Who We Are

Over the last 5 years the We Are Impact programme has been working from inside the creative industries to bridge the gap between creative education and creative careers with a focus on those from disadvantaged backgrounds whilst championing emerging diverse talent both on stage and behind the scenes. Across that time 70% of our beneficiaries have been from Black African or Caribbean descent creating 360 physical work experience placement and 40 virtual placements, with 1350 watching our online masterclasses.

Our programmes have directly addressed the challenge of needing the experience to get the job whilst not being able to get the experience because you can’t get the job. Through the Impact Industry strand, we have delivered 11 work experience opportunities including Remix producer, Fashion content creator, Bar and Events manager, Product release and many others with businesses including Apple Radio, The Royal Albert Hall, Key Productions, Broacdwick, Pioneer DJ, Talk Sport, Hospital Records and many others. We have also now delivered 3 rounds of virtual work experiences in conjunction with Urban Partners, a collective of Kings Cross business where our managing director Wizdom was the Next Generation coordinator for 2 years. As a result we helped 38 young people into creative employment through our Impact Access programme from models, to so found engineers, including 13 during the pandemic. This has included Erin Jay who is now working for Proud Events on Afronation and Cookies & Cream and Shanice who now works for Spitfire Audio and were both part of our programme in conjunction with the Prince's Trust that was unfortunately cut short by the pandemic.

We also support artists as part of our Artistry Programme hosting the Amplify academy for young talented singer songwriters which we have just expanded to include young musicians. We are the London lead for the MAS Records artist development programme working with 100 solo artists and 25 bands annually which also offers a level 2 RSL qualification, and we are recruiting for next year www.masrecords.org/apply. The programme provides free access to rehearsal rooms, 12 hours of free recording time, masterclasses and training in music marketing and promotion. 

We also support young artists in residence and have been championing dark skin black female vocalist for the last 3 years, starting with Esther Durin who was the part of Littlemix The Search and joined the band Nostalia accompanied by Zitah who was also a part of the Tileyard Impact Industry programme. Since the show we have been able to create 6 music videos with diverse talent creating 108 work experience opportunities including stylists, videographers, photographers, set designers and many others. The investment from Tileyard Impact has helped to show that black talent can succeed when it has the financial backing to do so with over 110K streams, 4 releases and 2 features in the first 6 months of the band having left the TV show.

Impact Community has partnered with Access All Areas Seminars which had taken place monthly at Tileyard covering topics including Racism In Music, Diversity In Dance, Women In Music and others with established industry professionals discussing their experiences to a free online audience. The seminars were also a platform for emerging talent to perform which has been of short supply during the pandemic and a life line for young talent.


We have completed our 6 week Featured Vocal program with Hospital Records and Spearhead which had included masterclasses from the likes of Becky Hill, Liam Bailey, Kelli-Leigh and Vula of Basement Jaxx supported by UKF, Drum N Bass Arena, the Halley and Focusrite. Our cohort consisted of  20  vocalists from our Amplify Academy programme, MAS Records programme and local schools, colleges and youth groups that we have worked with. Please have a watch of our documentary from the project here.

Meet the the founders

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  • We Are Impact founder, Wizdom Layne’s career began as a musical artist in the 90s directly out of the BRIT School, where he was amongst the first intake of year 10 students. He joined the pioneering MOBO-nominated UK Hip Hop group GreenJade, going on to lay the foundations for the capitol’s thriving black music scene as both an artist and entrepreneur. At a time when UK black music had very little radio support, his group GreenJade was filling venues like the Brixton Fridge (now the Electric) and pioneering music-based anti-youth violence schools provision with the Gunz Down Schools Tour, accompanied by London youth charity XLP. Going on to become Choice FM’s Peace On The Streets official schools partnership, attracting the support of the then London Mayor, Boris Johnson.

