Annual Report
2022-23
We improve the lives of young people in a range of very challenging circumstances through music and arts based opportunities across Yorkshire
Our Organisation Yorkshire Youth & Music is a community music and arts education company working across the whole of the Yorkshire region. We create music-making opportunities that change the lives of children and young people in very challenging circumstances. We work with: - young people in youth justice settings - young people struggling with mental ill-health - young people who are at risk of exploitation or who are being drawn into crime - young people with additional needs We have expertise and a reputation for engaging effectively with the hardest to reach and most vulnerable young people, working in partnership with young people’s services in justice, mental health and education, and with schools, community groups and other organisations who provide support and services to them. Our work has been funded by Youth Music, the Arts Council, Children in Need, Kirklees Council, local Trusts and Foundations and by kind donations from individuals. YY&M follows young people’s own musical aspirations and we employ the very best, multiskilled music practitioners on our projects. We train and develop new music leaders, to ensure that our workers are as diverse as the young people we work with, and we offer training and support to adults who work with children and young people in a variety of settings and circumstances. Music Makes Lives Better!
Our Acting Chair
Our Director
Janette Randerson Acting Chair of the Board
Gail Dudson Director
During this year we returned to a full programme of activities not seen since before the COVID pandemic, as our partners in care, justice and medical settings were finally able to relax the protocols that had remained in place many months after public restrictions ended. New projects also began during the year.
Much more happily, we have fully returned to doing what we do best; music-making with disadvantage and vulnerable young people, face to face. The medium, perhaps long-term impact of the pandemic and continuing economic uncertainty has been an increase in demand for our services as more young people are living in distress.
We increased our fundraising activities and success rates, from Trusts and Foundations, from project partners and from local authorities. New funds are linked to anti-violence initiatives and our work with young people who are at risk has been effective in reducing their participation in anti-social activities in addition to providing an opportunity to be imaginative and creative, supported by experienced and skilled music leaders. We have increased the diversity of our music leading workforce, including younger musicians and more women, particularly women who use music technology. We began a mentoring and placement system where new music leaders can join our workforce, receive training and coaching support, and learn to work with young people who are in very challenging circumstances. We have more staff time devoted to project management and fundraising, with less time spent on admin through increased use of technology. We have continued to grow our social media and digital presence by increasing the number of platforms we use, particularly targeting systems used by young people and our potential participants. We continue to focus on providing value for money to our funders and partners by spending on projects and delivery as much as we are able. Our Chair of over twenty years, Liz Bavidge, resigned in January 2023 and died after a short illness on 4th March. We are forever indebted to Liz for her strength of character, leadership and compassion, and she will be very sadly missed.
At the same time, musicians’ livelihoods were severely affected by the pandemic and continue to be so. The increase in demand for our work has meant that we have been able to offer trainee, placement and development opportunities to enable young musicians to work in this area.
Our Activity Our Musical Freedom programme was in its final year. The programme was funded by Youth Music and our project partners also invested substantially in music activities, meaning that we could offer more young people regular, on-going opportunities for making and learning music. In Adel Beck Secure Home, an Arts Award week was offered on a ‘Steam Punk’ theme; in addition to making steam punk tracks, staff in the setting organised activities including casting in clay, make up, costume and exhibition. Aldine House also saw Arts Award successes, with music activities alongside ‘splatter’ painting and light photography related to music that young people created. Almost the last place to end COVID restrictions was the prison estate, and in September 2022 we were able to re-start regular visits to Mother and Baby Units in women’s prisons. Face to face interactions meant that the music leader was much better able to choose activities to suit the mums and babies, and examples included ukuleles, ‘Christopher Nibble’ storybook and puppets, and movement and dancing games for babies who were just beginning to find their feet and toddle. New activity for the year; we began a new relationship with Youth Justice Services at Kirklees Council, offering 1:1 music-making sessions for young people at risk of being drawn into crime. We were able to offer these services partly due to a Cultural Recovery Fund grant used to invest in new music technology kit. The work was funded by Youth Music, Thornton & Ross anti knife-crime fund and Kirklees Council. A second strand of this programme began at Pivot Academy (a PRU in Huddersfield) in early 2023. Responses from young people and social workers was very positive, with reports of increased engagement, confidence and improved behaviour. Our Youth Music grant for Music and Well-being was completed, having been delayed by COVID. A new grant from the D’Oyly Carte Foundation, and investment from Becton School meant that music visits could continue. Over the course of the year this has increased substantially, and by March 2023 our musicians were working in Becton and Chapel House Schools and Sheffield Children’s
