Purpose-built youth music hub opens in city centre

In-Spire Sounds' new space features a wall where young people wrote what inspired them

"We wanted to make it feel like a home, not a classroom."

In-Spire Sounds' new purpose-built creative hub in Oxford city centre opened on Thursday, and is about 15 times larger than its former makeshift studio.

It features classrooms, recording and rehearsal studios, mentoring spaces and chill out areas for young people who struggle in mainstream education.

Kingsley Pratt-Boyden, director at In-Spire Sounds, said investing in "preventative creative projects keeps people off the street and out of crisis".

"We should be investing in our future, and our future is young people," he said.

"What we do here is show young people that they just need a different kind of support."

Much of the new centre was built by the In-Spire team, with help from volunteers, carpenters and friends.

"None of us are particularly great at DIY, but we've all had to learn how to build recording booths and make sound panels," Mr Pratt-Boyden said.

"We didn't have a lot of money, but if you can build success out of adversity, you build something with strong foundations."

In-Spire is run by a community interest company, and delivers music education and youth mentoring across Oxfordshire.

Its funding mostly comes from Youth Music and the Arts Council, and is topped up by smaller local grants.

Kingsley Pratt-Boyden, centre, is the director of In-Spire Sounds

The service works with young people who have faced exclusion, trauma or barriers in education.

Its model focuses on early intervention and creative mentoring, with past participants returning as volunteers and youth leaders.

Samuel Mansell, from In-Spire, said: "My brother struggled with school, criminality and substance abuse - if he'd had an earlier intervention, things could have been very different."

"We met one young person who couldn't speak because of trauma, now they're one of the most fluent performers I've ever seen."

"That's why we do what we do."