Sony Music UK is funding a new project launched by UK-based charity Mind to conduct research into mental health interventions for young people affected by racism.
The research, says Sony Music, will be tailored to support the mental health of young people who experience racism, investigate how racism and racial trauma affects mental health, and will seek to understand the best blueprint for interventions and support.
The Mind project, Young People and Racial Trauma, is part of the latest wave of grants for Sony Music’s UK Social Justice Fund, part of a global Sony Music Group commitment to support marginalised communities and help address structural inequality.
Sony Music Group’s Global Social Justice Fund (SJF) was created in June 2020 to address racial injustice worldwide.
As part of the $100 million SJF initiative, recipients of the funding have included the likes of the Fondo Guadalupe Musalem in Brazil, Pour 3 Points in Canada, Key4Life and Young Urban Arts Foundation in the UK, plus Advancement Project and Race Forward in the US.
The UK arm of the Social Justice Fund has awarded more than $1m in funding across 16 beneficiaries since launch.
This latest round of funding includes grants for The Runnymede Trust, an independent race equality think tank, and the London-based charity OnSide Youth Zone.
In partnership with Sony Music UK, Runnymede will conduct research into structural barriers that may prevent black, brown and ethnically diverse artists from being successful within genres where such artists are less represented, and says it will examine “mis-genreing”, where artists might be mis-classified by social identifiers.
Sony Music says the findings will inform efforts to “dismantle barriers and drive understanding within the music industry to enact long-term change for future artists and their listeners”.
OnSide, meanwhile, will be supported through music mentoring programmes funded in three London Youth Zones – Croydon, Barnet and Barking and Dagenham.
“This grant signifies a deepening of [Sony Music UK’s and Mind’s] important relationship.”
Charlotte Edgeworth, sony music UK
Charlotte Edgeworth, who was named Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Social Impact for Sony Music UK in May, said: “Sony Music UK has been working with Mind for several years, delivering training and offering support for both employees and artists.
“This grant signifies a deepening of this important relationship, built on our dedication to improving mental health support for people experiencing the trauma of racism.
“This latest round of funding represents a development of the Social Justice Fund’s approach, building from our strong base of grassroots projects into addressing more embedded and structural challenges that we face a society.”
“It’s so important that the UK invests in mental health support.”
Marcel Vige, mind
Marcel Vige, Head of Equity at Mind, said: “We are thankful for this grant which will allow research into how we can better support the mental health of young people who experience racism.
“Racism, in any of its forms, affects our mental health, whether direct racial abuse, embedded or institutional bias, or wider systems of oppression.
“It can affect the way we feel about ourselves and how safe we feel. And it can contribute to particular mental health problems, including depression and anxiety.
“It’s so important that the UK invests in mental health support for people who experience racism, whilst also working to tackle racism at every level.
“Mind is committed to being an unflinching advocate for racial justice and mental health, as part of our ambition to become an anti-racist organisation.”Music Business Worldwide
