From First Stretches To New Experiences: Supporting Healthworks To Support More Families In The North East

The Reece Family Trust is supporting Newcastle-based charity Healthworks to create new opportunities for babies, parents and children across the North East, with funding helping to launch a new Baby Yoga programme and expand activities for visually impaired children and their families.

Healthworks has been supporting people to live healthier and happier lives for more than 30 years, delivering services that span every stage of life. The Trust’s first grant to the charity helped Healthworks pilot Baby Yoga sessions across Newcastle, training two members of staff and creating a natural next step for families taking part in its existing Baby Massage programme. As well as encouraging movement and bonding between parent and baby, the sessions incorporate breathing, stretching and relaxation to support parents’ own wellbeing.

Julie Stephens, Senior Manager of Health Promotion at Healthworks said:

“For years I’d wanted to introduce Baby Yoga because it feels like such a natural progression from Baby Massage and the response has been unbelievable. Parents have absolutely loved it because it isn’t just about the baby, it’s about their mental health and wellbeing too, with the breathing, relaxing and stretching. Funding from the Reece Family Trust gave us the opportunity to try something new and make it accessible to families who might not otherwise have had that opportunity.”

Following the success of the initial grant, the Reece Family Trust has also awarded around £5,000 to Healthworks’ Useful Vision project, which supports blind and visually impaired children and their families across the North East. The funding is helping Healthworks provide inclusive activities and experiences, including music-based sessions where children can explore instruments through sound and touch. Useful Vision, which became part of HealthWorks in 2025, now supports more than 200 registered children and aims to help young people build confidence, independence and friendships through experiences designed around their needs.

What we love about Healthworks is the way the team listens to families and creates opportunities that are genuinely shaped around what they need. Whether that is giving a new parent the chance to enjoy Baby Yoga with their child or creating an experience where a visually impaired young person can try something completely new, these are relatively small interventions that can make a very real difference. We’re incredibly pleased to be able to support Julia and the team as they continue to grow this work.

Find out more about their work here https://www.healthworksne.org.uk/ and contact enquiries@reecefamilytrust.org to speak to us about your project.