“A powerful example of arts, social care, health and enterprise working together to make a meaningful difference to lives. Plymouth Music Zone has clearly developed a cohesive community project which has had a visible, long-term impact for people in the Plymouth area. The partnerships they have forged are particularly impressive.”
Judge, UK Hearts for the Arts Awards 2020 about PMZ as winner of 'Best Arts Initiative' Award.
Plymouth Music Zone is a community music charity passionately committed to using music to improve health and wellbeing and create social impact. Over the past 22 years, we have worked with around 70,500 children and 21,000 adults. The youngest participant was 8 days old and the oldest 104. The charity has delivered over 52,000 workshops and 2,000 performances to audiences of over 600,000 - employing 460 people during that time and bringing in a much needed £8 million into the city of Plymouth.
But it’s about more than numbers – it’s about the depth and reach of the work. PMZ embeds itself in the bigger social picture working across sectors with health, social care, education and community partners reaching, on average, up to 1,000 people a week – 95% of whom wouldn’t ordinarily engage with the arts.
Our collaborative work approach involves our highly skilled Music Leaders reaching out to develop skills, health and wellbeing in our community through targeted workshops and other projects, in partnership with up to 100 education, health and social care organisations.
Where do we work?
We go where we are needed. PMZ has musically infused every corner of the community in places as diverse as nurseries, children’s centres, special schools, a domestic abuse refuge, psychiatric units, homeless sheltered accommodation, hospice bereavement support and other places in the community including residential settings and rehabilitation units – wherever there is identified need.
Wherever we work, PMZ creates an inspiring, supportive and motivating environment. Our diverse and relational work allows people to express themselves, increase their self-confidence and gain a sense of achievement and social connection. We work with people of all ages and abilities, including vulnerable or disadvantaged children and adults in Plymouth. We are considered unique in our approach to using music to improve people’s lives as we tend to work with a broad range of people in deeper, longer term meaningful ways, in addition to any one-off special projects and events that seek to bring all those groups together.
Who do we work with?
The charity works with a very diverse range of people and partners who might especially benefit from having music in their lives. That's our particular passion. We work with children and families who’ve experienced traumatic events and circumstances - including domestic abuse, sexual violence, addiction and those navigating various health challenges including dementia, brain injury and life-limiting illnesses.
PMZ also helps to tackle isolation and the impact of marginalisation by creating new musical communities for those groups who often face particular barriers to accessing creative and compassionate spaces where they can thrive. This has included working alongside refugees and asylum seekers and, most recently, supporting the creation of the first LGBTQ+ choir in Plymouth.
PMZ aims to be a living, breathing example of a small, locally based charity that can create big impact. As a 'disabled-led' organisation we value lived expertise and intentionally embody compassionate, inclusive leadership to create genuine and meaningful ways of running an organisation that enable successful engagement with the widest possible range of wonderful people. With joy and kindness at its heart.
Do you want to help us use music to combine social justice and joy to create community and connection?
Do feel free to get in touch if you share our passion and think we might work well together. We'd love to hear from you.
Here's a little "At A Glance" of the different strands of what we do...
And, here are the 5 Key Priority areas that make our Plymouth Music Zone world go round - and the underlying values we all feel so passionately about...
