Key Facts

• Sound Futures has worked with over 1,500 participants to date
• Youth Music has awarded three grants totalling £936,776.
• Sound Futures has raised £198,628 in partnership funding.
• Birmingham local authority is 16th in the Top 100 Deprived Local Authorities by Income Deprivation Affecting Children (IDACI).
• Sound Futures has received 9,405 session attendances by children and young people so far.
• Sound Future's programmes are to be assessed by Keele University's music and psychology department to see how the Action Zone encourages its participants to achieve more.
• Sound Futures operates in four wards in Birmingham: Kingstanding, Oscott, Perry Barr and Stockland Green.
• Birmingham is the largest local authority in the country. Over a tenth of the city's 1.1m population live in the Action Zone area.
• Birmingham is the 23rd most deprived local authority in the UK, which means that some wards are amongst the most deprived, balanced by others which are relatively affluent.
• Racism, teenage pregnancy and low educational achievement are prevalent.
• With assistance from a close relationship with the Education Action Zone, Sound Futures has increased music provision to schools by 13% in its first year of operation.

_{[source: Birmingham Music Service statistics]}