advice needed on starting a childrens choir/group

[ohsotrying]

Hello,
I know this is not a aibu but dont know where to put it!

So me and a friend are in the process of staring a childrens choir for children and young people who may not be having or had the easiest times ie targeting those who are in foster care (like myself were), who have experienced or witnessed abuse, are experiencing finachel hardship, those who look after someone in the family (young carers), those with mental health problems or just any child who feel they would benefit for being with other young people who may understand something me and my friend wished we had. We are placing ourselves near a train station in a disadvantaged area and be-live we would reach a number of children

What we are questioning is when to have it, we would have the group evrey other week for 1 1/2-2 hours, this wouldnt just be sining but we would provide a hot meal and some time to relax. we cant decide weather a school night or weekend us better

have it on a school night
have it on weekend morning

Any other ideas or tips would be great! of course in current climate we are not aiming to start till this time next year but need evreything together for gratns etc

thank you

Hi, I was until recently the music lead in a large primary school in a deprived area where I ran the choir and music groups. There are advantages and disadvantages with both times. Afterschool would be good for the food aspect and would give them something to do in the evenings when parents might not be around if they are working shifts for example. Weekend might be better from the point of view of it being dark in winter and them getting there and back safely but teens might still be in bed (depends on age group really). I would say to, at least initially, use some really exciting modern music to get them hooked! I think often choral singing has uncool conotations for kids! I have found that songs from film sound tracks and things people had covered on X factor went down well. There are a number of subscription services for music education that might be worth getting that have backing tracks and lyrics etc on arranged for different year groups. Sing Up is one. Charanga is another. Will post anything else as I think of it!

The music needs to be a balance of attractive to young people and to sit well with children's voices. We go to a choir evening every year with local schools and some of the choirs choose stuff which is just too low and sounds awful, the kids really struggle to sing it. National youth choir of Scotland published some song books I think which might be helpful for ideas, they do a music theory programme alongside the singing and use a Kodaly approach, using hand signs so you don't need to read music at the start.

There is an enormously successful choir in my area Vox Fresh. I meets on Friday evenings so gets the nice after school/weekend balance.
Why is it successful?
All songs are arranged by the choir leader to suit the voices they have at that time - my daughter was in the choir and has a diva mesosopo voice and as such certain songs were arranged to take advantage of that.
All songs are taught by call and response there is no need ever to read music.
It is a charity and has scholarship/bursaries for children whose parents can't afford it.
The kids love that it is fairly strict expecting quite a bit from them and they rise to this challenge.

If you can manage it weekly would be better. I always struggle to remember which week fortnightly stuff is, and you're basically committing to having nothing to do every other week. And then if you miss one it's a month between clubs.