Annual Report Test2 - Youth Focus: North East

ANNUAL REPORT 2024

Improving the lives of young people

Driving Change

Creating Connections

Taking Risks

Collaborative Approaches

Introduction Trustee

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It is with a mixture of emotions that I write this introduction to our 2024 Annual Report. A sense of pride in the team for all they have achieved in the past year. Feelings of privilege and honour to work with such dedicated and motivated colleagues and to lead our impactful organisation. Finally, a sense of sadness as this will the last time I will make this contribution as Chief Executive Officer of Youth Focus North East (YFNE).

In September of 2024, after much contemplation, I made the decision to retire from my role and move on to the next chapter of my life. I would wish to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Staff and Board for the incredible support I have received and the opportunities I have been provided, since I started with what was the North East Regional Youth Work Unit in 2009.

Throughout my time at YFNE and in particular my tenure as CEO, I have had the pleasure to work with an exceptional team of professionals and witness the growth and success of the organisation first hand. I am proud of the contributions I have made during my time at YFNE; including picking up the reigns following the sad loss of my predecessor, Leon Mexter. Then subsequently leading the organisation through the ensuing tough times of Covid to celebrating the successes of growing the organisation to a £1million annual turnover, expanding our provision locally, regionally and nationally, employing close to 50 staff and most importantly increasing our impact on young people and the sector.

I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished together as a team and am confident that YFNE will continue to thrive under the new leadership of my successor, David McCreedy, who will take up his positon in May 2025. David is our current Director of Youth Programmes and it is inspiring and motivating to see internal talents grow and take on leadership roles within our organisation. He is a much-respected voluntary youth sector leader who brings wide knowledge and experience to the role. As our new CEO, he is ready to lead the organisation by leveraging his expertise, vision, and values to our vision of improving the lives of young people through high quality youth work.

As we reflect on the past year, we can take great pride in our shared achievements. This report is a testament to the hard work and support of our staff, trustees, partners and funders.

I will always look back on my time at YFNE with affection and appreciation and will cherish the friends I have made and hold onto the many accomplishments we have collectively achieved. I believe it is the right time for me to take the next step and for YFNE to commence its own next dynamic chapter.

Kevin Franks

CEO

Research Work

Youth Focus North East believe that research involving young people is integral to our delivery work.
We continue to be involved in a number of different research projects which include the following:

Through the Peer Action Collective (PAC) young people are working to make their communities safer, fairer places to live. PAC is a ground-breaking network of Peer Researchers, Social Action Leads and Changemakers. Young people with lived experience of violence find out what needs to happen to make their area a better place to live and turn these insights into action. From influencing school practises, to improving local mental health services, co-producing violence reduction strategies or supporting more young people into employment – together, they are ensuring that young voices respond to issues that directly affect them. Working with NE Youth, we collectively employ 10 young people who work across Gateshead and Middlesbrough on this project.

YFNE engaged (through our own network) with young people who are experts by experience of health and healthcare inequalities. YFNE co-designed a programme of engagement with young people which give them the space to share the biggest issues facing them in health and healthcare inequalities, and design systemic solutions to these issues.

YFNE are a partner in the North East and North Cumbria Young People’s Research Partnership. Young people from YFNE and all over the region are meeting to talk about, what is research? what is health and social care? how can we find out what other young people think? how can we get adults to listen to our ideas? The collective aim is to come up with new ways for children and young people to help decide what health and social care research should be done in the North East and North Cumbria.

An exciting opportunity has arisen as a result of a partnership between YFNE, the GNCH and the National Institute for Health and Care Research Newcastle Clinical Research Facility (NIHR NCRF). The partners have identified a new role for a Youth worker to work across the hospital and wider local community to engage and involve young people in health research. This project wants ensure that young people are actively involved in research projects. The project helps promote health research engagement and involvement via a range of

activities to influence the shape of future health research in our region. We continue to improve the awareness, involvement and engagement of young people and increase the participation of young patients.

Engage Training and Consultancy

During 2024, we have supported 211 learners, who have completed CPD training, gained an accreditation outcome or a Youth Work qualification. Our training offer has included safeguarding, managing challenging behaviour and how to support visually impaired young people.

