Review of our year

What a year we've had, thanks to the hard work of our young people, music leaders and volunteers.

Thanks to the grant from Youth Music Network we have established a youth music hub in North Tyneside, a real cold spot for arts participation. The youth sessions take place on a Wednesday evening and are split between the younger group and the older group. We have established a 'young musicians collective', created youth choirs, performed at numerous events, become an arts centre and made amazing partnerships with other Youth music Network fund holders.

We've made this video (really for YMCA's staff conference this Friday) but thought it might be well received here. 

I am so proud of these young people and the proress they've made. Many will obtain Arts Awards and some will go on to study music at further or higher education. We have some really talented young people who are studying for ABRSM grades and performing in front of hundreds of people. These are amazing outcomes when you consider the level of disadvantage and the barriers they face to music participation. 

We have so many tales of young people overcoming performance anxiety that it's impossible to get them all across here, but one young man is a brilliant example. He arrived for his first session and wouldn't play the drums in front of anyone, even music leaders. He played drums in a sound booth and watched what was going on. He saw other young people performing confidently in our live room. By the end of that night he was playing the drums in the band. The next week he was mentoring a younger musician on the drums. We've seen some remarkable transformations, which is testament to the power of music for youth development. 

I wanted to share our progress over the last year (well, nine months really). We are excited by the potential of developing this project in 2019 and beyond.