VANS Community Chest Application - September 2026
Proposed Project Title: Now Hear This! Community Chest
Funding Requested: £3,000.00
Project Dates: January - March 2027
Capacity: Up to 30 people each week
Location: Portishead, BS20 7DB
Section 1: About Our Idea
Now Hear This Music C.I.C. would like to establish a free, six-week inclusive community music programme for people in North Somerset, beginning in January 2027.
Our aim is to bring people from different backgrounds and life circumstances together through the shared enjoyment of making music. Drawing on our established Creative Health practice, we will create a welcoming environment where people can explore instruments, play along to their favourite songs, and develop new friendships.
We will offer six 90-minute sessions on Wednesday mornings. Sessions will run on a drop-in basis, and can host up to 30 people each week. We have written our budget assuming no charge to participants.
The sessions: a gentle 15-minute welcome, 45 minutes of accessible, collaborative music-making, and up to 30 minutes of informal socialising with refreshments.
The musical content will be shaped by participants themselves. We love taking requests from the floor, and welcome everything from rock and roll, folk, pop, and classical music to drum and bass, jungle, and trance! The participants themselves will decide, as a group.
No previous musical experience is necessary. We are specialist music educators. Whether somebody wants to play an instrument, suggest a song, or simply enjoy being part of the group, we can accommodate them in a meaningful way.
An initial period of targeted community engagement and recruitment will take place before the six weekly sessions begin.
1. In a few sentences, tell us about your idea. What would you like to do?
2. Who will take part or benefit from your idea?
Our programme meets the needs of all three populations outlined in the Fund's remit. We will welcome adults of different ages, abilities, and backgrounds, particularly those who could benefit from opportunities to build confidence, connect with others, and participate in meaningful creative activity.
This includes older adults, people with dementia, people experiencing grief or significant life changes, their carers, and those returning to work or experiencing challenges in their working lives.
Our provision is inclusive by design. We bring an extensive range of instruments, adapted resources, and assistive technology, enabling meaningful musical participation for people with different physical, sensory, cognitive, and communication needs.
People experiencing vision loss, hearing loss, reduced mobility, learning disabilities, or other barriers to conventional musical participation are welcome. Our specialist approach recognises that there are many different ways to experience, create, and contribute to music.
We also recognise that attending an unfamiliar activity alone can be a significant barrier, particularly for people experiencing isolation, anxiety, or low self-confidence.
Participants will therefore be welcome to bring a trusted friend, family member, or carer for support. Those accompanying participants will also be welcome to join in.
Nobody needs previous musical experience, and nobody needs to demonstrate a particular level of ability to belong. We will discuss individual access requirements in advance wherever possible so that appropriate arrangements can be made.
Our programme is designed to create meaningful connections through shared musical experiences.
Each session begins with a gentle welcome, allowing participants to settle into the environment at their own pace. This is followed by accessible, collaborative music-making, creating opportunities for enjoyment, confidence, creative expression, and shared achievement.
Importantly, each meeting concludes with up to 30 minutes of informal social time, with refreshments provided. This is an intentional part of the programme, allowing connections formed through music to develop into conversations, friendships, and supportive relationships.
We aim to bring together people who might otherwise remain within separate social circles, creating new micro-communities built around shared interests rather than shared difficulties.
Our venue has dedicated parking, and we have exclusive use of the building. Participants can therefore enter a welcoming, predictable environment without having to navigate unrelated activities or busy communal spaces.
Through accessible creative participation and intentional opportunities for social connection, we hope to reduce isolation, strengthen belonging, and support participants' wellbeing.
Our longer-term ambition is to explore how the relationships established through this pilot might contribute to a more connected local community, including opportunities for future creative participation.
3. How will your idea help people feel more connected, supported, or well?
Section 2: Community Chest Themes
Ageing Well / Dementia: YES
Work Well (Workforce Wellbeing): YES
Grief & Bereavement: YES
More than one of these themes: YES
Our approach is deliberately non-issue-specific. Participants can experience the benefits of creative participation and community connection without being separated according to their circumstances.
4. Which area(s) does your project connect to?
Section 3: Creativity and Community
5. What is the creative approach for your idea?
Select: Performing Arts & Storytelling.
Our specific creative approach is inclusive, participatory music-making.
6. Have local people helped shape this idea, or how will they be involved?
Our approach has been developed through three years of collaborative music-making with local communities. Participants' interests, requests, abilities, and creative contributions continually shape our work.
A particularly relevant example is an intergenerational project we delivered at The Barn in Clevedon, welcoming family groups in which one or more members identified as Disabled.
