Arts and culture overview

The Youth Music Initiative (YMI) is a national music education programme funded by the Scottish Government and administered by Creative Scotland, the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland. 

Browse current projects

YMI provides annual funding to every local authority in Scotland to enable all pupils to engage with high quality and accessible music making activities.

Our Arts Service team manages East Lothian Council's programme, working closely with our Instrumental Music Service, Youth Work, professional musicians and partner organisations. Projects are offered to schools at no cost, and can be extended in length where schools are able to contribute further funding.

Our aims:

• provide a diverse programme of high quality and accessible musical experiences
• promote equal opportunity of access for all pupils to participate as well special opportunities for target groups
• tackle inequality and engage young people (from pre school upwards) who would not otherwise be able to participate
• enable young people to achieve their potential in or through music-making
• support East Lothian Council's increased focus on health and wellbeing
• offer music-making opportunities through the use of digital technology
• support the professional development of YMI practitioners for the benefit of young people
• offer training for teachers and school staff to ensure a legacy of music-making in schools and community

In East Lothian, we typically run between fourteen and eighteen projects each year.