.jessiesfund.org.uk