A youth programme born at a Midsomer Norton community radio station has been quietly building across Somerset, Bristol and London since January. Sound Vision CIO explains why it waited to say so.
In January 2026, a small group of young people in Midsomer Norton came together to make content: for social media, for radio, for podcasts and for digital journalism. They arrived from different backgrounds and with widely varying abilities and experience. Between them were job seekers, university undergraduates, college and school students, young people living with mental health challenges, neurodivergent young people, and some who were simply unsure how anyone finds their way into working life. Several had never met a person who worked in the media and had no reason to think that world had a place for them.
Within weeks, the group had become something else entirely. They were producing across every platform, and the work was going out to audiences ready to be informed, entertained and, occasionally, inspired.
Sound Voices had arrived. Until now, Sound Vision CIO has not publicly announced it.
The decision to wait was deliberate. “It would have been easy to launch this with a press release and one location,” says Dom Chambers, the charity’s CEO and founder. “We wanted to be able to say it works, in more than one place, with a multitude of young people, because we are there for all abilities and all backgrounds whatever your starting point. I didn’t want to announce an intention. I wanted to flag a movement that is already taking root in multiple locations and communities.”
The charity exists to reduce loneliness, isolation and lack of opportunity by giving people the skills, confidence and connections they need to thrive. Its roots are in community radio. Somer Valley FM, the licensed community radio station founded by Dom Chambers in Midsomer Norton, launched in 2008 with the investment of Bath and North East Somerset Council and Somervale School, then a designated Arts Media College, to provide skills-based learning opportunities for school students outside of classroom settings. Sound Voices builds on those eighteen years of youth provision. It gives young people the skills and confidence to develop their voice, and then the platforms to get that voice heard.
Sound Voices brings together everything Sound Vision does with young people under the age of 25. It runs as a pathway rather than a course. Children in Years 5 and 6 begin with small-group creative work built around the move to secondary school. Secondary-age students who are not thriving in the classroom take a twelve-week intervention in digital storytelling, photography, animation and audio. From there, young people can join Community Reporters, learning to research, interview, record, edit and broadcast their own stories. Pathway to Employment takes them on to mentoring, placements and work.
PHOTO: Frome and East Somerset MP Anna Sabine who visited the programme at Somer Valley FM, with a Year 10 work experience student from Writhlington School.
What sets it apart is that the work is real. Most creative youth programmes produce something that is seen by the people in the room. Sound Voices produces work that goes on air, through licensed community radio stations and, increasingly, DAB. Participants describe that as the moment their confidence shifts. Schools describe it showing up in the classroom afterwards.
Since January, Sound Voices has launched at Somer Valley FM in Midsomer Norton, at Riverside Radio in Wandsworth in March, and at Sedgemoor FM in Bridgwater in July. It now works in six locations across Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol and London, with four more opening over the next six months, alongside schools, colleges, community radio stations and youth charities. In almost every case, the partner approached Sound Vision rather than the other way round.
The track record is strong. Young people consistently achieve the Bronze Arts Award, a nationally recognised Level 1 qualification, and Pathway to Employment participants are moving on into work, education or volunteering. Some outcomes reach further than any qualification. Jamie arrived aged eleven, autistic and unable to speak in social settings. Where school had felt uncomfortable, he felt at ease from his very first session. He is now a paid professional film reviewer.
Anna Sabine, the Member of Parliament for Frome and East Somerset, has visited the programme in Midsomer Norton and been interviewed by the Year 10 students taking part in it.
“Meeting the young people involved in Sound Voices in Midsomer Norton was a real pleasure. What really stood out to me was the confidence they were building and the opportunity they were being given to have their voices heard.
Projects like this are about so much more than learning how to produce media. They give young people skills, connections and the confidence to take on new opportunities and find their place in their community. That is exactly the kind of provision we need to see more of, and it’s fantastic to see Sound Voices growing across Somerset.”
Anna Sabine, Member of Parliament for Frome and East Somerset
Sound Vision has entered its tenth year in 2026, with a plan to reach 500 young people a year by 2029, and new locations opening in Street, Minehead and South Gloucestershire.
As for that original group in Midsomer Norton, all of them have progressed positively, and several are still making content for Sound Voices. One of them is Kieran. He arrived in that first January through Discovery, the employability support charity, at a point when he was rarely leaving his house at all. He was with Sound Voices for three months.
“My experience at Sound Vision has been great. It helped me be more confident and got me out of my shell and opened me up more around others. Sound Vision helps you find your voice and build up your skills. Nice people to work with and fun to be around. They support you and help each other out no matter what. I went from not leaving the house to a full-time job that I really like.”
Kieran, 24, neurodivergent job seeker. Sound Voices, Midsomer Norton, 2026
Kieran is right that it is fun. That is not incidental, it is the reason any of this reaches the young people who need it most.
The timing is not accidental either. National policy is asking for youth provision that reaches the young people statutory services miss, and the audio industry is asking where its next generation is going to come from. Sound Voices answers both, and it did so before either question was formally put.
But nobody arrives for a national strategy. They arrive because it is a good place to be, and they leave with the confidence and the skills to choose what happens next.
“Sound Voices doesn’t just give young people a pathway to their future. It gives them a future with a voice in it: something to say, and audiences ready to listen.”
Dom Chambers, CEO and Founder, Sound Vision CIO
Sound Voices is currently offering placements for young people in Bath and North East Somerset and Bridgwater, with other locations opening in January 2027. Anyone interested in joining Sound Voices can contact Sound Vision on info@soundvision.charity or 01761 411222.
