The Organisation

The Irene Taylor Trust works to encourage and establish the use of music as a powerful tool in the rehabilitation, education and therapeutic process of individuals held in UK prisons, immigration detention centres, secure hospitals and young offender institutions.

The programme

In the last 10 years Music in Prisons has run over 75 projects in 40 prisons involving 1,200 participants and 5,600 audience members. The prisoners are helped to improvise and compose rather than just reproducing the music of others. The excellent positive feedback from prisons has included ‘a transformation in the men who took part, from some levels of anxiety, lack of trust and negativity to enormous satisfaction and pride in the final product’. The small trust is receiving unprecedented demand for its work.

How it fulfilled our aims as an organisation

This programme falls within areas of special interest within both the Arts and Social Welfare & Development sectors. Our involvement is helping Music in Prisons to reduce exclusion and provide a way out of conflict.

How we helped

The Foundation contributed £15,000 for three years towards the core costs of the Music in Prisons project.

“Even though we do lots of work on self-esteem, talking about what it is and how to get it, it’s just not the same as having it. To have a project like this with no motive other than making music was an incredibly enriching experience.” Project participant

“Prisons can harbour very negative feelings. Projects such as this have a very significant impact on the way in which prisoners deal with the issues inherent in serving a prison sentence, and also with those factors which have resulted in a sentence in the first place. We must work with prisoners to enable them to meet challenges, to recognise their particular impact on situations and to realise their own potential.” Education Manager, Young Offenders Institution