Youth Music 2.0
A short synopsis of the first youth Music project of our new organisation, Creativity Works Preston
Creativity Works Preston have just successfully delivered our first Youth Music project and it’s time to reflect on that journey and what we learned, good and bad. Before we get into that it is important to thank Youth Music for showing faith in a new organisation, not all funders would have done that.
I had successfully bid for and managed three Youth Music projects during my time as Regional Manager for CSV Learning North West so knew of Youth Music when In 2014 myself and several other colleagues decided to set up our own organisation and charity, Creativity Works Preston (CWP). Youth Music was one of the first funders we turned to in the hope that they would provide us with the funding we would need to ensure that disengaged young people of Preston were still able to access music making.
However, as a new organisation and without a 'track record' it was more in hope than real expectation that we submitted the bid. Youth Music showed fait in us and for that we will always be grateful so thank you.
At CWP our aim is engage with young people who are outside of mainstream education. The vast majority of young people we work with are excluded from school, in care and/or offenders.
For some, music is a clear path to positive activity, for others it’s something that they discover as they start to feel safe and secure in a none threatening, none judgemental environment; don’t push too hard too soon is part of our approach. Our experience is that if you give a young person time and focus more on the holistic side that will build rapport and that in turn allows the young person to start to express themselves.
Once they do we would never criticise someone for a ‘bad’ performance. Rather, using a coaching approach, we always ask the young person how they think it went, what do they think they can improve? Confidence in young people in general is so fragile but especially when you throw in a whole host of family and social issues it becomes massive and can be a real barrier to participation.
Our biggest reflection is that we need a mixed approach. That for some, even more challenging young people, they need a clear structure in terms of start and end times but in order to get to that point and ensure that no one is lost it is absolutely vital to be flexible and allow young people to get engaged at their own pace and on their terms.
Many years ago we had been approached by a Care Home about a placement for a young person aged 17. When he was referred by the care home the manager went into great detail to explain how difficult the young person was and how, amongst other issues, they couldn’t get him out of bed. We agreed a programme that involved 13.00 starts. The manager was horrified. ‘I know you start at 9.30’ she said. ‘He needs to be in on time’. ‘Why set him up to fail’ was my reply? The lad was in the horrible routine of staying up late and sleeping in. He did start at 13.00 and stayed till 15.00. He came back the next day and gradually, slowly but surely, began to get back into a routine. He wasn’t the best time keeper but he did start to get in earlier and he did complete his programme. Without the flexibility he would have been lost. The lesson learned then has shaped a large part of our philosophy and is one of the reasons that we met all of our outcomes, qualitative and quantitative. The music studio is available for all the vast majority of times and people can and do get involved at their own pace. However, we do have formal, set sessions when entry is restricted to a definitive group.
Overall the project met all our hopes and expectations. If we had a negative it was that we weren’t able to get as many schools to buy into the project as we would have liked and as tutors would often say the flexibility is essential but it can be hard to manage and track.
We hope to receive further funding and support and our next step is to improve our facilities even further and add a record label and online radio station to our repertoire. The futures bright, the futures music!