In the wake of the decision to award City of Culture to Bradford, we are delighted to see that Southampton City Council and local funders remain committed to culture, arts and creativity in Southampton and Hampshire.
The three grants are:
- The Hampshire Music Education Hub Partnership Project Fund has granted £4500 to work with children supported by the Primary Behavioural Service in Hampshire. SoCo Music will provide fun and engaging music sessions for children who have social, emotional and mental health needs that result in challenging behaviour in school, in Primary schools settings across the county.
- The Southampton Cultural Education Partnership( SCEP) has selected SoCo Music to devise and deliver a 6-month Creative Mentors Programme to six early career Southampton-based creatives. This will support them to develop their engaged practice skills and experience, as Creative Mentors to young people, and to develop the Creative Mentors as local role models who will work directly with and inspire Children and Young People from at risk marginalised or NEET (not in employment education or training). £4500 has been awarded to support this work, which is part of the SCEP Better Lives Through Culture activity.
- The Ford Southampton Community Fund has awarded the SoCo Creative Skills Programme £5758. This training programme supports young people to develop skills in music technology, sound engineering and studio craft at our Hightown Studios facility in Thornhill. Running until April 2023, young people will be able to sign up to these free courses, supporting them into potential careers in the music industry.
We’re working on a few other great projects too including the NEW Youth Service Hub. We’re working with Southampton City Council’s new youth service team to install music recording and editing facilities in their new Hub which will be located in the Civic Centre. It will be fantastic to have this right in the heart of the city. We’ll be running sessions there, supporting young people to make and record music. Keep an eye out for pictures as we get this set up!