    Greenjade came to an end in 2010, having performed at the 2004 Athens Olympics, released 5 albums, toured the UK, Europe and North America, and opened the band's own recording studio and record label, when Wizdom joined XLP to run their Arts Department. The 8 years with the charity saw him lead programmes with HRH Prince & Princess Of Wales and London Mayors Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan, as well as Livery companies including the Merchant Taylor’s and Carpenters. At XLP Wizdom’s work covered schools across 9 London boroughs, auditioning young talent, often from underprivileged backgrounds, providing a platform for their creativity to be performed, introducing them to the culture with trips to the theatre and live music events from the O2 to the Royal Albert Hall. He worked with over 5000 young people including the artist Lola Young and Natalie Ojevah MBE, the youngest black female recipient of the award at age 27.

    Whilst at XLP he was seconded to deliver Peacemix where he realised he had a unique ability to offer translation services as the bridge between the corporate world, the language of the Lottery and the street culture of the ex-gang members of the New Day Foundation (NDF) from Birmingham. Peacemix was a 14-city programme travelling the country with a microphone of peace, in a similar fashion to the Olympic torch, to places that had been affected by gang or sectarian violence. As part of the tour we visited Lottery funded centres across the country and saw first-hand the stark difference in engagement and usage for organisations that understood how to get funding but not how to engage, and the organisations that were excellent with engagement but struggled to get funding. Regardless of where we went, we saw the power of music to create change and bring communities together, ending with a showcase of acts from each geographical stop on the tour at the Eden Project in Cornwall and the final event at London, Roundhouse.

    This work was so successful that after Peacemix The Big Lottery Fund (now NLCF) commissioned Wizdom to write a national creative arts employability programme which became the Big Music Project (TBMP) launched by the Big Lottery Fund, Global (Capital) Radio, Universal Music and UK Youth in 2014. This created a framework to deliver music industry training and access nationally, utilising local music hubs, contacts with industry professionals and job opportunities. Between 2014-2018 we had worked with 2,589 young people who ran community projects (from 220 projects in total) through our community hubs and 960 young people attended initial ‘taster’ day sessions across 6 cities. Of those, 478 young people completed the full 6-week Music Potential (MPX) course with 26 young people in 3-month and 6-month paid internships and 20 young people in week-long unpaid work experience opportunities. We had a total reach of 30,889 young people with 189,654 unique visitors to the website looking for jobs and industry information.

  • Currently working as a freelance Artist Developer for the MOBO Awards in conjunction with Marshall Records, PRS Foundation and Tik Tik, Savannah has previously worked as band coach and A&R for Mas Records charity, helping 90+ bands with their recordings, rehearsals, gig bookings and marketing and logistics. 

    She has been fortunate to participate in various roles such as a Chief Operating Officer for Tileyard Impact, helping 82 people into employment, over a 100 young people into work placements and has organised masterclasses/seminars featuring industry professionals from respected businesses in the industry for over 20,000+ individuals. She has collaborated with the likes of Apple Music, Spitfire Audio, Google, AEI, Ted baker, Herbert Smith & Feree Hills, Pioneer Dj and Broadwick Live to name a few, on bespoke workshops and work experiences.

    Savannah has worked alongside various schools in the Camden and Islington area including charities and organisations such as Sound Skool, Loud Futures, Girls I Rate, Girl Grind UK, Small Green Shoots and The Halley. 

    Savannah Simms plays an interesting role in the events realm working as an Event Producer for Labours Summer Reception for two years alongside Sir Lenny Henry, Kier Starma, Tom Watson, NHS, Islington Council and Camden council. She has taken on the role has an Event Manager, Technical Stage Manager, Artist Booker and Promoter in live music, festivals and nightlife running events alongside Abbey Road Studios, PRS Foundation, Royal Albert Hall, The Great Escape, LWE (Now Universal Live), Strawberries & Creem, Hospital Records, Krankbrother, Camp Bestival, Snow Boxx, Field Day Festival and more!

    From performing spoken word at charity Galas for the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge to producing podcasts for comedians alongside Dane Baptiste & Eshaan Akbar Savannah has been featured on ITV News, Soho Radio, BBC Radio and The Guardian for her accomplishments.