Opportunity: Young Sounds Connect Mentor

Our partners Young Sounds UK are seeking to contract a freelance Mentor to work as part of their Connect programme within Sunderland.

About Young Sounds UK

Musical talent is everywhere but opportunity isn’t: financial and social obstacles too often get in the way. Young Sounds UK is here to change this. For 25 years we’ve supported talented young people from low-income families, helping them to overcome these barriers. Whatever the genre, our programmes help young musicians from across the UK to fulfill their musical potential:

Identifying Musical Talent and Potential: training teachers in how to spot young people’s musical potential

Young Sounds Connect: targeting and sustaining young people’s emerging talent through strategic support

Awards: funding young talent UK wide through annual grants and tailor-made help for individual musicians

Innovation and Research: leading new thinking and action on talent development

Young Sounds Connect: Programme summary

Young Sounds Connect aims to effect significant change in how the musical potential of young people from low-income families is identified and supported. This change agenda is summarised in the following outcomes we want to achieve in the new programme phase Young Sounds Connect, beginning in April 2023.

Young people have an increased sense of ownership of their musical journey. They have experienced the joy of becoming better musicians, of discovering new music, and playing with others.   
Young people have an increased self-belief, resulting from playing an instrument to the best of their ability and seeing themselves succeed musically

Music leaders have an increased understanding of how to implement a young people-centred approach to instrumental and vocal teaching and musical progression

Programme elements

We work with our partner Music Hubs to train instrumental and class teachers in how to spot musical potential through our CPD programme, Identifying Musical Talent and Potential. Once equipped with the knowledge of what the key facets of musical potential look like they identify and nominate children for involvement in the programme.

From April 2023 to March 2026, and thanks to significant support from both Youth Music and Arts Council England, we will continue supporting at least 600 children across 10 Ambassador Music Hub partners. These partners are Bradford, Greater Manchester, Hull, Lewisham, Resonate (Liverpool), My Hub (Manchester), Sheffield, The Music Partnership (Staffordshire/Telford/Stoke), Sunderland and Severn Arts (Worcestershire).

Each young person on the programme benefits from:

Instrumental tuition: Each child will receive weekly tuition either individually, in pairs or in small groups and will be funded by Hub partners.

Personalised support for each child’s musical progression needs: Throughout the programme each child works with their instrumental teacher to agree an Individual Learning Plan (ILP). Together they set three goals for their musical progression, which they review and update at the end of each term. Wherever possible this will be done via the Online-ILP tool developed in partnership with Charanga. The Connector (see below) then works with local partners to further support each child’s musical progression. Each child has a personal budget to help them progress their musical goals (e.g. tickets to a concert, funding for new music etc.).

Other key elements of the programme include:

Opportunities: Many participants are musically isolated, with limited musical opportunities. In this next phase we will continue to collaborate with our partner Music Hubs to continue to enable the Connect cohort of students to access the resources and opportunities provided by local/regional (or national) musical organisations, across genres. This broadens students’ musical horizons and introduces them to new music making experiences as diverse as opera at Glyndebourne and West End musicals.

Get Togethers: We will hold at least one Get Together event in each area per term (three per year), together with a partner organisation. Parents/carers and other family members are invited, and help is available for transport costs so that this isn’t a barrier. Examples include iPad composition days, workshops followed by a concert by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, working in a recording studio to play, mix and record their own compositions and exploring Blues through Dalcroze practice. We’ve also introduced informal sharing concerts at which young musicians are invited to perform to their peers, family and friends. Mentors will support the planning and coordination of these events as well as attending and using the face to face opportunity to collect evaluation and reporting data from attendees.

Connectors: Communicating effectively with young people and their families to ensure that their musical needs are fully met can be difficult, particularly when many participants are living in challenging family circumstances. A Local Connector is engaged to work in each Hub to coordinate communications on a local level between all stakeholders and reduce barriers to access: their role is crucial to Connect’s success. See below for a full role description.

Communities of support: The Get Togethers outlined above are designed to help both the young people and their parents/carers feel part of a network: young people with their peers and parents/carers with theirs. Children can often be the only one in their year still playing an instrument and so it’s very important to develop this sense of belonging. Equally if parents get the chance to meet and discuss their child’s music-making with others in similar circumstances this can be really encouraging, enabling children to get better support at home too. We also host termly Teachers’ Forums in each Hub, to which all Connect instrumental teachers are invited. All attendees are paid for their time and the events provide a space for teachers to discuss their students’ progress, reflect on their practice and share ideas on the development of the programme in their area.

New programme phase: 2023 to 2026

In 2023 Connect entered a new phase thanks to major funding from Youth Music and Arts Council England.

