Neighbourhood youth work raising aspiration and building confidence in the West End.
Northbourne Youth Initiative is a neighbourhood-based project working with children and young people in and around Elswick and the West End of the city.
Northbourne Youth Initiative is a neighbourhood-based project working with children and young people in and around Elswick and the West End of Newcastle.
From its base in an end-terrace house, it provides a wide range of activities for children and young people to take part in, from play, gaining certificates, camping and cooking to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and fun leisure activities.
For Northbourne, though, the work is not about gaining a certificate. It is about raising aspiration and building confidence, and offering a safe space where young people can escape the pressures they may feel in other areas of their lives and develop their talents.
“Our activities are not about gaining a certificate, it is about raising aspiration and building confidence. We aim to offer a safe space where young people can develop their talents.”
Rachel Martin, Project Manager, Northbourne Youth Initiative
As well as helping to fund its core costs, the Trust's support aims to enable Northbourne to take on and train two more youth workers. The people who make the best youth workers, the project believes, are often those who have been part of the initiative themselves, as they understand the community and the issues young people face.
Beyond funding the day-to-day running of the project, this support helps Northbourne look outward too, giving the team the chance to work alongside other organisations and share skills and ideas. At its heart, it sustains the safe space the initiative was built around — one where young people can step away from the pressures they feel elsewhere, raise their aspirations and develop their talents.
We fund grassroots organisations across the North East that help people live healthier, happier lives.