Listen to the 25-minute podcast – Music, making connections, and mental health: insights from Carer’s Music FundSince September 2019, Spirit of 2012’s Carers’ Music Fund projects have been engaging female carers across the UK in music activities with the aim of reducing loneliness; improving their mental health and wellbeing; and challenging gendered perceptions of caring. This podcast is part of a series of insight reports on the wellbeing benefits of participatory music-making activities.  You can read the initial insights report and a practice example of music-making projects during lockdown. As part of the learning partnership for the Fund, we knew that evaluation reports and briefings aren’t always enough to show the varied experience and context of each project.

We wanted to give a voice to the people who design and run the music-making sessions, as well as those who take part. Podcasts are a great way to capture the varied experience and context of each of the CMF projects. The stories and experiences shared have given us insight into how these projects are making a difference in the lives of women carers.The conversations highlighted for me some key ways that the sessions were making a difference, each with a common thread linking music-making and singing to wellbeing:in breaking down boundaries between individualsnurturing sisterhood and sharing common experienceschallenging stereotypes about women carersconnecting people through technology. Ingrid Abreu Scherer, Civil Society Lead at the What Works Wellbeing Centre.
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