Culture Sounds is our ongoing project with displaced children and young people in the UK care system. Its central aim is to use music as a tool to support participants to feel a sense of belonging, purpose and safety as some of the most potentially vulnerable children and young people in society. In order to achieve this, at the outset, we needed to understand and increase our knowledge relating to the lived experiences of displaced minors, learn about trauma and how it affects the brain; and develop inclusive trauma-attuned approaches which draw on the significant known positive impact that music can have in this context.

Culture Sounds is born

This story began in 2019 with a partnership project Destinies. It taught us a huge amount about the challenges and barriers that care-experienced children face and through working with Derbyshire Virtual School and Sinfonia Viva in Culture Café Makes Music, we could see that the music sessions were having a positive impact. It wasn’t until we had the chance to delve deeper though, that we learnt quite how much potential music as an artform could contribute towards health and well-being, specifically helping to regulate the body and mind. It is at that moment that Culture Sounds was born.

Research and Development

We were delighted to be selected as one of eight arts organisations paired with Virtual Schools (the part of a local council which looks after children and young people) in 2025 for a Midlands-wide ACE funded Action-Research project led by Arts Connect, The Mighty Creatives and the University of Wolverhampton: Collaborate & Innovate. This opportunity to interrogate our practice and learn much more about the experiences and needs of displaced young people, and the different agencies supporting them was, and continues to be, crucial in the development of our approach.

Our ongoing conversations with Sinfonia Viva led us to the brilliant work of One World Orchestra. The orchestra membership consists of professional musicians professionals with lived experience of displacement, trauma specialists, and experienced educators who have collectively worked with thousands of displaced children across a wide range of environments. With this blend of expertise, the Action-Research project with our partner, Leicestershire Virtual School gave us the time and space for us to understand the potential and specific challenges that those who have experienced trauma face, in biological, psychological and social terms, which we could then apply our provision to the current environment that children in the care system experience.

Preparing the Workforce

It has taken time and patience for us, and the creative teams we work with, to fully understand the profound and life-affecting barriers that care-experienced children and young people face, and develop and deliver a training programme with One World Orchestra for music practitoners in the Midlands. Working with Leicestershire Virtual School and Sinfonia Viva brings a unique combination of expertise. The incredibly generous nature of the Music Leaders we have worked with since last year has been exactly what we needed to deepen our knowledge and equip ourselves and our workforce with the necessary training so that we can build in confidence, and be attuned to the needs of participants as they emerge.

Often missed in this space is the care of the Music Leaders and supporting musicians themselves in the delivery of trauma-attuned sessions with vulnerable participants. It is reassuring that for One World Orchestra this is a central part of the training they provide, as well as external supporting supervision sessions provided for all their teams.

We have learned so much so far, both from the young people we have met so far, and the passionate musicians leading and inspiring this vital work. As we expand the programme, we hope that more care-experienced children and young people can benefit from the immense potential health benefits that, with the right combination of elements, music can certainly offer.