31 youth workers have gained a qualification in youth work to support their practice with young people across the region at either a Level 2 or Level 3 and 71 learners have gained an accredited qualification in supporting young people who are visually impaired.

Quotes from some of the learners;

“Thank you so much for all of your support. I really enjoyed the course.”

“Thanks for the feedback and the support throughout, despite this being challenging I’ve really enjoyed sharing thoughts and ideas and reflecting on practice with fellow workers. Pleased to have made it to the end!!”

“it’s challenging fitting all of this in but I’m enjoying the course”

Keep an eye out for new courses coming in 2025.

The Enrichment Partnership Pilot

The Enrichment Partnership pilot is funded through National Citizen Service Trust and Duke of Edinburgh they aim to test whether providing centralised support to 200 mainstream secondary schools in Education Investment Areas has the potential to improve their enrichment offer.

Since March 2024 Youth Focus North East have been consulting with young people in 7 Secondary schools across Middlesbrough and Hartlepool, during this consultation we have been focussing on the topic of enrichment, how well it is accessed within each school but also what do the young people of those 7 schools think is missing from their offer.

From the findings during the consultation, we then went out to local organisations and providers who offer activities for young people and got over 20 organisations on board with the pilot programme.

“It has been a truly brilliant experience working with Youth Focus North East. Their unwavering commitment to youth voice does not go unnoticed. They take the time to fully understand the unique needs of the area they work in and the challenges faced by schools and enrichment providers. By doing so, they consistently seek out a holistic approach to improving the situation. Youth Focus North East is proactive, knowledgeable, and entirely youth-centred in their work. It’s clear that they are dedicated to making a real difference in the lives of young people. It’s a pleasure to work with the Team.”

Beth Kenney

Contract Manager, National Citizen Service

From September 2024 we have implemented a range of activities into the schools based on the wants and needs of the young people, this includes Environmental projects, cooking on a budget, boxing, youth spaces within schools, girls focussed multisport, substance misuse drops and so much more.

As part of our enrichment programme, we recruited young people from each school into the role of young inspectors. Through the 7 schools we worked with we trained 109 young people through our programme; during this programme the young people covered areas such as communication, listening, taking notice and confidentiality. The inspectors also took part in some practice inspections over the summer holidays through the Holiday Activities and Food session, this allowed them to gain some experience as an inspector before their actual inspections started in September. Feedback from the inspections have included “The session was brilliant, the staff were understanding and helpful and made young people feel safe and confident” and “We like that they had group rules that the young people made up themselves”

The approach that YFNE have taken to delivering the Enrichment Partnerships Pilot has allowed a tailored programme of activities to be accessed by young people in Middlesbrough and Hartlepool. YFNE have engaged with schools, enrichment partners and other local stakeholders to develop an enrichment offer that supports the development of young people and allows them to build their confidence and skills. YFNE ensure that youth voice is at the heart of their work, putting the needs of the young people they support as a priority. Their commitment to overcoming challenges and continuously strengthening relationships really highlights their dedication to making a difference. It has been a pleasure to work with the team

Lori Bennett

Partnerships Officer, Duke of Edinburgh

Another element of our work in this pilot is a Youth Board where we have recruited 24 members from across the 7 different schools involved. The young people signed up to be a part of this project through talking to staff about the opportunity throughout various lunch time recruitment sessions and school drop ins. From this the young people were then invited to participate in several training sessions where they learnt about the role, they were there to do.

In these training sessions, the young people took part in activities which allowed them to reflect on:

What was meant by the term enrichment and why it is needed in schools,
How through participating in this project it would enable them to make sure that both their voice and the voices of their peers are heard and acted upon,
How they as a youth board would influence the decision-making process of the pilot and what rights they had to be able to do this,
What they wanted their youth board to look like and how often they wanted to meet as a group to achieve their agreed upon goals as a group.

We meet with the youth board representatives from each school on a monthly basis in their own settings. In these meetings, the groups look at the reports that have been produced by the young inspectors and issue feedback to them and the providers that could include further comments and recommendations for both parties. During these meetings, we also make sure that the group also has time to develop their group work skills and values through interactive games and activities.

