Jessie's Fund

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. Our small staff team is based in York but our work is throughout the United Kingdom.

 

We aim to:

• enable children in every children’s hospice in the UK to access music therapy by establishing posts for music therapists, providing 

• appropriate musical instruments and offering musical training to staff;

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

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

We also offer funding to support individual music therapy sessions in the community.

 

NHS, education and local authority budgets are, as you will be aware, increasingly limited and unable to fund music therapy and creative music activities. Jessie’s Fund offers a vital service to children with additional and complex needs. The impact of our work is that children are better able to communicate their needs and feelings to their family, familiar staff and peers. They are offered a means of creative expression at a time when other methods of communication may not be available to them. Our focus on staff development means that our work leaves a lasting legacy in an organisation; it gives staff the confidence to use music as a tool for communication at every opportunity when interacting with children and young people.