BUDDING young musicians at a school in Warwick can now join the band.
Miller Homes West Midlands donated £500 to SPARK Youth Music, which will be used to allow aspiring musicians at Evergreen School to join its band programme.
The team behind the SPARK programme, Clare, Mike and Sam Thomas, fought off competition from 30 other projects to secure the grant from Miller Homes.
The not-for-profit music community interest company works with young people aged between 11 and 16 to bring about positive social change through music by promoting mental health awareness and developing life and employment skills. They work mainly with young people suffering from mental health issues, as well as neurodiverse and bereaved children, and those who are mentally or physically disabled.
It also hopes to unearth musical artists of the future.
Clare Thomas, founder of SPARK Youth Music, a part of Stratford Music Network, said: “Initiatives like Miller Homes’ Community Fund are critical to our organisation as we rely on funding to keep it running, so that we can reach as many vulnerable children as possible.
“In addition to providing professional tutors to mentor the bands, SPARK provides the instruments and equipment for the bands to ensure we are fully inclusive. As well as the bands learning to cover songs and writing an original piece of music, they have many other opportunities which form an important part of being in a band. These opportunities contribute to them learning critical life and work skills as well as giving them an invaluable insight into the creative industries.
“We are extremely grateful to Miller Homes for the funding we have been given and can already see the incredible impact it is having on the young individuals in the band – thank-you.”