Enrichment Programmes

Seen Heard Believed
Mental Health Drop ins
Healthy Relationships Session

Kids Kabin
Sewing Sessions
Cooking Sessions

Konnekt Outdoors
Bushcraft and Archery Sessions

Tees Valley Wildlife Trust
Go Wild with Wildlife Trust

Middlesbrough Sustrans
1 to 1 Learn 2 Ride Sessions

Linx
Climate Action Middlesbrough

Support for Schools Advisor
DWP Support for Schools

Magpie Support Services
Sort Out Your CV
Get Job Interview Ready
Goal Getting for Success
Well-being Awareness
Sort Out Your Stress

NCS | The Duke of Edinburgh
Youthboard
Young Inspectors

The Junction
Blue Influencer Project

Evolve Sports Academy
Boxing Sessions

Huskies Basketball
Basketball Sessions

Evolve Sports Academy
Boxing Sessions

MFC Foundation
Girls Multisports PL Kicks

Dallaglio Rugby Works
Rugby & Multisport Sessions

Gamers at Hart
Learn-to-Play with D&D/Trading Card Games

Actes
Climate Action Middlesbrough Activities

Recovery Solutions
Young Person Team Drug and Alcohol Solutions

OUR PROGRAMMES

Health, Positive Relationships and Well-Being Support

Youth Space

Junior Campaigners

Multi Sports

This project which is a partnership between Youth Focus North East and Unity City Academy has been running at Unity City Academy since November and has turned into something really promising and rewarding. Multi sports had started off really slow with only a handful of young people coming to the sessions to play sports it was still good but knew it could be a lot better. After some more promoting in the school and within other sessions we deliver we now have over 20 young people coming to play different sports each week and the numbers are always on the rise. One of the best sessions so far was playing a giant game of football with every young person joining in and even the staff being involved within the session. This session was special due to some of the young people not wanting to play football but with some encouragement from the other young people everyone ended up joining in and really enjoying the session. Some Young people even came back the following weeks and asked to play more football again. This project has continued to grow throughout the months and is always a pleasure to run within the school.

Young Boro Champions

Young Boro Champions is a project working with young people to run a social action project that benefits a community, this could be a school community, a club community or the wider community. The young people have £500 to design and deliver their project with the support of qualified youth workers

Over the year we have done 5 projects in a variety of settings including schools, youth clubs and a gymnastic club, we have worked with 57 young people throughout this time and the projects that have been delivered include;

Making benches and re-vamping a garden at a local church
Making a sensory garden area in a primary school
Making road safety signs to be displayed around a local school,
Supporting My Sisters Place which are a domestic violence charity to make Christmas hampers for families within their service to make sure they all had something to open on Christmas day
Supporting a local care home and delivering cards as well as hampers to residents in there that don’t have any family

The projects were amazing as they helped the young people to understand that a small act of kindness can have a massive impact on a community. Some feedback from young people included ‘We love this care home and will keep coming back every year with Christmas cards’ ‘We are happy with the garden space we created for others to enjoy, ‘Giving back to others is so rewarding’

Thorntree

In Tommy’s Youth Space we engage with an average of 30 young people across the evening.

In recent months we have developed an older session for those young people who have reached the ages of 13 to 16 and requested activities more suited to their needs as young adults.

We have had a variety of external sports organisations come in to run sports workshops with the young people. Each of these organisations have brought a variety of expertise to the sessions and taught the young people skills such as: boxing, street dancing, yoga, football, cricket and multisports. We have run themed interventions with the young people around issues which they have said matter to them and their peers, these have included: Online safety, LQBT+, Racism, AI and so much more.

In these sessions the young people have really enjoyed learning how to cook healthy meals on a budget, and learning about the nutritional benefits of what they make. The young people in this session have also begun to make this space their own after recently designing their own display board in the Community Hub they have their youth space in; this board showcases pictures of the sessions and pieces of artwork that the young people have created.

Children In Need

Our youth sessions are really getting busy lately, we have started getting the young people to have more of a voice in session planning and picking what meals they would like to cook in the sessions.

In October, we had the pleasure of BBC Children in Need coming into the session and interviewing both the staff and young people in the session and seeing first hand the work that we do in Pallister Park. A few days after filming, we were on the BBC Look North news, we had positive feedback from the post and many younger people attended after seeing how good the sessions were on the news.

