Youth voice is a social action group for young people based at Northorpe Hall Child and Charitable Trust that focusses on championing strong mental health and wellbeing for young people. Northorpe were looking for a unique way to share some ideas about mental health and give the young people the opportunity to express themselves creatively

Becky Pugh, Deputy Director at Yorkshire Youth and Music, invited Northorpe along to the Safe Space Studio to see if the two organisations would be able to do some work together. Here is what Northorpe staff shared about their sessions with YY&M and the young people taking part:

The initial session was led by Beth Holloway, who was excellent with the group and helped everyone to feel at ease and relaxed. We, as a group, decided together that we would be excited to start a music based project. The group consisted of 4 young people who attended the sessions. There were 6 sessions in total.

We decided to spend the time together focused on creating an original song focused on mental health and well-being. During the first week, we had the opportunity to try different skills, with everyone getting the chance to learn some new DJ skills. It was great for the young people to learn something new and receive 1-1 tuition when doing it. We also learnt about some of the basics of music production.

Over the next few weeks, we worked together to produce our original song. This involved choosing a genre of music that the young people were happy to produce, learning to use the music production technology, learning about reference tracks and how to use them to produce something original. We also worked collaboratively to create lyrics for the track, getting inspiration from other songs and media such as books and poetry.

When recording the track, the young people had the opportunity to record vocals and even recorded one of our young people playing the violin. Some of the young people helped to record and capture the vocals as well.

The final track sounded excellent, and the young people were really impressed with how it sounded when it was all put together. We then had some time at the end of the project to do a little more DJ practice.

The young people really enjoyed the project. One described it as the “best project we have done.” The young people also commented on having an experience in a recording studio as none of them had had that experience before. The young people enjoyed hearing the song they created during the project and commented on how good it sounded. They said that the positives of the project were that they had the chance to make an original song and they had the chance to practice new skills. They said that one thing they didn’t enjoy quite as much was the task of selecting the different instrument effects for the production, but they did recognise it was an essential part of the process.

“The best project we have done.”
One of the young participants on the project

From a staff member perspective, I saw many benefits for partaking in the project.

• The opportunity to work on a creative project.
• The chance to work in a music studio for the first time.
• The expert guidance with the technology, DJ skills, song production and song writing process from Beth.
• Increased confidence and willingness to try new things.
• Increased creativity from crafting original lyrics and making suggestions for the song.
• Collaborative work.
• Exploring new ways to talk about mental health and wellbeing. 

The project was a great success for us and our young people benefitted greatly from being part of the project.