Sing Inside

Sing Inside works in UK prisons and holding facilities to promote the use of music and performing arts as a means of community-building for all who live and work in the prison setting. Our workshops consist of a morning session where volunteers drawn from local communities and universities form a choir alongside members of the prison community, including residents and staff. A volunteer music leader teaches a programme of music over the course of the morning for performance in the afternoon, to an audience of prison staff, other prison residents, and families where this can be facilitated. We also run multiple-day visits, where we visit the same prison for up to five days and deliver daily workshops on a range of topics, from repertoire learning to Dalcroze to vocal technique. We believe group singing has a unique power to build communities quickly, and our workshops and creatively and socially liberating spaces, designed to simultanesouly build self-confidence and trust in residents that supportive communities outside prisons exist, at the same time as dismantling the stereotypes and stigma our volunteers may hold about prison communities. We work to encourage open communication and honest social interactions through shared musical experiences and skills, using a flexible learning structure that is accessible to all. --- Sing Inside currently works regularly in sixteen prisons across the UK, in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire and London. To contact a member of the team to run a workshop in a prison you have connections to, or to ask any questions, email info@singinside.org. We would love to hear from you.