We also worked alongside Middlesbrough’s National Literacy Trust and built a bookcase for the books they purchased for us to go on to; the books on the shelf were picked by the young people and available to the young people that attend the youth sessions, Local MP Andy McDonald came along to the session to open the bookcase with the young people.

North Ormesby

This past year in North Ormesby we have had a very positive year, we have a consistent group of young people coming to the youth club each week and everyone gets along with each other.

One of the best highlights of this past year was in July, we were fortunate enough to have 50 young people from America come to join the youth club. This was a very special time for both young people and staff involved. During this session we bought lots of different foods, drinks and snacks and swapped them with what the young people had brought over from America. The young people from America also bought over football shirts to give to the young people within our youth club and we played football with mixed teams of our young people and those from America.

Other things we have done within the youth club are social action projects which entailed making care packages for a local homeless shelter. We have also had external organizations coming into the youth club each month, who have come in to do activities such as clay making and sewing. Community Cohesion Officers came into the youth club to make a mural with the young people around hate crime, the young people enjoyed taking part in this and learnt a lot about race and culture in their area following the riots that happened in Autumn. The young people in this session also made their own mural to put up within the youth club as the one that was up in the building was outdated and didn’t reflect the young people that currently attend this session.

Million Hours

In February, we started another night of extra youth provision in Pallister Park after receiving additional funding from the National Lottery Community Fund. Since it began we have been getting a large number of young people coming to the youth club on a weekly basis.

Sports is something that all the young people in this session really enjoy, and due to the number of the young people that attend, we have had to split the sports session in half for girls and boys so everyone gets a fair share within the session, this plan has gone down really well with the young people as they know what is happening within the sessions. This also has given the opportunity for the young people who may not have typically got involved with the other activities the chance to do so and speak to other staff members in the session and build up further relationships with them.

With this funding, we have been doing promotions in the local school to drum up the interest for the youth club and showing them what they can expect within the youth club and taking a range of different activities such as arts, crafts and sports to those sessions. This has helped us to reach a different group of young people that may not have previously been to our youth sessions.

Park End

We have had a really busy year within our Park End sessions, with the young people always raring to go into the youth club. The number of young people that wanted to access the provision was so high we had to split the sessions in two so everyone could come along and enjoy everything within the youth club.

We have welcomed many different services into our session this year and enjoyed the opportunity to learn new skills and develop our understanding of particular issues, such as:

Wheelchair basketball – This was one of the busiest sessions throughout the year, with over 70 young people coming to join us outside and play a sport which the majority of the young people had never played before,
Regular Boxing sessions – We had a local boxer some into the sessions for a period of 6 weeks to teach the young people new skills and techniques. The young people really enjoyed these sessions and we even had some old faces return to the youth club just to join in with this opportunity!
Recovery Solutions came into the session to raise awareness around the effects of drug and alcohol to the young people.
Sports and wellbeing services came in to run sessions around how the young people should look after the bodies and discussed the importance of a healthy lifestyle. The young people particularly enjoyed the session where they were looking at the human skeleton and the muscles in the body and identifying the roles that they played.

Young Inspectors

Holiday Activity Fund

Over the past 12 months our team of young inspectors has grown and we now have even more young people from across Middlesbrough and Redcar taking part in helping to improve the activities that are on offer within the Holiday and Activities Fund (HAF) across the two areas. We have trained 27 inspectors this year, and went on 24 inspections in 2024. The team of young people that take part in the inspections have been trained up by ourselves and their peers that have previously done the role before going out to providers, observing what they see happen and collecting information for their reports.

Due to the reports created by the young people across Winter 2023/24 and Easter 2024, the HAF team implemented changes to the programme based on the young inspectors feedback. These changes have had a positive impact on particularly the Sports and Food offer for the providers in receipt of this funding which the young inspectors have commented on during their Summer and Winter 2024 inspections.

As a thank you for the young people’s hard work on this project we held several get together sessions and celebration events after each reporting period for them where they could all come together as a group in an informal setting. During these times we went bowling, had a movie and pajama evening,a colour run, a team building games day and on the celebration evenings the young people received a handmade certificate for their participation in this project.

Springwell

In October 2022, 14-year-old Tomasz Oleszak tragically lost his life in a knife attack on the Springwell Estate. In response, YFNE youth workers began engaging local young people, uncovering their need for a safe space. Using underspent funds from a serious youth violence project, weekly sessions started in early 2023 and has continued to grow, drawing over 20 young people who call themselves “The Springwellers.”