Participants ranged in age from approximately 5 to 65, including older adults with caring responsibilities. Through relaxed exploration of different instruments, the group gradually developed its own musical ideas, culminating in the creation of an entirely new piece of music together.
Our proposed programme builds on this established approach.
Participants will arrive to find a wide range of instruments ready to explore. We'll begin with a cup of tea, a biscuit, and an opportunity to get to know one another, before introducing gentle musical warm-ups and rhythm games.
From there, we'll explore familiar songs together, drawing on our existing repertoire and responding to requests from the floor.
There will be no expectation that everyone participates in the same way. Some people may enjoy playing keyboards, while others might discover an instrument they've always wanted to try. Someone might sing, or simply shake a percussion instrument along to their favourite song, while another person might prefer to watch, listen, and suggest music for the rest of us to explore.
Friends, family members, and carers can participate alongside those they accompany, including helping someone communicate their musical preferences.
Our staff will respond to the people in the room, adapting activities and facilitating different forms of musical contribution as the sessions unfold.
The emphasis is on enjoyment, exploration, and shared experience, rather than formal teaching or achieving a predetermined musical outcome.
We will undertake targeted community engagement before the programme begins, seeking to work with VANS, local disability organisations, dementia support groups, employers, and community networks.
We also have established relationships within local primary care, including social prescribing teams and contacts developed through our involvement in the Neighbourhood Health Pilot and VCSE Alliance. We hope to use these relationships to raise awareness of the programme, including through information displayed in waiting rooms.
Our aim is to reach beyond established arts audiences and welcome people who might not otherwise consider joining a community music group.
Once established, the group will continue to be shaped by the people who attend, creating a community in which participants are active contributors rather than passive recipients.
Section 4: Funding
7. How much funding are you asking for?
£3,000 — full Community Chest funding request.
8. What will you spend the funding on?
EXPENDITURE AMOUNT
Lead Creative Health Practitioner:
6 x Half Day @ £125 £750.00
Assistant CH Practitioner:
6 x Half Day @ £100 £600.00
Musical Support Assistant:
6 × 90min Sessions @ £48 £288.00
Venue Hire:
Portishead Platoon
Cadet Centre x 6 @ £100 £600.00
Marketing and Community
Engagement Work Time: £350.00
Music and Resources
Preparation and Planning Time: £250.00
Weekly Sessions
Refreshments Float: £37.00
Evaluation and Reporting: £125.00
£3,000.00
Budget narrative:
As a Disabled-led and lived experience-led organisation, our approach to project design, delivery, and budgeting is informed by direct experience of disability and the barriers to cultural participation. Our budget reflects the specialist expertise, resources, and access requirements necessary to deliver genuinely inclusive music provision. Practitioner fees have been calculated with reference to published professional fee guidance and sector data from the Musicians’ Union and Independent Society of Musicians, alongside our experience of delivering this work. Allocations for recruitment and community engagement, musical preparation, and evaluation and reporting reflect the additional professional time required beyond direct session delivery.
The uniquely accessible nature of our provision is made possible, in large part, by the extensive range of musical instruments and specialist equipment we have available, enabling people with widely differing abilities, preferences, and access needs to participate meaningfully. Bringing this equipment into the space necessitates notably longer get-in, set-up, pack-down, and get-out times than would typically be required for other creative health activities. Our lead practitioner is also Disabled and frequently uses a wheelchair, so additional time for safely manoeuvring herself and equipment in and out of the venue must be factored in as an access requirement. We have therefore negotiated a flat fee of £100 with our venue to ensure we have secured the most accessible venue available to us, which gives us access to three rooms to spread out the main activity and the social activity, as well as a third, quiet space which individuals can make use of should they feel the need for some time out. There are accessible toilet facilities as well as abundant parking, and the venue is very close to a designated stop for local bus routes.
A modest refreshments allowance of £37 across the six sessions will provide tea, biscuits, and other basic refreshments. Informal opportunities to have a drink, chat, observe, and get to know others are deliberately part of the offer rather than incidental to it, helping to create a welcoming, low-pressure environment in which people can participate at their own pace.
Section 5: Final Question
Our experience and inclusive approach
Now Hear This Music C.I.C. is a Disabled-led organisation specialising in inclusive community music and Creative Health.
Our Artistic Director and lead practitioner, Laura Porter, has undertaken specialist Creative Health facilitation training with Creative Shift, and our practice is guided by the Creative Health Quality Framework.
Our confidence in supporting people across all three funding themes comes from the fundamentally inclusive design of our provision.
From its inception, our approach has been developed so that anybody entering the space can find a meaningful way to engage in practical music-making alongside others, regardless of their abilities, experience, or personal circumstances.
