Mental health charity wins LoveBrum funding

LoveBrum has awarded £2,000 to a local community choir that promotes maintaining good mental health.

The Wellbeing Community Choir, which is a choir open to the whole community, is aimed at supporting individuals suffering with, or recovering from, a mental illness.

Each month, LoveBrum selects three good causes around one theme and asks its members to vote for one of the organisations. May’s theme was mental health.

The choir has been going for six years since starting in Ladywood, Birmingham, and aims to reduce mental health stigma by singing at events and at hospitals around the city to take music to those who can’t access it.

The Wellbeing Community Choir receives no council funding and for many of its members is the only form of social interaction that they have during the week. With the funding from LoveBrum, the choir will put it towards the rental costs for venues, which will give them a life line, ensuring that they can continue their work for another two years.

The other finalists for the funding included Kinmos and COPE Mental Health Foundation.

Kinmos supports vulnerable adults suffering from mental health illnesses in the Kings Health and Moseley area.

COPE Mental Health Foundation, which is based in Handsworth, is made up of a small group of mental health working professionals who strive to improve individual, family and community lives.