Making Music, Building Futures: Finding Rhythms’ 2025 Annual Report
A first recording. The confidence to perform in front of an audience. A qualification, a new connection or a place on a degree course.
These are some of the achievements behind Finding Rhythms’ 2025 Annual Report, which shares a year of music-making, personal progress and growing opportunities across prisons and community settings.
During 2025, we worked with 199 participants, creating spaces where people could tell their stories, develop their skills and begin to see new possibilities for themselves.
A space to create and connect
Finding Rhythms uses music as a catalyst to help people improve their lives. Working alongside our trauma-informed professional musicians, participants write and record original music while building confidence, relationships and practical skills.
For people facing challenges such as poor mental health, disrupted education, social exclusion or involvement in the criminal justice system, music can offer an accessible way to connect with support.
Across 2025, we delivered 25 group projects, including 14 in custodial settings and 11 in community settings. These projects brought together 151 participants and resulted in 22 albums of original music.
We also held 13 listening events, giving participants the opportunity to share their work and celebrate what they had achieved together.
Growing Finding Rhythms Studio
Our Peckham-based Finding Rhythms Studio continued to develop as a place for creativity, connection and support, including for people rebuilding their lives after leaving prison.
During the year, 48 participants took part in 351 one-to-one studio sessions. Alongside recording, the programme offered seven industry insight sessions and three live shows, creating opportunities to learn, perform and explore future pathways.
Working with 18 referral partners helped us connect people with the programme. We also strengthened our alumni offer and established an alumni project board, giving participants a direct role in shaping the Studio and the wider organisation.
Their experience and ideas are essential to developing support that feels relevant, welcoming and useful.
Building confidence and taking next steps
Across our programmes, participant feedback highlighted the difference that making music together can make:
• 98% reported feeling more positive.
• 100% reported feeling more confident.
• 96% reported feeling more hopeful about the future.
• 97% said the programme helped them build positive connections with others.
Participants also described gaining skills and ambitions they could take beyond the sessions. In 2025, 56 people achieved a King’s Trust qualification, while our partnership with Trailblazers provided 33 employability mentoring sessions.
For Ashley, who joined Finding Rhythms Studio shortly after leaving prison, that progress included being accepted onto a degree course at BIMM Music Institute.
As he explained:
Sometimes you can’t find the light at the end of the tunnel on your own. Having people alongside you who recognise your potential can help make that next step feel possible.
Understanding the impact on wellbeing
The report also shares findings from our work with Harrow Mental Health Services, published in Counselling and Psychotherapy Research.
Across the projects, 27 participants collaborated to create three original albums. The study found that 85% reported increased feelings of safety and belonging within the group, while 71% reported improved feelings about themselves.
Researchers also observed reductions in inpatient admissions and hospital bed days when comparing participants’ use of services before and after the projects. These findings add to our understanding of how collaborative music-making can support wellbeing and connection.
Thank you for making this possible
Every session, recording and performance depends on a community of people who believe in this work.
Thank you to our participants for sharing their creativity and experiences, and to our musicians, referral partners, delivery partners, funders, donors and supporters for helping create these opportunities.
Our 2025 Annual Report brings together the achievements, participant stories and partnerships behind the year, alongside our accounts and priorities for developing our work.
Download and read the full report here to discover more about what we achieved together.