Hospital, providing music making activities for young people who are too unwell to attend mainstream school. Our work in this area was noticed nationally, and we were commissioned to make a documentary film about the work for the Sing Up Foundation, for musicians and educators elsewhere to understand the place and context of music for young people with mental ill-health. Calderdale Council began an initiative building towards a Year of Culture in 2024, and we received a grant to work with refugees and asylum seekers in the borough over 3 years. This programme takes place in asylum seeker hotels and other venues around Calderdale, focussed primarily on young people and including their family members. Our lead musician on this project also supports a trainee who has been granted leave to remain, and speaks Farsi, which eases communication. After the success of our Cultural Recovery Fund 2 grant – which provided networking and CPD opportunities for our musicians, we received a grant from Arts Council England, which will run until September 2023, for the training and development of new music leaders. By March 2023 we had recruited 5 trainees who were offered work placements, mentoring and training opportunities, and our more established musicians were also able to engage in professional development. In this initial phase we made good progress towards our targets of increasing the diversity of our music leaders, including younger people and women. We are now well-established in our new office base at The Media Centre, Huddersfield, a facility shared with other creative businesses and potential partners in the town centre. Finally, 2023 was to be Kirklees Year of Music, and we were asked by the Council to manage their young people’s music strand, Music of Tomorrow. The strand is focussed on engaging young people aged 16-24 who are not employed or in education or training. We began with a launch event and extensive social media activity in March, to build a cohort of participants, and found talented young people with great potential for the remainder of the programme. Because Music Makes Lives Better!
The year in numbers... Just under 200 young people have engaged in extended music making activities over the year, and many more have taken part in taster sessions or participated for a short time. All of our participants are children and young people who do not have access to other opportunities or are in circumstances that demand the different and specialist services that we offer. For example, many participants through our Youth Justice services have no or very limited engagement with formal education and have learning needs or behavioural challenges that make everyday joining in impossible for them. 58 young people in Secure Children’s Homes participated in music making over a prolonged period, with more engaging in short bursts. Mother and Baby Units are small and not always full; there were 18 participants between September (when visits were again allowed) and March. Working closely with social workers, youth workers and education services in Kirklees Council, 26 young people engaged with our music-making project in four months between November 2022 and the end of the financial year. More than 40 young people participated regularly in music making in our Music and Well-being project, at Becton and Chapel House schools, and Sheffield Children’s Hospital. Over six months more than 50 people engaged with our Refugee and Asylum seeker’s programme – their connection with us is not necessarily extended, as they may be re-housed at any time.
The difference we make Case Study 1
Kirklees Youth Justice These are the thoughts of Youth and Social Workers working for Kirklees Youth Justice service X has been very positive in his feedback RE the project. He has made a positive working relationship with Dan, learnt new skills and constructively filled his time. He has developed confidence in forming a working relationship and his ability to show and learn skills. It has been a constructive use of time and he now has something he can speak to friends about that did not exist before, which gives him increased self esteem. Y most enjoyed making the music and interacting with Dan. He would like to explore Baseline and Garage music. He has become more confident and his self-esteem has increased immensely. He did not believe that he could meet Dan (as Dan is well known in the drill/grime music scene) and make music with him. He now believes that he might be able to make his hobby an actual job/career. He does understand that it takes a lot of ups and downs and that it is also not the be all and end all of his life. 100% this project is a must for my young person, the way he has gone into this project and smashed it is amazing and he has a real talent for this to carry on in my opinion would be amazing for this young person and I believe this is the hook he needs to try and keep his head down. Since starting he has made reference to staying in to write lyrics for this program and it is keeping him inside more. I have personally noticed a shift in Z’s outlook since starting, he has put so much of his free time into making the lyrics and the proof is in the outcome if you listen to the ability he has it would be a real shame if we can not offer an extension in his studio time. Since starting Z has stayed in and has had no issues with police or in the community and I do believe this is down to taking some of Z’s free time and putting it to something positive.
