Upbeat

Upbeat is a music project, working with young disabled people in Suffolk.

Since May 2010, a series of taster sessions have been held across Suffolk. These have included creating rock bands in under 60 minutes to African drumming groups in Thetford Forest and spontaneous rap sessions in Stowmarket.

The sessions continued throughout the summer, by which time we had reached approximately 120 young people – and made a lot of music together.

Regular, fortnightly sessions began in September 2010 and will run each term for the academic year 10/11. The sessions will take place in Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds and Lowestoft and are free to attend.

Upbeat also provides a training programme for community musicians, as well as three traineeships and opportunities for volunteers to get involved in the project.

 Upbeat is managed by Suffolk Artlink on behalf of Suffolk County Council and is funded through Activities Unlimited and Youth Music.

The Activitie Unlimited funding came to an end on 31st March 2011 and the Youth Music funding is due to finish at the end of September 2011.

We are curently negotiating with Youth Music to see if we can extend the project to March 2012. This will enable us to continue to work with two of the current four venues from September 2011 onwards.  We will help the young people to develop their own strategies for continuing the sessions.