This evaluation looked at the project from the point of view of music education, identifying individual and social factors generated through musical development that also are attributed to desistence from crime. These were divided into two categories:-

Individual Agency:

Personal Identity

Diversity

Motivation

Hope

Self-determination

Personal strengths

Social Interactions:

Professional relationships

Peer relationships

Personal relationships

Sense of belonging

Ownership

This Good Vibrations project took place at Swinfen Hall Young Offenders Institute in December 2011. In total 19 students participated in the project; however the actual number in each session fluctuated during the week. The group selected for this project contained some very vulnerable young people. Some students had not been off their wing for a long period of time. Some were certified self-harmers whilst other

students were on medication, suffered from mental illness and many suffered from insomnia. All but one of the students were in Good Vibrations target group, young men:

• With open ACCT books2 and/or
• On violence reduction programmes and/or
• Otherwise vulnerable/hard to reach/reluctant to engage.

The processes of musical development are shared processes with the development of aspects of individual agency and social capital considered to be integral to desistence from crime. Not only did the music allow participants to develop positive self-concept, communicate with each other and work together, through engaging in musical development, participants also engaged in personal and social development.