Case History - MUSIC PLACE, South West

Friday 7th May 2010

This project was an extension of the MUSIC SPACE program developed by the South West branch for Youth Justice settings, funded principally by Youth Music. Recently our branch has been involved in the development in a qualification for developing personal skills needed for employment, PEETA. We used this as a model for MUSIC PLACE, adapting the assessment criteria to personal qualities needed to re-enter Education. We worked with the workers from the participant YOTs, and the University of Exeter who originally devised the criteria for PEETA, to formulate the new criteria.

The aim of the project was to show the young people that they were capable of sustaining a commitment to learning and achieving the goal of finishing a course and producing a product. The exercise was designed ultimately to encourage these young people back into regular school programmes.

The young people involved did a self assessment before they started and after they finished. The YOT workers, Project Manager, and musicians held assessment sessions in the middle and at the end of the programmes to see if their personal skills, confidence, self esteem, leadership, social skills etc, had changed/improved. The musicians led a 6-session programme, once a week for 6 weeks. The music was Hip Hop and skills taught were DJing & MCing. The programmes culminated in the recording of a CD and a live performance by the participants for family & friends.

The outcomes of this project were therefore as follows;

• Greatly increased confidence

• Increased self-esteem, they really believed in themselves by the end

• Communication, particularly listening both in making music and listening to musicians

• Goal setting, very clear about the directions they would like to go with less fear of school process

• One lad started a college course after completing MUSIC PLACE

• Trusting each other and increased respect for others.

"The great thing about this project is that it has had a more lasting effect the participants. I have met the young people since the project ended and all of them have expressed an interest in taking music further. More importantly, they have been trying to write music themselves."

Click here to see the External Evaluation of the project.