Looking Back, Looking Forward: Reflections on 2025 and Plans for 2026
Happy New Year!
We hope you enjoyed our Christmas Calendar, celebrating some of the amazing successes and partnerships developed throughout 2025. As we reflect on our first full year as a charity, it’s a perfect moment to look back before turning our eyes to 2026.
Our Mission
One year ago, the SupaJam Foundation was just getting started - not yet a registered charity and without any programmes running. Our mission was clear: to support young people with SEND to pursue their passion for music.
With over a decade of experience in music education, we identified several key barriers facing our young people:
Limited access to mental health support, making it harder to attend college and engage consistently.
Reduced opportunities for young people without a supportive network.
A gap in guidance and advocacy when students leave further education, often leaving them feeling vulnerable.
Our programmes were designed to remove these barriers, providing music therapy and counselling, life-changing trips and experiences, and 1:1 mentoring to guide young people as they transition beyond college.
Launching the Foundation
In March 2025, we proudly gained charitable status and celebrated with a launch event featuring celebrity ambassadors The Lottery Winners. Their performance, and all performances of the night, were an incredible testament to the power of music and the community it creates. Lead singer Tom Rylance shared his own experiences with ADHD and perfectly captured our ethos:
“It wasn’t up to me to change. It was up to the environment to change… what they [SupaJam] are doing is giving opportunities to kids who haven’t had success in mainstream education, and giving them a purpose and a place to go, and a place to meet their f***ing people… thank you SupaJam for everything you do.”
Our Programmes
Life-Changing Trips and Experiences
Thanks to our partnership with The Children’s Society, our first trip took six students to the Young Carers Festival in Southampton. They provided live sound, workshop support, music performances, and peer mentoring for young carers performing that day. Watching our students translate their own experiences into encouragement for others was an emotional highlight - proof that our ethos resonated deeply.
Beyond this, we offered unique opportunities to build practical skills and experience the music industry firsthand, including paid work experience at Glastonbury and recording projects along the Darent Valley railway. These experiences helped students develop both professional insight and personal confidence as they pursued their passion for music.
Music for Mental Health
In partnership with the SupaJam Colleges, this programme provided workshops over the summer holidays, offering a safe space to learn, create, and build relationships. Activities included samba, rehearsal sessions, Logic workshops, and live performance. One student shared:
“The SupaJam Foundation gave me somewhere to go this summer. I loved the workshops and getting to see my friends.”
Providing young people with ongoing support outside of normal college hours highlighted the real need for the charity and the ways we could make a meaningful difference. This led to the launch of our Mentoring Programme, which came at a critical time for students transitioning beyond college and into adulthood.
Mentoring Programme
For five initial mentees, the guidance provided through our mentoring programme was invaluable - three successfully started university in September, directly attributing their confidence and readiness to the support of their mentors.
It was at this point that the charity truly understood the power of mentoring and the vital role it plays in supporting young people through key transitions. Following the progress of our mentees, we realised that this programme could reach even more young people and have an even greater impact.
This will be a major focus for 2026. By consolidating three of our existing programmes to better support our mentees - providing tailored experiences to enhance their future careers and more direct access to mental health support - we aim to offer a service that is still rare for many young people, particularly those with SEND, and especially for those pursuing a career in the music industry and following their passion.
Looking Ahead: 2026
In 2026, our focus will be on:
Expanding the mentoring programme to reach even more young people, establishing it as the charity’s core programme.
Deepening partnerships to provide additional opportunities and resources.
Creating more extraordinary experiences that help students pursue their passion for music.
We are also excited to launch two new counselling programmes:
One integrated with mentoring to provide direct support for mentees.
Another accessible to students still in college, offering earlier mental health support so they can fully engage with their education and prepare to participate in our mentoring and experiences programmes.
Thank You
We want to take a moment to thank our mentors, volunteers, and Trustees — the hands, hearts, and voices driving the charity forward into its next chapter. Your dedication has already transformed the lives of so many young people, making 2025 an extraordinary year. We’re excited to carry that energy, passion, and inspiration into 2026 and continue making a lasting impact.
Get Involved
Interested in supporting the SupaJam Foundation? We’re always looking for passionate individuals to volunteer, mentor, or contribute professional skills to help deliver life-changing programmes.
Visit www.supajamfoundation.org to learn more and join our mission.