A neighbourhood youth project opening up the outdoors to young people in Benwell and Scotswood.
The Patchwork Project aims to provide stimulating leisure activities for young people that encourage curiosity, self-belief and good citizenship, and improve their wellbeing.
The Patchwork Project sets out to provide stimulating leisure activities for young people, the kind that encourage curiosity, self-belief and good citizenship while improving their wellbeing. Alongside this, it responds to the everyday needs of the young people who come through its doors, meeting them where they are and helping them look outwards.
As well as that day-to-day support, Patchwork organises outdoor adventures such as camping trips, rock climbing and cycling, all of which help to build confidence. For many of the young people it works with, life is lived on a shoestring, and travelling anywhere at all, even to the city centre or the beach, can be hard, let alone reaching the countryside.
So the project works to expose young people to as many new experiences as it can. It takes them out into the countryside to go swimming, foraging, camping and climbing, fostering a genuine curiosity in the world around them.
Time and again, the team sees the difference this makes to a young person's confidence. Those who arrive timid grow in confidence as they take on new challenges outdoors, including working towards their Duke of Edinburgh's Award.
“For young people who rarely leave their own streets, a weekend in the hills can change how they see themselves, and sometimes the course of their lives.”
The Reece Family Trust
The Trust's support helps Patchwork give young people who rarely leave their own neighbourhood the chance to experience the outdoors, and with it a real boost in confidence. When money is tight, even a trip to the city centre or the beach can feel out of reach, so the funding helps open up swimming, foraging, camping and climbing in the countryside, and the sense of curiosity and possibility that comes with them.
The results can be life-changing. Young people who once rarely left their own neighbourhood build the confidence to try new things, take on the challenge of a Duke of Edinburgh's Award, and carry that self-belief into school, college and work. It is exactly the kind of quiet, lasting difference the Trust hopes its funding will help make possible.
We fund grassroots organisations across the North East that help people live healthier, happier lives.