MAKING TRACKS

Making Tracks and our linked progression projects have been designed to inspire, engage and empower young people to aspire and achieve via creating original music. The young people we reach are usually aged 16-25, facing barriers from not being in education, employment or training, and/or on a community sentence/prevention programme run a Youth Offending Service. Many will be experiencing challenging circumstances and be in need of support to increase their self-confidence and transferable skills. As well as enhancing their creativity, we guide their future progression.

“I’ve gained so much confidence and feel more open to speaking to people I don’t know too well,” Making Tracks participant

“I enjoyed being able to work with others to make music as it was enjoyable and improved communication skills,” Making Tracks participant

Following a pilot in 2011, Making Tracks was first established in South London in 2012; we have continually revised the shape of the programme reflecting the feedback from the young people taking part, over 57 projects to date, and have expanded delivery from London to also reach young people in Bristol, Kent, Manchester and Newcastle.

The development of our in-house progression projects was inspired by feedback and requests from Making Tracks participants. Whilst they appreciated the external opportunities we were able to refer them onto after projects, they were eager to stay connected with the ITT team and move up to the next level. We developed our Young Producers scheme in 2017 and our Young Workshop Leader Training initiative in 2019.

The Making Tracks project

On Making Tracks the young people are supported to write original music, learn to play instruments, record and perform live together as a band. As well as resulting in great music, the young people gain self-confidence and pride, important transferable skills such as communication and team-working and have the chance to earn a recognised accreditation. The creative process is guided by our amazing project team of professional musicians and Support Musicians from Sounding Out and our Young Workshop Leader training. As well as performing their original songs live, the new band make recordings of all the tracks, which are then professionally mixed for a special CD for participants to share with friends and family and posted online to the Making Tracks Soundcloud page.

Each project includes taster sessions, an intensive creative week (concluding with a performance), a series of online follow-on sessions, and individual support from our Projects and Progression Coordinator, who helps the young people to move on to future opportunities including other creative projects, employment, training, education, volunteering and makes referrals to our own progression projects.

Young Producers

Our Young Producers scheme gives young people interested in a career in the music and/or events industries who don’t have the networks, experience or skills a paid training opportunity. They gain hands-on experience and personal development support including referrals to future employment and training, as they work towards putting on their own live music event, which also provides a valuable additional creative/performance opportunity in a professional music venue for other previous Making Tracks participants.

“The Young Producers project took me out of my comfort zone, helped me learn how to work under pressure and gave me the privilege of working with other talented musicians,” Young Producer feedback

Young Workshop Leader Training

Our Young Workshop Leader Training offers a high-quality paid development opportunity to promising young musicians interested in becoming facilitators. After taking part in our intensive training course, they work alongside our core Project Team and co-deliver one of our Making Tracks projects. They receive valuable feedback from professional musicians, referral and references to future training and work in this field, including potential future employment as Support Musicians on other ITT projects.

Thank you to our funders

These projects made possible by grant support from a range of funders, including Youth Music, Charles Hayward Foundation, Field Family Trust, Sheldon Trust, St James’s Place Foundation and Swire Trust.

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If you as an individual like our work and want to help us do more of it, please consider supporting us; find out how here.