Our project will deliver a team of trained up colleagues to collaborate with young people across Dorset to make music, support their development as artists and ultimately make money from online sales. We will work with Dorset practitioners, including young leaders, to facilitate workshops in 3 school and youth centre studios to share skills and life experiences through the creative process. We will offer a series of free workshops teaching young people how to reflect on their own life experiences, develop their songwriting skills and learn music production techniques. There'll also be support to upskill the adults working with them. The finished songs will be shared, celebrated - and a panel of supportive music education experts will make a selection to be promoted on the online platform Routenote to generate income for the young artists under the Discover Dorset label. This project will bring marginalised voices into the spotlight and create a generation of new Dorset artists.

What we'll deliver:

• To establish a community record label that inspires social debate, cohesion and collaboration.
• We will offer a series of free workshops in schools and youth settings.
• We will create a platform that allows the very best songs within the project to be uploaded and celebrated.

Why it's a great idea:

Music is all about expressing emotions and experiences but many young people don't have the chance to explore these elements through formal music education. There may be wonderful poets, awesome singers and guitarist or experts in music production across the rural county of Dorset with no outlet to share their creativity - and we want that to change. Working collaboratively we will share skills, empathise with each other's emotional ideas and make new connections across a supportive network - enabling positive conversations around mental health & wellbeing The legacy of this project will be: -A space for sharing creative and emotional ideas - a vehicle for conversations around mental health & wellbeing -New networks, working groups and collaborations of specialists within music and more -An infrastructure of music technology within Dorset -High quality and inspirational works of music -A financial return for all project collaborators with artists supported to generate income

Steps to get it done:

• Run training sessions for music leaders
• Facilitate first workshops with young people in schools & youth centres

We have the support of corporate partners to make wider connections with the music industry and explore other ways of bring industry expertise into the county to benefit young people's musical development.