Zavvi announce partnership with UK charity Youth Music
Howard Lake | 22 July 2008 | News
zavvi is proud to announce a new partnership with UK charity, Youth Music. The collaboration commencing on Monday 21 July, 2008, is the first major long-term retail partnership for the charity which promotes and supports music making opportunities for disadvantaged children and young people.
The programme will involve engagement from zavvi’s staff, customers and corporate sector. With 1.8million children in the UK living below the poverty line, access to music making facilities is limited, and as a result many young people miss out on the benefits which being involved in music allows.
zavvi staff will have the opportunity to host regular events in-store for Youth Music such as band nights, sponsorship busking and music quizzes. Staff will also have the chance to make a difference through individual / payroll giving, and by volunteering and mentoring some of the 94,000 young people who get involved in creative music making activities through the 22 Youth Music Action Zones around the country.
The Action Zones specifically target those 0 to18 years olds in areas of social deprivation where access to making music is difficult or impossible. The Action Zones often provides them with the only safe place they can experience making music and being creative. Making music helps children and young people develop their aspirations, confidence, self esteem, literacy and language skills, unlock untapped potential and present new opportunities.
Simon Douglas, CEO of zavvi Entertainment Group said: “We are nearing zavvi’s first birthday and are really appreciative of all the support we’ve had over this past year so thought it was only appropriate to celebrate our milestone by starting a relationship with a charity like-minded with our brand.
We are passionate about our products, but we have a heritage that began with music and are proud to be in the position together with Youth Music to give something back to the young people of the UK and Ireland, especially during recent times.”
Customers will be able to contribute by making donations via collection boxes at tills and sponsorship opportunities. On a corporate level, zavvi will lend facilities (store’s basement live music venues in Manchester and London), skills and expertise in-kind (from product development and promotion through to PR) and hold various networking opportunities.
Christina Coker Chief Executive of Youth Music commented: “Youth Music is delighted to be working with zavvi; a company that not only shares our passion for music, but recognizes how important it is to give young people access to music making opportunities.
Having a presence on the high street throughout the country will not only give Youth Music the chance to raise awareness amongst zavvi employees and customers of the importance of music making, but will also raise vital funds for music-making activities that young people may not otherwise have access to”.
– ENDS –
For more information, please contact:
Aviva Waks or Jackie Antas at BORKOWSKI
020 7404 3000
av***@bo*******.uk / ja****@bo*******.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
ABOUT
Youth Music is one of the National Lottery’s great success stories. Set up in 1999, with a remit to support music-making activities for some of the UK’s most disadvantaged young people, Youth Music has gone on to reach over 1.75 million children and young people, encouraging their talents, building their confidence and transforming the landscape of musical opportunity throughout the UK. The music-making supported is of the widest variety, from hip-hop and dj-ing to classical and jazz.
Youth Music occupies a unique position – distributing £10m per year of Lottery funding on behalf of Arts Council England. Despite its success, Youth Music aspires to reach out to ever increasing numbers of young people across the country. The vision is to create a sustainable environment to channel young peoples’ creativity, enabling them to express themselves and develop their skills through music. The aim is to reach 3 million young people by 2010.
zavvi
zavvi is the largest independent entertainment retailer on the high street.
With 125 stores UK and Ireland wide, zavvi and zavvi.co.uk are dedicated to offering the latest Music, DVDs, Boxsets, Blu Ray, Games and Books releases at competitive prices.
Biographies
Simon Douglas, CEO zavvi Entertainment Group
Simon Douglas has spent 23 years in the retail industry. He worked for HMV for 19 years, starting as a Sales Assistant and rising to Operations Director, Europe.
Simon joined Virgin Retail in 2004 as Executive Director of Retail and was appointed Managing Director in 2005.
In September 2007, Simon and his business partner Steve Peckham successfully lead an MBO of Virgin Megastores, creating zavvi entertainment group.
Christina Coker OBE, Chief Executive, Youth Music
Christina Coker was appointed the National Foundation for Youth Music’s first Chief Executive in April 1999 before which she was co-founder and Director of Hackney Music Development Trust – a pioneering initiative to develop and increase access to music education and training opportunities for the community (young and old) in North East London.
Christina has spent all of her professional working life involved in music, the arts more widely and in education. From her first job as a teacher of music and French in a Kent Secondary school, she extended her experience of education internationally whilst working at the Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges. Subsequently she moved into public policy, strategy and administration. Extensive local government experience included senior posts within the Greater London Council, Inner London Education Authority, and Hackney Council (Education and Leisure Directorates).
Christina’s voluntary sector experience has included developing school and community arts projects, as Head of Outreach for the Roundhouse Arts Centre and subsequently, creating, leading and managing all aspects of the work of the Hackney Music Development Trust.
Board Directorships have included ‘Shape’ (Arts/Disability Campaigner) and Pan Project (Inter-Cultural Arts Developer) and she has served on various education/arts advisory groups. Current commitments include membership of the Board of Birmingham Symphony Halls, various governmental steering groups and advisory bodies relating to arts and education policy and practice.
Christina was awarded an OBE for services to music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2005.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.