This is not a programme adapted retrospectively to accommodate different populations. Accessibility, flexibility, and individual creative contribution are integral to its design.
Our extensive range of instruments, adapted resources, and assistive technology enables participation through different sensory, physical, and cognitive pathways. This includes opportunities for people who are profoundly Deaf, blind, or have significant physical or learning disabilities to contribute meaningfully to shared music-making.
We bring an established track record of delivering inclusive community music and Creative Health provision in North Somerset. Our recent recognition as finalists in the BBC Make a Difference Awards provides independent recognition of our sustained commitment to the local community.
This pilot represents a natural development of our existing practice, rather than an entirely new or untested approach. We already have the specialist expertise, instruments, assistive technology, established repertoire, and community relationships necessary to deliver it.
Professional expertise and boundaries
We particularly welcome the fund's recognition of grief and bereavement as an important area of need.
Our approach deliberately avoids making individual issues, needs or circumstances the focus of musical activities. We provide non-clinical Creative Health and wellbeing opportunities, rather than counselling, psychotherapy, or treatments.
Participants can experience connection, creative expression, and belonging without being expected to disclose or explore difficult personal experiences.
Our lead practitioner is also providing material for the Good Grief Festival on 18 October 2026 in Weston-super-Mare, presenting a new interactive composition exploring themes of love and loss.
The work invites members of the public to participate through movement and completely contact-free assistive music technology, creating opportunities for musical expression without the need for words.
Although our proposed community programme will remain non-issue-specific, this work demonstrates our active engagement with creative approaches to grief and bereavement.
Our wider delivery team brings complementary experience beyond musical practice.
Our room support practitioner has extensive experience in advocacy with SWAN, alongside previous work as a paralegal and helpline operator for the housing and homelessness charity Shelter.
Our second musical practitioner also has experience working as a community pharmacist, bringing valuable knowledge of community health and established local connections.
Together, these skills strengthen our ability to create a welcoming, supportive environment for people experiencing different life circumstances, while maintaining appropriate professional boundaries.
Accessibility and delivery
Our commitment to accessibility extends across the entire participant experience.
We recognise that the reassurance of a familiar person can make the difference between somebody feeling able to participate and remaining isolated. Participants are therefore welcome to attend alongside a trusted friend, family member, or carer.
Our venue provides dedicated parking and exclusive use of the building, creating a predictable environment without unrelated activities or busy communal spaces.
Although each weekly meeting provides 90 minutes of participant-facing activity, our practitioners are engaged for a half-day. This accommodates the substantial equipment handling, accessible setup, participant support, and pack-down required to deliver our specialist provision safely and effectively.
The equipment we bring is fundamental to our inclusive approach, rather than an optional addition.
We believe it is important that the duration of the programme reflects the resources available, rather than compromising the specialist staffing, accessibility, and support arrangements necessary to deliver Creative Health work safely and meaningfully.
Community connections, value for money, and longer-term ambition
Our lead practitioner has recently engaged with discussions around the VCSE Alliance's emerging Every Door Open (previously “No Wrong Door”) approach. We are interested in designing this pilot to align with that developing model, exploring how inclusive Creative Health provision can contribute to a more connected community offer.
Beyond the immediate benefits of musical participation, we hope the project will help establish relationships between community organisations, health services, and local residents.
We recognise that six weeks is a relatively short period in which to establish meaningful community relationships and support sustained improvements in wellbeing. However, we see this initial programme as an opportunity to demonstrate what can be achieved through a properly resourced, specialist Creative Health offer.
The pilot will enable us to explore participants' experiences, emerging community connections, and the practical requirements of delivering this provision to a new cohort.
We will produce a short evaluation report drawing on participant feedback, practitioner observations, and evidence of community engagement. This will help us understand what has worked, identify opportunities for development, and establish an evidence base for future funding applications.
Our longer-term ambition is to use these findings to inform applications to funders such as Arts Council England and Quartet Community Foundation, seeking investment in more sustained provision.
The value of this initial £3,000 investment therefore extends beyond the six funded sessions. It will support the establishment of a new community, generate practical learning, and provide a foundation for developing longer-term opportunities for inclusive Creative Health participation in North Somerset.
Importantly, we are not seeking funding to test an unproven organisation or methodology. We are seeking to introduce an established, professionally informed, and genuinely inclusive Creative Health practice to a new community.
Our existing delivery record, specialist resources, professional experience, and ongoing commitment to the communities we serve provide a strong foundation for taking this work forward beyond the initial pilot, subject to securing further resources.
9. Is there anything else you would like us to know?