Grantholder News Feb

Welcome to the February edition of the Youth Music grantholder newsletter - the first one of 2021!

Firstly, we hope that you are doing okay. If lockdown three is taking its toll, please do revisit our Office Manager Leigh’s working from home tips – scroll down to the comments section for January 2021 updates.

Consultation on interim grants strategy
We know that our grants programme needs to be adaptable in response to the ever-changing situation we’re in. We’re keen to get your input to shape the way that we run our Arts Council National Lottery funded programme over the next couple of years. We have designed a survey which is available from http://s.alchemer.eu/s3/Interim-Strategy-Consultation and would welcome your input. The deadline for responses is 5pm on Friday 12 March. Thank you in advance, and for completing previous consultations. Our thinking has been informed by the conversations with you and the survey we ran last year exploring how COVID-19 had affected youth music-making.

Open and trusting funders
Youth Music is one of 43 funders to have joined a community of open and trusting grantmakers. We have committed to adopting simpler, more flexible practices that can accommodate and support the ongoing uncertainty and unpredictability caused by COVID-19. These commitments reflect our dedication to keeping the best of our emergency responses into 2021 and beyond.

Coming soon - new reporting templates
We have designed a new reporting framework based on your feedback from the stakeholder survey and last year’s data consultation. We hope that the new format is simpler, more flexible and works better for you. The new template will come into operation from April 2021 and you’ll receive an email in due course with the new requirements. If you have been collecting data based on the old framework then it should be a seamless transition to the new one. Check out our annual impact report and outcomes reporting for an example of how we use this data.

Youth Music Trustee recruitment
We are currently recruiting for new Trustees as we strengthen and diversify our board. We are particularly seeking people with finance, communications, brand development and safeguarding expertise, and candidates from backgrounds that currently underrepresented. The deadline is midnight on Friday 26 February 2021. You can still apply if you work for an organisation that is funded by Youth Music.

Lockdown COVID Restrictions
You may wish to consult our coronavirus resource hub. This contains our updated blog outlining what activity is permitted under the new restrictions as well as our coronavirus policy and FAQs for applicants and grantholders. There are also a number of other resources to support online safety, wellbeing and digital working.

Make Music Day 2021
Make Music Day runs annually on the 21 June and is a grassroots celebration where communities, musicians, venues and event organisers collaborate to put on free music events in their local area. It is the world’s largest DIY music festival and takes place in 125 countries. In the UK this year, 277 online events took place with a total audience of over 500,000 and a reach of 1.4 million people via the #MakeMusicDayUK hashtag.

Make Music Day want to ensure inclusion and diversity are at the forefront of this year's event – actively removing barriers to engagement and shining a spotlight on great examples of musical inclusion. We'd encourage grantholders to link up any events with 21 June if it makes sense to do to, or just share any pre-recorded material on the day. Let us know if you're up planning on being involved in any way as it would be good to know who is keen. www.makemusicday.co.uk

Youth Music awards
We appreciate that everyone has a lot going on at the moment but please don’t forget about the opportunity to nominate people for the Youth Music awards. We all need a bit of cheer and recognition this year and hope that the awards will provide that, come October. The deadline for applications is 10am on Monday 15 March 2021.

Recent Grantholder Content

Future Sound Digital video series

Staff In The Spotlight Feature

Our latest Staff in the Spotlight features our Research and Evaluation Officer Remi, who joined Youth Music two weeks before the March lock-down. Below in an extract and the full link is below. Questions were asked by Katy Robinson.

"I'm grateful to have been brought up in a musical family. From an early age my grandad has sang along to B.B King on his vinyl player and belted out Jamaican gospel at whatever time of the day."