Encouraging Community Engagement

The difference we want to make is to for people to understand the impact poverty and disadvantage has on children and young people and provide opportunities for the public to contribute to reduce the impact of inequality on children, young people and their families.

Volunteering - Children North East recruits, trains and supports volunteers to support parents and increasingly, young people to mentor other young people. 130 volunteers worked with us in 2010-2011, 96 of whom were young people.

• Adult Volunteers - Many of our projects that work with parents utilise adult volunteers. All our volunteers are trained and supported to prepare them for the role then they are carefully 'matched' to families and continue to have support from paid staff. We also welcome volunteers wishing to support fundraising or office functions within Children North East.
• Youth Link Volunteers - Children North East has Youth Link projects in Sedgefield, Tynedale and Blyth Valley. Youth Link recruits, trains and supports young people (aged 18 - 25 years) as volunteers to mentor and support other young people (aged 12 - 18 years). The services have been awarded the National Youth Volunteer Network REACH award and the National Mentoring and Befriending Foundation Approved Provider Standard. The training that volunteers receive is accredited by OCN to level 2. Youth Link volunteers come from all walks of life and for many of them the accreditation gave them the confidence to go on to further study at college or university.

Newcastle Youth Council - Children North East organised the first Newcastle upon Tyne city-wide election in June 2010 when over 8,500 young people elected 26 youth councillors age 11 to 18 to the City’s first independent Youth Council. Since then we have worked with the Youth Councillors to establish the Youth Council as a going concern with its own Terms of Reference, policies, methods of working, financial management and brand. In particular forging the relationship between the Youth Council and the City Council.

The purpose of the Youth Council is to represent the views of young people age 11 to 18 who live, study or work in Newcastle upon Tyne, and improve the quality of life for those who are younger. Its current priorities are to: improve transport especially by bringing down cost of travel for young people outside of school hours; tackle age discrimination against young people; and improve activities for young people and expand access to them.

Father’s Plus Workforce Development - In 2010-2011 we trained 706 practitioners to work more effectively with fathers and male carers. Through the Father’s Plus website we made contact with 10,629 professionals interested in working with men and sold 62,000 (up from 40,000 the previous year) pamphlets and other printed resources to organisations in all parts of the UK that support them to engage men in services provided by public services.

Sandcastle Challenge - In July each year we invite primary and special schools to take part in a huge sandcastle competition on South Shields beach. This year teams from 50 primary and special schools across the region took part – nearly 2,000 children. We match each school team with a company who make contact with schools in advance to plan with the children what they will build on the day. This gives children an insight into the world of work and has created lasting relationships between schools and local businesses. On the beach each team has a plot and just one hour in which to build their creation. The best 5 teams receive a cash prize generously donated by our sponsor and the winning business is awarded the Sandcastle Challenge Trophy at our annual charity ball the following week.

Giving Tree - One third of all North East children live in families below the official poverty line. Many parents struggle to provide for their children especially at Christmas when they feel most acutely the importance of not appearing different to families in the rest of society. Every year we organise a Christmas appeal for gifts and outings for children and young people. Children in poorer families miss out on the experiences that other children take for granted – trips to the cinema, swimming, ice skating, 10 pin bowling; even the cost of transport to free venues like the beach is too expensive for many poor families.

As each Christmas comes round we receive more appeals for help from families. £100 can provide food, heat for the home and some gifts for a whole family to enjoy Christmas.

Community Support - Children North East offers many ways in which ordinary people can support our work. A great many people raise money for Children North East by taking part in events such as the Great North Run, the Edinburgh Marathon, Abseils and Zipslides from the Tyne Bridge and other events. Social and professional groups also raise money from fashion shows, concerts, sporting events, dinners, balls, carol singing and bag packing in supermarkets. Faith groups hold collections, donate to our appeals and remember our work at religious festivals.

Schools and Students - We welcome invitations to talk to schools about the fascinating origins of Children North East, our history and our work today. Many schools fund raise for us or collect gifts at Christmas, Easter and Harvest for us to distribute. Schools are also very welcome to take part in the Sandcastle Challenge.

Children North East has opportunities for University and College students to undertake placements in our projects as part of social work, youth work or other professional training. Students are particularly attracted to become volunteers in our Youth Link projects. The experience is valuable for their CVs. We also offer work experience for school students in our Head Office and always welcome young people to fund raise for us.

Corporate Social Responsibility - Every year we receive tremendous support from local businesses in the form of time, goods and professional services as well as corporate giving. They are listed at the back of this report and we thank them all. We always welcome invitations from businesses to talk to staff about our work and how they can support it.

What we are planning to do next:

• We will listen to what children and young people taking part in our photography project tell us about poverty and what should be done about it. We will act on the suggestions they make.
• We will create an online teaching resource for primary school children based on the origins and history of Children North East.
• We will create more opportunities for young people in Children North East through apprenticeships, training for work, work experience, student placements and as volunteers.