Sound Connections has been delivering music programmes and related projects for young people since it was established in 2002 to manage the London Youth Music Action Zone (YMAZ). London is the largest of the YMAZ programmes across England and this year we are working with nine different partners to deliver a variety of activities ranging from early years work engaging parents through to creative music making in a Pupil Referral Unit in Lambeth. The YMAZ programme is funded by Youth Music.
Wired4Music is Sound Connections’ unique pan-London music council for young people represents the capital’s diverse cultures and feeds into national and international youth structures. The role of the council is to consult, advocate, challenge and create activities and understanding around music and the role it plays in young Londoners’ lives. Their website also provides a signposting service, ‘Musical Opportunities’ for all young Londoners to access high quality music provision near them.
We are also in the final phase of ‘Sounds in the City’ a four-year project which has been funded by London Councils. Since October 2008, we have been working with seven partners to deliver participatory music activity to disadvantaged young people across 18 London boroughs. Partners have included Serious, who worked in Camden, Islington and Tower Hamlets and Hands on Art who worked across eight west London boroughs with a group of young people that have all left or been excluded from school. It was due to this funding that we were able to launch Wired4Music which goes from strength to strength.
Previous projects include; a music mentoring programme, which worked across five London Boroughs partnering with over 30 diverse music organisations; Musical Routes, a signposting service for young people to access musical opportunities in London, funded by The Paul Hamlyn Foundation as part of Musical Futures; and the Future Jobs Fund, an initiative from the Department for Work and Pensions which enabled Sound Connections to successfully place 40 young unemployed people in jobs in the music industry across the capital.
