Youth Music Action Zones

Since December 2000, Youth Music has set up 21 Youth Music Action Zones (YMAZs) in areas of social and economic need across England and Wales.

YMAZs reach young people from communities where aspiration and hope for the future can be very limited by their surroundings. We encourage them to see that with hard work and determination, they can achieve more than they ever thought possible – in their music making – but also helping them to see that they can extend that new-found confidence in their abilities to other areas of their lives too.

Actively seeking out and identifying areas of need across the country was key to the development of this network. YMAZs are made up of established organisations from the public, voluntary and private sector. They cover all genres of music and deliver a wide range of activities, the majority of which are free of charge, including workshops, rehearsals, performances, one-to-one teaching and mentoring.

By working closely with agencies such as youth services, youth offending teams and the police, YMAZs are able to reach young people who would most benefit from being involved.

Each YMAZ responds to the particular needs of their host community, encompassing broad agendas. A recent independent evaluation of the YMAZ programme found that, for young people, YMAZs provided their only chance to access such a wide range of opportunities for music learning.

While school music provision has improved significantly, young people who are at risk or disengaged from education can be unlikely to want to, or be able to, access a wide range of opportunities there. A number of young people consulted thought that the YMAZ provision was better suited to their needs than that available in school.