“100% this project is a must for my young person“
Case Study 2
Refugee and Asylum Seeker project We met L and R at the sessions at Halifax Central Library. They had limited English, having only been in Halifax for a short while, but previously they had stayed in France for a period, and had good French - which meant that we could communicate well. They both expressed a real sadness for the loss of the music lessons they had in France, and previously in Iran, and they wanted in particular to have access to a cello and an accordion. We made sure that these instruments were available in sessions, and they were overwhelmed with happiness. It was moving to see them explore the musical task that the group were undertaking - a co-created piece that they could all find their part in. It was truly special to be able to give them space to be playful, free and expressive within the gentle framework of music-making. There were lots of smiles and laughter, and a real sense that this was a safe space, where they could feel welcome and valued. Working alongside our trainee music leader, who has a wealth of practical music education experience, but also the valuable lived experience of the asylum system and what it means to be ‘other’, meant that we could really create an authentically safe space: a democratic and equitable space to make, create and to be. The transient nature of working with people who are living in temporary accommodation means that long term, impacts are hard to measure, however, in the sessions where we worked with these young people, we saw increased openness, trust, and a willingness to immerse themselves into the activity, leaving some of their challenges at the threshold of the space. We learned a lot from these sessions, and we continue to approach our work in a collaborative, co-created manner, aiming to allow space for all voices to be heard valued and validated, through creative and participatory musical experiences.
Looking forward... Kirklees will continue to celebrate a Year of Music, and we will have a pivotal role in their offer to young people. We will be project managers for ‘Music of Tomorrow’ a year-long programme of activities for young people to make and share music that we call ‘Get Your Music Heard’. Aimed primarily at 16-24 year olds who are not in education or employment, the programme will offer opportunities to work alongside musicians and producers to make original work, recordings and podcasts, to organise and participate in live events, and to experience ‘backstage’ life in Kirklees and other places. This will be our biggest single programme during the year. We have secured a new three year grant from Youth Music, working across Youth Justice settings including Secure Children’s Homes, community based justice, and Wetherby Young Offenders Institution.
This is a new opportunity to develop skills and ideas across all areas of youth justice provision in Yorkshire and one which will mean we can call on the expertise of professionals across Youth Justice to increase the quality of our work, and share our learning with others. Our programme in young people’s mental health will continue for the whole of 2023/24 at Becton Centre, Chapel House School and Sheffield Children’s hospital, providing weekly term-time music making for young people who are unable to attend mainstream school for health reasons. Our musician’s development programme – mentoring, coaching, placements and work experience, will continue for the year, and at it’s conclusion we should have given at least 9 new, diverse, music leaders training and development to enable them to work confidently and independently with young people in challenging circumstances, and we will have a wider pool of new musicians to work alongside.
Our Partners Leeds City Council Adel Beck Secure Children’s Home Sheffield City Council Aldine House Secure Children’s Home Nexus Academy Becton Young People’s Centre Chapel House School Sheffield Children’s Hospital School Kirklees Council Youth Justice and Youth Engagement Services Kirklees Year of Music 2023 Action for Children HMP New Hall Mother and Baby Unit Barnardos HMP Askham Grange Mother and Baby Unit
Our Team Gail Dudson Becky Pugh Rebeka Haigh
Director Deputy Director Communications
Our Trustees Elizabeth Bavidge OBE
Chair
Resigned 28 January 2023
Alice Beckwith Sean Chandler Tricia Ellis Anna Kent Janette Randerson
Acting Chair
From 28 January 2023
Treasurer
Our Music Leaders Jess Armstrong Leila Banaeijazan Louis Barclay Dan Bernard Noah Burton Chris Campbell Rebecca Denniff
Dan Mills (FarangDan) Isaac Grinsdale Claire Hills Beth Holloway Billie Johnson Chris Morris Rob Pearson
Our Spoken Word Artists Matt Brown
Shane Johnson
With thanks to our Funders and Supporters Youth Music Arts Council England Calderdale Council Creative Minds (NHS South West Yorkshire Partnership) Kirklees Council D’Oyly Carte Foundation The Bromley Trust One Community Foundation West Yorkshire Mayor’s Safer Communities Fund All of our fantastic indivdual donors A special thank you to Liz Bavidge OBE for her dedication and support for more than 20 years. We send our heartfelt condolences and our gratitude to Liz’s family.
Yorkshire Youth and Music Ltd a
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The Media Centre 7 Northumberland Street Huddersfield HD1 1RL contact@yym.org.uk www.yym.org.uk
@YYandMusic on Twitter (X), Instagram and TikTok @YorkshireYouthandMusic on Facebook Yorkshire Youth and Music is on YouTube Yorkshire Youth and Music is a Registered Charity No. 512222. Registered in England No. 1601451.