Youth Music is working with a number of key partnership organisations to deliver the following strategic music-making initiatives:

• Early Years Zones - intensive music-making activity for 0-5 year olds
• Singing Zones - regional singing communities targeted at 8-13 year olds
• Sound Inventors - composition and performance skills for 8-18 year olds
• Come and Play - creative music-making for primary school age children
• National Youth Music Organisations - advocacy and funding

(Please note that the above are existing Partnerships that are not open to funding applications.)

New partnerships

Following a period of consultation, Youth Music has identified 5 priority areas for the period 2005-2010. All future partnership programmes will aim to help us deliver in these priority areas.

Early Years
Ensuring that every child under 5 has access to music-making opportunities.

Singing and vocals
Working with partners to ensure that children and young people in the UK have access to high quality singing opportunities.

Children and young people at risk
Establishing music making as a medium for benefiting children and young people deemed to be at risk*

Transition from Primary to Secondary School
Improving opportunities for children to continue with their music making after they move to secondary school

Workforce development
Improving the quality and quantity of music leadership in order to deliver better music-making opportunities for children and young people.

We will be soliciting organisations that we have not approached before and will respond to areas where there are gaps in provision. Anything that is outside of our priorities will not be considered.


* Our definition of ‘at risk’: Children and young people with difficulty accessing activities that will help them grow and progress. This means social, economic, cultural or geographical disadvantage or a combination of these factors. We are especially keen to support young people who have little opportunity to engage with music activities and are both drawn to music-making and would benefit from it. We want to reach young people who are in challenging circumstances and re-integrate them with their community through music-making.