We’ll continue working with 10 of our current Hub partners from April 2023, supporting upwards of 600 young people directly. These 10 partners will become Connector Hubs. The Connector role will be key: they’ll continue the hands-on support for the families who are part of the programme, but they will also reach out to identify more young people in need of support. They will provide information bespoke to the needs of each child and identify opportunities for progression, from ensembles to funding. They will be a highly visible point of contact for young people and families across and potentially beyond the Hub region.

In this new phase we will further expand the child-centred model, supporting young people from low-income families to progress on their individual musical journeys. Connect is core to AYM’s mission to give talent a chance: we’ll continue to pursue ways of embedding the Connect approach as standard Hub practice, giving children facing financial and other barriers a musical life they’d otherwise not have. We’ll continue to target children facing the most significant obstacles to accessing music education.

Giving young people agency to shape their own musical journeys will remain central and we’ll be further developing the Charanga hosted Online-ILP before its official launch to the sector in September 2023. Connectors will then play a significant role in advocating and disseminating the tool across the sector within their regions.

Workforce development will remain central with tutors having access to Young Sound’s refreshed training package as well as continuing to host the afore mentioned termly Teachers’ Forums in each Hub.

We’ll develop our mentoring offer by recruiting and training a Mentor for each Hub. They will work closely with the Connector to support them in a range of ways; communicating with families, attending Get Togethers and providing individual mentoring sessions for young people taking part. They will also help with the collection of evidence for the programme evaluation.

Young Sounds Connect: Mentor

You will play a central role in supporting the Connector on the day-to-day planning and delivery of the Connect programme in your allocated Hub. You will agree specific areas of work each week as per need and capacity. You will also be a highly visible contact for the families and young people accessing Connect which will help you will foster new mentoring relationships with the young people on the programme and offer online mentoring sessions on a need-by-need basis. You will also support with the collection of evaluation evidence.

Key Tasks:

Mentoring

Offer bespoke, one to one music based mentoring sessions to Connect students in your Hub. This will be based on individual need and any support will be tailored to individuals’ circumstances. These will be predominantly online but could take place in person should circumstances allow.

Communicate directly with parents/carers to arrange sessions using an Young Sounds UK designed booking system. Maintain good communication with parents, Connector and Young Sounds UK around content and progress.

Keep up to date and accurate records of sessions and communications via Young Sounds’ Salesforce CRM system.

Evaluation

Work closely with the Young Sounds UK Evaluation team and Connector to collect evaluation data for reporting purposes. This will include conducting regular interviews with families and young people on a range of themes, largely at Get Together events but also via phone, text or email when required. Training around evaluation collection will be provided as part of the role.

Programme support

Support the Connector with the day-to-day planning, coordination, and delivery of the Connect programme. Specific tasks could include but are not limited to:

Data management via Salesforce

Communicating with families and young people around upcoming events

Creating the termly Connect newsletter.

Any admin tasks required to support the termly Get Togethers and Teachers’ Forums

Person Specification:

Experience

Essential:

Experience of working or studying in music and/or music education: with some or all the following: instrumental teachers, young people, parents/carers, schools and music/arts/youth organisations

Desirable:

Experience of working with musical young people in either a teaching, mentoring, or supporting capacity.

Knowledge of musical activity in the Hub area – across genres, professional, community and amateur and willingness to research/find out about activities beyond the area and nationally.

Experience of supporting/co-facilitating musical events such as workshops, performances and meetings.

Experience of data management systems (ideally Salesforce)

Key Skills

Strong organisational skills

A desire and ability to work as part of a team

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, adaptable to a range of stakeholders including young people, families and music education professionals.

Excellent interpersonal skills: an ability to relate confidently and sensitively to a wide range of people.

Research skills: an ability to research new and inspiring opportunities for young people.

Terms and conditions

Freelance contracts are offered on the following basis:

Hours of work: 2 hours per week x 35 weeks per year for general programme support.

Individual mentoring sessions with young people are offered in addition to these core hours. Sessions will be for one hour and offered on a case-by-case basis, dependent on the needs of the young people in each Hub. Any new mentoring relationships will be agreed by the Connector and Programme Manager prior to sessions being offered.

Hourly rate (contracted freelance by Young Sounds UK) £20 per hour.

Place of work: Home based, and other locations as required occasionally. The ability to travel to the Get Together events once per term is essential. All reasonable travel costs will be covered by Young Sounds UK.

Applications

Applications should be submitted through the following link no later than Friday 10th January 2025: https://forms.office.com/e/Dj2gLxPQYg

If you have any questions or would like to discuss the role in more detail, please contact Emma Mapplebeck (Sunderland Connector): emma.mapplebeck@togetherforchildren.org.uk.