West Sussex Music – vision, mission, values and comms support

“Anita assisted with our communications during a period of major organisational change. We were initially attracted by her sector reputation and expert knowledge and quickly learned that she is a professional with conviction and values that aligned with ours. Anita’s flexible approach and responsiveness to myself and the team was immensely reassuring. We keep an ongoing dialogue with Anita and will definitely use her skills again in the future.” James Underwood, Chief Executive, West Sussex Music

West Sussex Music’s CEO James Underwood, approached Anita at a demanding time in the organisation’s history, following the pandemic and a restructure of the organisation. Anita worked with the team for one year, providing strategic and tactical communications services, and supporting the recruitment process for their first Communications Manager.

West Sussex Music provides music lessons, groups, workshops and performance opportunities to young people and schools throughout the county. It also leads the county’s music education hub, a partnership of organisations delivering a range of music services and opportunities to young people.

The challenge, as with all hubs, was to communicate both West Sussex Music, a charity; and the wider Hub.

She then supported them to find and work with a brand developer to develop an identity and brand assets for both the charity and the Hub; and a web developer to create a new website. Other work included contributing to funding applications and writing copy for various marketing materials.

The team had a foundation for communications which they could build on, and which attracted attention and interest, partnerships and funding. The organisation grew quickly and was then able to create a post of Communications Manager, and Anita helped the team to advertise, interview and appoint to the new role. She then provided mentoring support for the appointed person for a further year.