Info for funders
A tiny pilot with strong roots
Cocoon is one of 11 organisations in Youth Music’s Energiser Learning Community (2024–2027).
Live sketch by Rachel Faulkner
“Parade”
Made at Cocoon in October 2025. Instagram: @thelivesketcher.
M, two years old, leads the parade, ukulele in hand. Kate plays flute behind him; his mammy Megan, Cocoon’s co-director, follows at the back.
Two adults playing the exact same way as M, stopping when he stops, starting when he starts. This is the whole of Cocoon in one moment.
Quick description
The full story
Proud doesn’t cover it.
Cocoon is one of 11 organisations in the Youth Music Energiser Learning Community (2024–2027), celebrating the messy, unexpected magic of making music with 2–4 year-olds and their grown-ups.
Hands-down the best-funded work I’ve ever done, alongside people who genuinely care about all of it.
Big thanks to Arts Council England for making this fund possible.
Reflective practice
We document everything we do: notes, photos, voice notes, messages and reflective practice meetings. Thinking deeply about every session is built into how we work with families.
We only ever share a family’s story with their full consent.
If you’re a funder and would like a closer look at our work, we’d love to talk.
Our work has strong community backing
We completed a successful crowdfunder.
Cocoon runs on one grant, from Youth Music's Energiser Fund. It's in its final year and ends in August 2027.
As of autumn 2026, we have four or five funding applications being written or waiting for decisions. We've had a lot of rejections along the way: the funding climate is very tough right now. We keep going because it's the thing we both love doing more than anything else in the world.