Sing for a Seat: Free Creative Sessions

Aim

Funding free creative wellbeing sessions at Wren & Bramble for local people and families who would benefit from a calm, creative space.

Our Story

I’m Nicola, founder of Wren & Bramble CIC, a calm and creative wellbeing space in Tarleton, Lancashire.

Wren & Bramble was created around a simple idea: that creativity can give people somewhere to slow down, breathe, connect and have a little space from everything else going on in their lives.

Our sessions aren’t about being “good at art” or everyone producing the same finished piece. People can paint, work with clay, make mosaics, build, draw, explore sensory materials, or simply follow whatever catches their interest.

The focus is on choice, creativity and time without pressure.

Since opening, I’ve kept coming back to one thought:

There are people in our community whom I would love to welcome through the door, but cost may be something stopping them.

Young carers who spend so much of their time thinking about somebody else.

Children and families living with bereavement.

Neurodivergent teenagers who may benefit from a quieter, more flexible environment.

People and families experiencing end-of-life care.

People living with dementia and those who care for them.

Adults experiencing grief, isolation, poor mental well-being or major changes in their lives.

I want to create a programme of fully funded creative wellbeing sessions so that, for these particular sessions, no one attending has to pay.

What we want to create

Each funded session will offer people time at Wren & Bramble with access to creative materials, drinks and refreshments, and the freedom to explore at their own pace.

There will be no expectation to make something impressive, to talk about personal experiences or to explain why they deserve to be there.

Sometimes people simply need somewhere welcoming to spend a couple of hours.

Somebody might paint. Someone else might work with clay, build something, make a mosaic or sit quietly creating alongside another person.

The important part is that, for a little while, nothing is being asked of them.

Where appropriate, we hope to work alongside local schools, charities, community organisations and professionals to help these funded sessions reach the people they are intended for.

These will be creative wellbeing and community sessions rather than therapy sessions, with therapeutic work remaining separate and appropriately delivered.

Our first six community sessions

Our initial fundraising target is £1,500, which will fund approximately six complete Wren & Bramble community sessions at £250 per session.

We’d love our first six sessions to support:

• Young carers - giving children and young people time where nothing is expected of them, and somebody else takes care of the details.
• Neurodivergent teenagers - a quieter, flexible creative session with choice, space and no pressure to socialise or create in a particular way.
• Bereaved children and families - gentle creative time together, away from a clinical environment, without any expectation to talk about their bereavement.
• People and families experiencing end-of-life care - providing gentle time together away from appointments and practical pressures, with opportunities to create, connect and make memories if they choose.
• People living with dementia and their carers - an accessible creative session centred around enjoyment, connection and making together.
• Adults experiencing grief, isolation or difficult periods with their mental wellbeing - offering a calm place to spend a couple of hours creating alongside others.

These are our starting points rather than a fixed end point.

If we raise more than our initial target, we can fund additional sessions and work with local organisations to identify where free creative spaces could be most useful.

Where the money will go

Approximately £250 will fund one complete community session.

The money raised will help cover the real costs involved in providing those sessions, including:

• creative materials and resources
• use of the Wren & Bramble studio
• planning and preparation
• delivery of the session
• drinks and refreshments
• cleaning and resetting the space afterwards
• administration involved in organising and coordinating funded groups

I’ll also create an Amazon Wishlist for anyone who would rather contribute something tangible, such as canvases, clay, art materials or other resources that can be used within the funded sessions.

And apparently I’m going to sing for it...

Well...

Lip-sync.

I’ve been sitting on this idea for a couple of weeks because, frankly, deliberately making ridiculous lip-sync videos on the internet is slightly terrifying.

But I kept coming back to the same thought:

If being a bit silly online can turn attention into something genuinely useful in the real world, then it’s probably worth embarrassing myself.

So this campaign is becoming:

Sing for a Seat

Each video will focus on one of the groups we’d love to offer a fully funded session to.

I’ll provide the questionable costumes, dramatic performances and complete lack of dignity.

Hopefully, everyone else can help by donating, buying something from the wishlist or simply sharing the videos.

Our first mission is to fund a session for local young carers.

Young carers spend so much of their time being there for somebody else.

For a couple of hours, we’d like to create somewhere that is simply there for them.

And then we’ll move on to the next group.

And the next.

£250 funds one session.
£1,500 funds our first six.

And if we go beyond that, we’ll keep going.

More groups. More free places. More quiet seats filled by people who could really use them.

That’s the vision.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 17th November 2026 at 11:10am