Youth Music 2010 - 2015
Announcing our principal areas of focus for the next five years.
Youth Music has unveiled its vision for 2010 to 2015.
Last year we celebrated our 10th birthday by sharing and demonstrating our belief in the power of music to change lives. We’ve worked with some of the UK's most disadvantaged young people, providing free access to high quality music making and although there have been significant achievements over the past 10 years, we have our eyes set firmly on the future.
We have made great progress but there is much more to be done.
THE STORY SO FAR
Since 1999 we have:
- Reached over 2 million children and young people
- Brought 13,000 musical instruments back into use
- Provided music-making opportunities in 99.5% of local authority areas in England
- Created employment for over 16,000 music leaders and trainees
- Levered an additional 43% of funding into the sector and helped organisations to build their capacity to do more - 93% of Youth Music funded projects report that they continue to offer longer-term music making services for young people beyond the life of our funding.
- Produced, with consortium partners (AMV–BBDO, Faber Music and The Sage Gateshead), Sing Up – National Singing Programme for primary school-aged children in England 2007/11 – to date benefitting 86% of schools
THE ROAD AHEAD
Our plans for the next 5 years have been informed from past and ongoing learning. We intend to meet the needs and support the development of young people within a changing cultural, social and educational landscape.
In partnership with other organisations we will work towards ensuring that many more children and young people benefit from the excellent opportunities which are currently only available in certain geographical locations or only for limited periods of time.
Youth Music Chief Executive, Christina Coker OBE said:
“Music has the power to encourage and nurture talent; the power to unlock motivation and an appetite for learning; the power to build confidence and self esteem and a power that raises aspirations, helping young individuals express and define exactly who they are.
Back in 1999 Youth Music started out with a long-term vision. In our plans for the next five years, continuing our successful partnership approaches, we remain driven by our long-term view – children and young people in this country deserve no less. We must not let them down.”
Youth Music’s areas of focus from 2010 – 2015 will be:
A GOOD START IN LIFE FOR EVERY CHILD
EARLY YEARS: Our aim is to advance the learning and development of all children in their early years (0-5), by ensuring universal access to high-quality music-making activities across a range of settings
Over the last ten years Youth Music has helped to strengthen music-making for pre-school aged children and has supported the development of some seminal practice. It is now time to take stock of these achievements and lessons learnt and to work with the many other organisations operating in this area to deliver a significant programme for all 0-5 year-olds in England.
HELPING THOSE MOST LIKELY TO MISS OUT
CHILDREN IN CHALLENGING CIRCUMSTANCES* We want to improve the life chances of children and young people in the most challenging circumstances by supporting them to achieve their full potential through engagement and progression in music-making
We strongly believe that the transformative power of music is a vital ingredient in bringing about personal and social change. The work of our partners and funded organisations delivering music making over the last ten years has shown that children and young people who are experiencing challenges in life, whether that is through their immediate social or geographic environment, physical or learning disabilities or other factors, enjoy and benefit from engaging in music.
*Children and Young People in Challenging Circumstances' are those who are marginalised, vulnerable, often hard to reach, and who have the fewest opportunities.
NURTURING YOUNG TALENT
ENCOURAGING TALENT AND POTENTIAL: Our goal is to ensure that all children with musical talent and potential have opportunities to develop their talent regardless of background or chosen genre.
We aim to:
- Develop mechanisms and resources to better support and inform progression routes
- Develop effective resources to improve support to young people to progress in their music-making
- Provide/support high-quality opportunities for young people to celebrate and showcase their music-making
- Harness the potential of young people to support the progression of their peers
ENSURING HIGH QUALITY FOR ALL
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT: Our aim is to enable the highest quality music making, by developing a diverse, highly-skilled and inspirational workforce
Although less direct in its relationship with young people than other areas of our work, workforce development is possibly where we can have the biggest impact.
The work of music leaders, and others supporting young music-making, runs across just about everything we do and the quality of the music leadership is pivotal to the quality of the young person’s musical experience. So to achieve our goals, we need to ensure that we’re addressing the needs of music leaders, and those that employ them.
Click here for further details of our plans for 2010-2015
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