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

Hello, I am Georgie Goddard, the Youth Music Regional Executive Officer (REO) for the South East West Region. Since joining Youth Music in September 2005 I have been on a steep learning curve and am particularly grateful to the many individuals and organisations who have shared with me their  expertise in changing the lives of young people through music. I have enjoyed seeing new partnerships develop and flourish and have witnessed some diverse and ambitious collaborations producing positive and sustainable activity. I studied at the University of Sussex and have an MA in Arts and Cultural Management and a Certificate in Music. Previous work has included working for a charity within prisons, promoting musicians, social impact and Arts in health research, concert organising - and earlier still I was a NHS practitioner in Audiology for 25 years. My most unusual achievement was developing a hearing-aid recycling project in a high security prison.  Through inspirational musicians, including my 3 daughters and other young musicians, I have developed a passion for music and its life changing properties I enjoy a wide range of musical genres including folk, jazz and classical. I am a member of Brighton Festival Chorus. Other interests and hobbies include walking the South Downs, travel, contemporary fiction, swimming in the sea and Pilates.

The South East West and South East East regions, with a joint population of 8,122,200 (2004), has the largest population of any English Region. I represent the South East West which stretches from the Isle of Wight in the South to Milton Keynes and Aylesbury Vale in the North. The Southern region is as diverse as it is long encompassing a mixture of rural, coastal and urban areas.  It is the only English Region to boast its own Island (Isle of Wight). The main urban areas are Southampton and Reading.  Whilst being rich in heritage and culture, and with a good share of the nation’s rural areas of outstanding national beauty, some parts also score amongst the highest in the country on the Indices of Deprivation.

Children and young people make up a quarter of the total regional population, 16% of the total population. Many young people in the South East have access to a range of musical opportunities via their schools, music services, youth services, community music agencies, but many still do not. Within the South East region there are key challenges which include working within areas of significant deprivation where opportunities for children and young people to engage in the arts are severely limited. Youth Matters, together with the 14-19 reforms, is very important in the South East as a significant minority of young people still leave school with no qualifications (2,800 in 2004 -taken from the GOSE website).

This means that specific work must be undertaken to ensure that access to music is available in these communities It is these young people, including looked after young people and those within the youth justice system, that Youth Music is particularly interested in working with. Youth Music aims to target harder to reach children and young people through advocacy and investment with the aim that every one of them has access to high quality music-making.

Part of my role is to find out as much information as possible about all areas within my region, develop partnerships, and assess current music provision matched with local need. I focus on the key challenges specific to the regions and ensure that I pass on this information to colleagues in America Street.  Whilst we do not have sufficient funds to invest in every good project our role is also to listen to young people, and their families, and find out what they want; to be a sounding board for ideas from a range of music leaders and organisations; to develop networks and offer support, advice and guidance with our key partners.   We then use this local information, build partnerships with other agencies, offer information and advice and lobby local government so that that every child has access to music making opportunities.

Youth Music’s policy from 2005-10 focuses upon 5 priorities: early years; singing; transition between primary and secondary school; 2young people at risk; workforce development.

Visit the Regional Policy page for the South East West