OKEHAMPTON charity The Wren Trust has been awarded a grant of £1,000 to further its work with school and youth groups in Devon.
The grant has come from the National Foundation for Youth Music and will be used to buy a whole series of new instruments.
Youth Music has already funded Wren's year-long project 'Mosaic Music', which aims to help children across the region develop the life skills that working with music can bring.
Autoharps, tin whistles and recorders will allow Mosaic Music to take on larger groups in many more locations in their mobile music workshops throughout Devon.
The workshops introduce children to the exciting diversity of traditional music and help them gain practical access to equipment they might not normally be able to afford.
The workshops are open to all youth groups no matter how big or small.
Mandolins, concertinas and percussion equipment will assist in such Mosaic Music projects as the Okehampton-based Youth Roots Band and the upcoming Exeter Schools Project.
The Youth Roots Band is a collective of pupils from Okehampton Community College formed in October last year.
With nine members, the band uses a wide variety of instruments from violins and piano accordions to electric bass and keyboards.
The new instruments will help more members to join the band or help those existing members expand their range of instrumental skills.
The National Foundation for Youth Music was set up in 1999 with £30 million of Lottery funding, through the Arts Council of England.
It was endorsed in July last year by a further £30m to allow the work to be continued up to 2005.
Youth Music provides music making opportunities for children and young people up to the age of 18 who principally live in areas of social and economic need.
For further information about the work of the Wren Trust contact 01837 53754.