Supporting young people through music and creativity
During the summer Ipswich Community Media ran a 6-week Music Project at South Street Studios in collaboration with Suffolk County Council’s Aspire project and Brotherhood, a local successful rap duo. The main purpose of the project was to engage young people in positive, diversionary activity over the summer before they transition into post 16 education. The project ran twice a week, and the sessions ran 10am-1pm on a Monday and Tuesday.
The referrals came directly from the County Council as the Aspire project had already been working with the young people and had been able to start to build relationships with them, developing trust which was a huge part of the success of the project.
The sessions were delivered in a relaxed yet engaging way and were guided by the young people’s interests to ensuring they were getting the most out of their sessions.
‘I wouldn’t change my time on the project as getting up makes me feel normal’
During the project, there were guest speakers invited each week, to come in and talk to the group. These included, Ipswich Town Football Club NCS programme and Business Growth Coaches Network to talk to young people about starting their own business.
Alongside the music, we also had 121 sessions with the young people and looked at their next steps and post 16 progression routes.
‘If I wasn’t here, I would be at home on my X-box or with my mates on the streets’
Within the music sessions the young people worked with the music professionals to develop lyric writing skills and spent time in the studios putting together tracks and making beats. Some of the participants had a go at rapping and adding vocals and recording their tracks.
Throughout the programme, alongside the main content, group discussions took place on various topics such as County Lines and Exploitation and what was going on in their local area, views on the Police, education experiences, social media, and emotional well-being.
‘I felt listened to’
During the project the participants developed some strong relationships with the workers. The young people said they felt listened to, believed in, no-one was judging them, and were grateful that people were spending time with them on something they were interested in.
From the 6 young people who took part in the project - 4 went onto further education and one into employment.
Aspire was delivered via our Making Waves programme - designed to unlock potential and empower young people who may be at risk and/or experiencing difficult challenges in their lives. The project supports them to build self-confidence and skills - ultimately boosting their life chances and employability skills.
For more information visit: https://www.ipswichcm.org.uk/what-we-do
Or to support us in providing more opportunities like this, you can donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/ipswichcm
Any support you can give makes a really big difference!
Thanks to funding from: Suffolk County Council.