Welcome to Youth Music’s South East East regional homepage.  This is a new site section dedicated to information specific to your region.

I am Christina McQuaid, the Youth Music Regional Executive Officer for the South East East.  I joined  Youth Music in October 2005 having previously worked for 7 years as an Arts Development Officer for a local authority in East Kent.  Prior to that I was administrator and programmer for Canterbury Festival - a large mixed arts festival – from 1988 to 1998.

The South East East is a diverse region, with stunning coastlines, areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Kent and Sussex, and a substantial section of Surrey is within the green belt area.  The region is also home to two cities with populations of around 250,000 each (Medway and Brighton and Hove).  There is a strong cultural heritage, with long established and internationally famous events such as the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Brighton Festival and the Chichester Theatre Festival.   The most visited free attraction in the south east is Eastbourne Pier (with an estimated 1.6 million visits in 2003)!  However this picture disguises considerable variations within the region – areas of East Kent (eg Thanet), the south coast (eg Hastings and Brighton) and Medway all feature amongst the more deprived districts in England.

Another feature  is that around 80% of the entire region is classified as rural.    Rural areas and areas of high deprivation create real barriers to access and  Youth Music particularly (but not exclusively) aims to target children and young people in these areas with the objective that every young person should have access to music-making.  Sadly, we don’t have enough money to be able to invest in every good project that comes to us, but what we can do is listen to you, help to lobby local government, build partnerships with other agencies, and offer information and advice so that the government’s promise that every child has access to music making is realised.

Youth Music’s policy from 2005-10 focuses upon 5 priorities: early years; singing; transition between primary and secondary school; young people at risk and workforce development.

Visit the Regional Policy page for the South East East