U BEAT

Hello Everybody.

My name is Brian. I work as a music practitioner with an organisation called U CRE8. 

2018 was year one of a two  year programme, “U BEAT”.  This is a Fund A project based in County Durham, the aim is to provide after school and school holiday music activities for children and young people to learn to play a percussion instruments including Caribbean steel pans, and samba percussion.

Looking back at  the first year and in particular our project plan we had a few external challenges that meant we had to be flexible with this. Our link youth and community club provider had to close and our link Local Authority School changed its status to and Primary Academy.

This saw a cessation of out of hours and school holiday provision for children and young people whilst new terms of reference for our organisation could be drawn up. This was quite a protracted process which meant us putting the project on hold, or going on tour ! 

We did the later, finding venues that would best suit the needs of our children and young people, baring in mind transport links in an area that is quite spread out.  Thankfully this worked and we even built new links with local organisations that will see us continue with the project on an even stronger footing.

We start year two with great optimism that we can continue to provide a unique music making service for children and young people in our region, both at our original school (now Academy) and at new accessible venues.