Timebank Glee Club

During the first Time for Tea dance in Southway Community Centre in 2024, Nikki had a few requests for attendees to have a sing along and, as someone who fully appreciates how singing can help improve her mood and get the endorphins going, she would always welcome them to sing along with her.

As part of the Age Positive Project we were in the process of establishing a Timebank group in Southway, we had promoted and had some interest but, as there were a lot of other activities going on in the centre, it wasn’t gaining traction.

This lead to Nikki initiating a conversation with Southway Wellbeing Hub Advisor – Karen Stewart, about what options were available to provide a space for the people who attend to participate in something that they were really interested in.

Karen, a keen singer herself, had the idea of starting a singing group, they were looking for something unique, a group focused on learning songs rather than just performing them consecutively.

And so the Glee Club was formed!

The first Glee Club singing welcomed 16 attendees, 12 of whom became Timebank members on the day. As the weeks have passed and the sound of our singing has floated through the building and word of mouth has spread, we have welcomed more and more people to the group and new members to Timebank. We now have 22 active members joining us to sing, mainly women, but we have four gents who bring the bass to our songs! All but 3 of our singers are over 65 years old and we even have a lady who travels all the way from Cornwall to join in.