A future with a voice

A youth programme has been quietly building across Somerset, Bristol and London since January. Sound Vision CIO explains why it waited to say so.

In January 2026, a small group of young people in Midsomer Norton came together to make content: for social media, for radio, for podcasts and for digital journalism. They arrived from different backgrounds and with widely varying abilities and experience. Between them were job seekers, university undergraduates, college and school students, young people living with mental health challenges, neurodivergent young people, and some who were simply unsure how anyone finds their way into working life. Several had never met a person who worked in the media and had no reason to think that world had a place for them.

Within weeks, the group had become something else entirely. They were producing across every platform, and the work was going out to audiences ready to be informed, entertained and, occasionally, inspired.

Sound Voices had arrived. Until now, Sound Vision CIO has not publicly announced it.

The charity exists to reduce loneliness, isolation and lack of opportunity by giving people the skills, confidence and connections they need to thrive. Rooted in eighteen years of youth provision, Sound Voices is the programme that puts that mission into practice for young people. It gives them the skills and confidence to develop their voice, and then the platforms to get that voice heard.

The decision to wait was deliberate.

“It would have been easy to launch this with a press release and one location,” says Dom Chambers, the charity’s CEO and founder. “We wanted to be able to say it works, in more than one place, with a multitude of young people, because we are there for all abilities and all backgrounds whatever your starting point. I didn’t want to announce an intention. I wanted to flag a movement that is already taking root in multiple locations and communities.”

Sound Voices brings together everything Sound Vision does with young people under the age of 25. It runs as a pathway rather than a course. Children in Years 5 and 6 begin with small-group creative work built around the move to secondary school. Secondary-age students who are not thriving in the classroom take a twelve-week intervention in digital storytelling, photography, animation and audio. From there, young people can join Community Reporters, learning to research, interview, record, edit and broadcast their own stories. Pathway to Employment takes them on to mentoring, placements and work.

What sets it apart is that the work is real. Most creative youth programmes produce something that is seen by the people in the room. Sound Voices produces work that goes on air, through licensed community radio stations and, increasingly, DAB. Participants describe that as the moment their confidence shifts. Schools describe it showing up in the classroom afterwards.

Since January, Sound Voices has launched in Wandsworth in March and Bridgwater in July, and begins in Bristol this autumn. It now works in ten locations across Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire and London, alongside schools, colleges, community radio stations and youth charities. In almost every case, the partner approached Sound Vision rather than the other way round.

The results are measurable. Every young person entered for a Bronze Arts Award, a GCSE-equivalent qualification, has achieved it. Every Pathway to Employment participant has identified a positive

next step into work, education or volunteering. Some outcomes take longer. Jamie Skinner arrived aged eleven, autistic and unable to speak in social settings. He is now a paid professional film reviewer.

Anna Sabine, the Member of Parliament for Frome and East Somerset, has visited the programme in Midsomer Norton and been interviewed by the Year 10 students taking part in it.

“Meeting the young people involved in Sound Voices in Midsomer Norton was a real pleasure. What really stood out to me was the confidence they were building and the opportunity they were being given to have their voices heard.

 

Projects like this are about so much more than learning how to produce media. They give young people skills, connections and the confidence to take on new opportunities and find their place in their community. That is exactly the kind of provision we need to see more of, and it’s fantastic to see Sound Voices growing across Somerset.”

Anna Sabine, Member of Parliament for Frome and East Somerset

Sound Vision enters its tenth year this month, with a plan to reach 500 young people a year by 2029, and new locations opening in Street, Minehead and South Gloucestershire.

As for that original group in Midsomer Norton, every one of them has found a positive way forward, and several are still making content for Sound Voices. One of them is Kieran Clarke. He arrived in that first January through Discovery, the employability support charity, at a point when he was rarely leaving his house at all. He was with Sound Voices for three months.

“My experience at Sound Vision has been great. It helped me be more confident and got me out of my shell and opened me up more around others. Sound Vision helps you find your voice and build up your skills. Nice people to work with and fun to be around. They support you and help each other out no matter what. I went from not leaving the house to a full-time job that I really like.”

Kieran Clarke, 24, neurodivergent job seeker. Sound Voices, Midsomer Norton, 2026

Kieran is right that it is fun. That is not incidental, it is the reason any of this reaches the young people who need it most.

The timing is not accidental either. National policy is asking for youth provision that reaches the young people statutory services miss, and the audio industry is asking where its next generation is going to come from. Sound Voices answers both, and it did so before either question was formally put.

But nobody arrives for a national strategy. They arrive because it is a good place to be, and they leave with the confidence and the skills to choose what happens next.

“Sound Voices doesn’t just give young people a pathway to their future. It gives them a future with a voice in it: something to say, and audiences ready to listen.”

Dom Chambers, CEO and Founder, Sound Vision CIO