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New partners to benefit from Sony Music UK’s Social Justice Fund
Four new organisations will receive grants from Sony Music UK’s Social Justice Fund, which is dedicated to supporting projects in education and skills, criminal justice and civic engagement, with a focus on anti-racism, young people and under-served communities.
The latest beneficiaries include charities Brighter Sound, Debate Mate, Prison Advice & Care Trust (PACT) and UD Music, alongside renewal grants for Onside Youth Zones, Pirate Studios, Small Green Shoots, and Young Urban Arts Foundation.
Debate Mate, a new partner for 2023, runs debating clubs for young people aged 9-18 living in areas of high poverty, working with around 200 primary and secondary state schools across the UK. Their debating programmes equip young people with critical and creative-thinking skills, boosting communication, confidence, and teamwork and, in doing so, helping employability. Debate Mate’s 2024 national debating competition will conclude with the Sony Music UK Debate Mate Cup and Sony’s SJF will also finance a year of the Accelerate Programme, dedicated to students who are disengaged and at risk of exclusion across eight schools in Manchester and London.
Also in Manchester, Brighter Sound is a music charity working to support young creatives and emerging musicians in the North of England – striving to create a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive music industry. Over a two-year period, the SJF grant will fund two cohorts of the Change the Record Leaders Network – a development programme designed to address the under-representation and lack of support for women and people of marginalised genders working in the music scenes of the North.
Another new partner working to diversify the music industry is UD Music, based in East London. Through its multiple programmes it educates, empowers and creates life opportunities for young people inspired by the sounds, words and rhythms of Black music culture. The SJF funding will support the provision of a new subsidised 12-month membership scheme for 50 Black music creatives and SME start-ups.
New partner PACT supports families at every stage of the criminal justice process, working at the intersection with child welfare, social care and wellbeing provision. This SJF grant will roll out the Family Forum Programme tested in HMP Swansea to three prisons in the Midlands.
The Social Justice Fund was created in June 2020 as a commitment to supporting communities, helping to address structural inequality for lasting change. The Fund aims to help provide and broaden opportunities for individuals in under-served communities and to improve education, skills, and life chances.
The UK beneficiaries are chosen by a diverse advisory board representing labels and divisions across Sony Music UK, including label presidents and members of our employee equity and inclusion group, HUE (Helping Unite Everyone).
Sony Music UK is proud to work with these new social justice partners, alongside our existing partnerships, and to support their vital work in 2024.
Read our 2022 Impact Report to learn more about the work of Sony Music’s Global Social Justice Fund in the UK.