Fund A Awards Update - Round 19
At the end of last month, we awarded 29 projects around the country a Fund A grant of up to £30,000 each. Here’s a bit about some of them – the full list can be found below.
Prison Radio Association (National) will be delivering a project called The Intro, an accessible, informative and educational series of radio programmes about music, with 15-25 year olds in custody. There will be 10 one-hour long programmes that will be aired on National Prison Radio in two mini-series of 5 episodes and will feature former offenders successfully pursuing a music career or interest. It will include expert advice, music theory, songwriting workshops, Question and Answer sessions and more.
Art Against Knives (London) will run an early intervention project that provides young people with the space to write, record and produce their own music, build their creative skills and socialise positively with their peers in a safe and creative space. It runs in an empty shop in North Finchley, set up to be accessible to those who struggle with traditional educational environments.
SoCo (South East) Music have a project building on work that began as part of their Youth Music funded Future Sounds project, the New Music Development Unit (NMDU). It will provide a rich and supportive ecosystem for young artists to develop their skills and receive the support and guidance they need to grow their skills and receive the support and guidance they need to grow as performers and creators.
Wren Music (South West) will be delivering ‘Instrument Picnic and Songs Around the World, a project for children under five and their families, integrating music into children’s play and family time. The sessions will be open access and they will work with partner organisations to target recruitment activities for refugee families, newly arrived immigrant families and families with young parents.
Hertfordshire County Council (East of England) are developing a course called UK Rap Activator. It will improve music creation skills and risk awareness for 48 young people aged 14-18 at high risk of involvement in gangs and serious violence. A tutor training programme with input from rapper Quinton Green will develop the Hertfordshire music workforce to enable the course and local UK Rap provision long-term. UK Rap genres (Drill, Trap, Grime etc.) are popular among young people but Hertfordshire currently lacks a course framework and trained Music Professionals in these genres.
Derby County Community Trust (East Midlands) will be running Music Kicks which aims to increase young people’s participation in music activities in four deprived areas across Derby and Derbyshire. Young people have displayed higher levels of depression, anxiety, stress and loneliness than other age groups during the lockdown. They’ll deliver a return to community activities for vulnerable/disadvantaged young people who have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and offer them a programme of free music sessions, training and pastoral support.
GL360 (West Midlands) will be running ‘Our Affinity v2.0’, a 2-phased music development programme over a 20-month period. They’ll be offering an in-demand music-focused learning initiative which aims to alleviate the disadvantages and deprivations young people face in and around Birmingham.
EDGE NE (North East) own a 7.5 tonne lorry gifted to them by the Local Authority. Following consultation with the young people they work with, it was decided to convert the lorry into a mobile music studio. The aim is to engage young people involved in criminal exploitation, offending behaviours, serious youth violence and gangs. They’ll do this via engaging them with music and giving them studio time. A young person who has been through the mentoring service and is qualified in music production has joined the team as their resident music producer.
Merseyside Arts Foundation CIC (North West) have a project supporting 15 young people aged 16-24 residing in Merseyside who experience challenging circumstances as a barrier to achieving their full musical and personal potential. The project will continue to build on the learning and experience gained from the previous delivery of Youth Music funded projects as they continue to refine a mode of best practice. A key focus will be how utilising arts and culture can de-stigmatise and normalise mental health for young people.
Youth Music currently support over 350 music projects around the country every year, helping over 80,000 children and young people to transform their lives through music. We are supported by the National Lottery via Arts Council England, the People’s Postcode Lottery and through other charitable donations.
Organisations wishing to apply for funding can find out more information at http://network.youthmusic.org.uk/funding - we currently have a Fund A and Fund B round open. We recently shared details of our Incubator Fund Round 1 grant recipients, which can be read here: https://youthmusic.org.uk/incubator-fund-round-one
A full list of organisations that received Fund 19 funding are: ARK Schools, Art Against Knives, Baby People, Barbican Theatre, CAN YOU CIC IT?, Candy Arts, Cascade Multi Academy Trust, Create Define Release (CDR), Creative CoLab, Derby County Community Trust, EDGE NE CIC, GL360, Hertfordshire County Council, Hospital and Home Education Learning Centre, Hull Sound Circles, Inclusic, Knowsley Lane Primary School, Marlow Opportunity Playgroup, Merseyside Arts Foundation, Middleport Matters, Music Arts Project CIC, Music Leeds, Nightsafe Limited, North Tyneside Libraries, Prison Radio Association, Rap Club Productions C.I.C, SoCo Music Project, Westfield School.
If you would like to know more about Youth Music and other funders’ grant awards, head to the 360 Giving website https://www.threesixtygiving.org/ where you can access standardised grants data from many different funders.