{"id":713638,"date":"2026-06-04T00:21:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T00:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/713638\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T00:21:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T00:21:20","slug":"second-chance-choir-helping-people-overcome-hardship-through-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/713638\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Chance Choir helping people overcome hardship through music"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a gloomy Tuesday evening, the sound of Amazing Grace drifts out of an unassuming building, wedged between a sports store and a government office in Perth’s north.<\/p>\n

Inside, dozens of people are shedding their inhibitions to sing loud and proud, putting aside years of trauma, violence and addiction.<\/p>\n

This is the Second Chance Choir, a group of people who come together for support, community and music.<\/p>\n

From prison bars to singing bars<\/p>\n

Choir founder Jade Lewis came up with the idea in 2009 while running a support program in a women’s prison.<\/p>\n

“I saw a group of women who had lost their voice and I could relate, because I had lost my own voice through trauma and addiction,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Jade<\/p>\n

Second Chance Choir founder Jade Lewis says the group is open to everyone. \u00a0 (ABC News: Mya Kordic)<\/p>\n

Ms Lewis admitted she was initially reluctant to work with offenders.<\/p>\n

“But then I got the courage and I began to think, well somebody helped me when I was in my brokenness, then perhaps I should be helping them in their brokenness,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I started to see a lot of their challenges came when they actually finished their time in prison. They found it hard to get homes, jobs, to get on with their life.”<\/p>\n

Open to everyone<\/p>\n

Although many members belong to faith communities and their main song is the Christian hymn Amazing Grace, Ms Lewis said the choir was open to everyone.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Perth’s Second Chance Choir brings people together who need support.\u00a0 (ABC News: Mya Kordic)<\/p>\n

“Singing a song and coming together in a non-invasive, non-intrusive environment \u2026 you start to meet people that have overcome their own challenges,” she said.<\/p>\n

“[Members] find people that believe in them and who are willing to give them a second chance, and what I really love about the choir is that they don’t just find their voice, they find their song.”<\/p>\n

‘There is hope for you’<\/p>\n

Ryan Brownhill started taking drugs at 15, eventually becoming addicted to amphetamines.<\/p>\n

“I was very broken, very anxious, very lost, depressed,” he said.<\/p>\n

“My life was lacking hope and I didn’t know a way out of the life I was living.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ryan Brownhill says the choir gave him a second chance at life after years of drug addiction. (ABC News: Mya Kordic)<\/p>\n

Mr Brownhill found the choir through his church after getting clean at 25.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been given a second chance at life,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So to be able to sing [Amazing Grace] to give other people hope that hey, if it’s possible that I was able to change my life, then it’s possible for other people as well.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Second Chance Choir was formed in 2022 to support people coming out of prison, as well as those with challenging backgrounds.\u00a0 (ABC News: Mya Kordic)<\/p>\n

Fellow choir member Valeria Mazza spent two decades addicted to drugs after a traumatic childhood involving family violence.<\/p>\n

Her three children were taken from her and she was jailed four times.<\/p>\n

“I went into prison this angry person \u2026 I hated everybody, I blamed everyone,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Valeria Mazza says the choir stopped her from getting stuck in the same cycle of drugs and crime. (ABC News: Mya Kordic)<\/p>\n

Ms Mazza met Ms Lewis when she was mentoring prisoners and said it made all the difference when she was released for the last time in 2014.<\/p>\n

“The other three times when I got out, there was no support, there were no programs that I could go into and I just went back to the same way of living, just back into that same lifestyle \u2014 drugs, crime, looking for love in the wrong places,” she said.<\/p>\n

“[The fourth time] when I came out, I had a team of women around me that were available to me 24\/7.<\/p>\n

“Instead of running back to drugs when I would fight with my family or when things would go wrong \u2026 I would pick up the phone to these beautiful women that were there to support me.”<\/p>\n

Ms Mazza has restored her relationship with her kids and is now working as a registered nurse.<\/p>\n

A different way to be a man<\/p>\n

Like Ms Mazza, Jake Baker joined the choir after spending years in and out of prison.<\/p>\n

\"Jake<\/p>\n

Jake Baker says the choir helped him take a different approach to masculinity.\u00a0 (ABC News: Mya Kordic)<\/p>\n

Mr Baker believes the choir shows a different way to be a man.<\/p>\n

“If there are men stepping up \u2026 other men see that, they’ve come out of jail,” he said.<\/p>\n

Musical memories and magic moments in dementia-friendly choir<\/a><\/p>\n

Regional WA’s only dementia-friendly singing group is helping people living with the degenerative condition to reconnect with their beloved musical memories.<\/p>\n

“Instead of like trying to have that bravado up, you know, just let your shell loose a little bit, you can just sing at the top of your lungs and just be like ‘woo hoo’, you know?”<\/p>\n

‘Everyone deserves a second chance’<\/p>\n

Ms Lewis would like to see more initiatives like the Second Chance Choir developed in WA.<\/p>\n

“I think there are a lot of programs out there that manage behaviour, but a choir actually provides a pathway where people can find hope, dignity and community,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Mazza had a message for others who were struggling.<\/p>\n

“Don’t give up, just keep trying. Put one foot in front of the other [because] everyone deserves a second chance,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a gloomy Tuesday evening, the sound of Amazing Grace drifts out of an unassuming building, wedged between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6116,64,63,289160,134,30263,236947,46,346576,29595,518,7813,25962,346577],"class_list":["post-713638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-addiction","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-community-groups","tag-entertainment","tag-healing","tag-life-after-prison","tag-perth","tag-second-chance-choir","tag-substance-abuse","tag-trauma","tag-violence","tag-wa","tag-wa-choirs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}