IMPs Apprentices Shine

On Tuesday 23rd February our fabulous York IMPs apprentices attended the Shine Awards and received awards for being 'Young people who have contributed to make a huge difference in the Arts' from the Lord Mayor, Councillor Sonja Crisp. The Shine awards celebrate the amazing achievements of young people in York and this year the awards ceremony took place at Door 84. The IMPs apprentices were nominated for the extraordinary amount of time and effort they give to the project, and for being such great role models for young people of all abilities.

Within our weekly IMPs sessions the apprentices help to lead warm ups, songs and activities, and support other IMPs members with signs, lyrics, and using instruments and music technology. They also help deliver workshops in schools and youth groups, where they work alongside our professional music leaders to plan and deliver the sessions. Within the workshops they lead warm-ups and music-making activities, and help the music leaders to teach signs and songs. In everything they do they convey an infectious enthusiasm and they show real professionalism in the way they plan and lead activities.

Time and again they’ve shown that they’re fantastic at inspiring and supporting their peers, at developing their own skills and confidence and at showcasing what young disabled people are capable of achieving. They’re fantastic ambassadors for inclusion, showing that we’re all capable of achieving incredible things when we work, play, learn and celebrate together as equals. We know we’re biased, but we think they’re amazing and very much deserve this award!

We'd like to say a big thank you to Shine, to the Lord Mayor, to all of the young people from Door 84 who organised the event, to York City Football Club Foundation who sponsored it, and to the talented young musicians from the Jam Factory who wowed us with some beautiful live music on the night. We were all really inspired seeing the talent, hard work and enthusiasm of so many young people and we'd like to say big congratulations to everyone who won an award - the future certainly looks bright for York!IMP