An Islington arts charity is fundraising to build a recording studio and permanent workspace.

BIRD currently offers one-to-one sessions – from songwriting to film-making to stand-up comedy – with young people in a shared studio in Hornsey Road, Holloway.

But the charity has outgrown this space and is now looking to move into York Way, near the Cally.

Three quarters of mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, are said to start before the age of 24. The ethos of BIRD – which stands for brilliance, integrity, relationship and delight – is to improve people’s self-worth and confidence.

The charity, which formed two years ago, wants a full-time space of its own to develop its mentoring programme for people aged between 16 and 25. Most of its current artists are from Islington.

So far, its fundraising campaign has accumulated £12,000. It wants to get as close as possible to the original £20,000 target, with the deadline for donations at 11.59pm on Saturday.

BIRD founding director Neil Phillimore said: “We currently share our workspace and we’ve grown to the point where we need much more studio time than is available to us.

“We need to raise funds so that we can move in to a new workspace and to install our very own, full-time, sole-use recording studio.

“Having our own workspace and studio will give us capacity to work with multiple mentors, meaning many more young people will benefit from our one-to-one creative sessions.”

A new spacen in York Way, opposite Egg nightclub. has been offered to BIRD at a charitable rate. But first, the charity needs to reach £20,000 to set the ball rolling for a £40,000 total purchase.

Neil, who also plans to let out the studio commercially so the charity can sustain itself, added: “We need to be flexible to meet our young people’s needs by being able to offer them a regular slot, and sessions at short notice. Having our own work-space and studio will allow us to do this.”

As part of the appeal, six of BIRD’s artists recorded a new festive song, “This Is Christmas”. To watch the video and for more information, visit crowdfunder.co.uk/bird