Summer Newsletter 2025 - Services For Education

Welcome to our charity newsletter resource area. We will use this page to collate the updates, resources and events that we share with you in the charity newsletter.

SUMMER 2025 EDITION

Many people don’t realise SFE is a charity, so this newsletter aims to highlight the charitable work we do, and the impact we have on our communities.

As a charity, SFE relies on fundraising efforts to make a lot of our work possible. We receive funding from Trusts and Foundations such as Arts Council England, which enable our charitable projects to take place across the city. This support, along with that we receive from our individual donors is vital in us being able to do the work we do and reach the people we work with.

Read on for a bit more information about our work as a charity and how you can get involved.

A Few Words from SHARON

As the new academic year begins, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our supporters. Our charity work is so important to us and allows us to increase our reach and make an impact within our communities. This is all thanks to the support of individual donors and funders – we couldn’t do it without you. Thank you.

Sharon Bell

Chief Executive

PROJECT UPDATES

Our music based charitable projects have been busy since term began, with sessions restarting after the summer holiday.
We deliver several community-based music projects engaging people of different ages and abilities, working with young people with disabilities, children in care and people aged 55 and over, all of which rely on fundraising efforts.

SFE Community Choir

Our Community Choir has grown in popularity and number, with new members joining the original group at Hagley Road Extracare Village. Following a visit to a ‘sister-site’ over in Solihull, we’re pleased to announce we now have a second group running at their Extracare Village, which is again proving popular with residents. Both groups have enjoyed weekly sessions and special performances, and look forward to more next year.

Birmingham Inclusive Choir

Although sessions were late starting this year, our Birmingham Inclusive Choir has had a great time in their sessions, and again took to the stage to join some of our Music Ensembles at our outdoor festival in May – and they loved it! We have had some new members join the group, which is great to see as we know sessions are so valuable to members and their families. We are pleased to say sessions will be resuming in September, and we hope to secure enough funding to offer some new opportunities for the group next year.

Music Cares

Working with Birmingham Virtual School once again, our Music Cares programme has supported around 100 children in care across Birmingham, engaging them in music opportunities they want to be part of. Not only do we help individuals develop their musical talent, but the project helps them engage positively with the world around them, particularly with school and adults working with them.

Youth Proms Inclusion Tickets

New for this year, and thanks to a grant secured from a charitable trust, we were able to offer free tickets to some of the families of young musicians who, due to financial barriers are unable to attend their child’s concert performances in July. Through this project, we were able to support ….. families in attending, enabling them to support their child’s musical achievements, some of them for the first time. A new project this year, this is something we hope to drive forward next year, enabling more families to support their children’s participation in our Ensembles.

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FUNDRAISING EVENTS & ACTIVITIES

As always, our fundraising efforts have been busy, with a presence at most of our concerts since the start of the year. This has helped us raised nearly £5,000 from donations and merchandise sales, which is very much appreciated and will help us continue to deliver the work we do.

As well as grants from trusts and foundations with national reach, we have also received more local support from trusts and businesses, including The Mercian Trust, The Lord Mayor of Birmingham’s Charity and Costco.

We have also seen parents support us through their businesses, either through financial donations and/or their time and skills to offer an opportunity to help us raise money, which we really appreciate.

New for this year, and taking place over the summer, is our first #TeamSFE skydive fundraising event, with two brave souls donning a parachute and taking the leap, all in the name of challenging themselves and raising valuable funds for SFE at the same time. We look forward to sharing their story more, but for now wish them the best of luck!

It has been great to see people’s interest in our Friends of Our Ensembles initiative since we launched it a year ago. A great way to show support for our young musicians, more information can be found here here. We would love to be able to welcome more Friends to our concerts and events next year.

WHAT ELSE?

Earlier this year, SFE was shortlisted in the ‘Arts, Culture and Heritage’ category of The National Charity Awards 2025. Although we didn’t win, we were ‘highly commended’ by the judges, which is a big achievement and something to be proud of, especially given the number and calibre of the nominations received.

We are looking ahead to next year and excited about some of the events and activities we have in the pipeline, working to raise awareness of what we do, and valuable support in helping us continue to have the reach and impact across the city.

GET INVOLVED

There are so many ways people can get involved in supporting SFE and our work. Monetary donations are the obvious way, and of course they are very much appreciated. But perhaps you’re not in a position to donate financially.

This doesn’t mean you can’t get involved… perhaps you have been thinking about taking on a personal challenge and could raise sponsorship at the same time? Do you work for a company that asks employees to nominate local charities to support? Or do you own your own business that might be able to support us in some way?

We would love for your to be part of our fundraising efforts going forward and would welcome a conversation with you about how this might be possible. If you want to know more about how you can get involved, or have your own idea to support us, please contact Sarah, our Fundraising Manager, [email protected]