The group launched a campaign for streetlights at the site of Tomasz’s death, creating posters, gaining media attention, and proving their voices could drive change. Activities like sports, crafts, cooking, and memorial garden renovations have fostered trust and confidence with staff.

Currently the project runs as a weekly open access youth club where young people continue to attend to engage in various activities from arts and crafts, sports and cooking, as well as engaging in trips. Staff continue to support the young people and the community wherever appropriate, and have supported memorial events Tom.

Wrekenton

Wrekenton Youth club provides a welcoming environment for young people aged 12 to 17. Meeting weekly at the Wrekenton Family Hub, the sessions offer a safe space for socialising, learning, and personal growth.

Each session includes food, games, and discussions on topics relevant to the young people. They help plan and prepare meals, gaining an understanding of nutrition, dietary needs, and food preparation skills. Themed arts and crafts activities, such as making seasonal decorations, are also a key part of the programme, with visiting facilitators offering creative workshops. The library and an enclosed outdoor space are available for a variety of activities. Physical activity plays an important role, with indoor games such as tag, football, tug-of-war, and dodgeball fostering teamwork and healthy competition. The group also enjoys outdoor activities when weather permits.

A highlight of the year was a trip to bowling and dodgem cars, sparking enthusiasm for future outings and the possibility of a residential trip. Over the past year, the youth space has brought together young people from different schools, strengthening friendships and building confidence in a supportive setting. Moving forward, we remain dedicated to offering an inclusive and engaging environment where young people can develop new skills, build relationships, and actively contribute to their community.

Rowlands Gill

Rowlands Gill Youth Space offers a welcoming environment for young people aged 11 to 14. Meeting weekly at the Rowlands Gill Community Centre, the sessions offer a safe space where young people can connect, learn, and grow. Each session includes food, games, and discussions on topics that matter to them. They help plan and prepare meals, learning about nutrition and dietary needs while developing independence and confidence. Arts and crafts activities are also popular, with projects reflecting seasonal themes.

Guest facilitators have introduced creative workshops, and collaborations with other community groups allow young people to participate in local events. Physical activities play a key role, with team-building games in the hall and outdoor projects in the community garden. Young people have taken an interest in planting and planning future gardening activities.

A highlight of the year was a trip to Beamish, which has inspired enthusiasm for more outings and a potential residential trip. Over the past year, the youth space has brought together young people from different schools, helping them build friendships and confidence in a supportive setting. Looking ahead, we remain committed to fostering a dynamic and engaging space where young people can learn, grow, and contribute to their community.

Free Space

Free Space is a safe and open space where young people can explore topics which they feel are important to them without facing prejudice or judgement. During the last year the group has explored democracy relating to the elections, and engaged in workshops around the topic. They have attended theatre performances at various venues, engaged in research around health inequalities, and spoken to local radio about their safety concerns within the local area. Free Space also operates as a Safe Space where young people can access support around their mental health concerns, and it currently hosts a drop in once per month with the NHS Mental Health Peer Support service.

Safe Space

Funded by the Mental Health Transformation fund Safe Space, offers young people a safe space where they can explore their mental health through creative expression, and professional support. Working in partnership with the NHS Mental Health Peer Support service, Oxford Terrace and Rawling Road Medical Practice and New Writing North, we are able to offer young people a range of support and signposting services.

Sessions led by New Writing North at Rawling Road surgery allow young people to engage in creative and relaxing activities, whilst exploring their own feelings.

In the last year we have alternated sessions between Rawling Road surgery and the Gladstone Terrace Centre for young people. Groups held at the Gladstone Terrace centre for young people offer more practical support where young people can take part in workshops led by professionals, and receive support from youth workers about referrals and other life issues, or if they prefer to, just socialise with their peers. The project has led to many positive relationships forming between young people who attend, but also between professionals who support young people in the Gateshead area.

“Hannah is a kind, caring and thoughtful person. She has helped me with a lot of my struggles over the past year, whether it be talking about my problems or distracting me from treatment with something fun like arts and crafts. Hannah has also helped me with getting to college, which was really helpful. She always tries her very best with anything I need”

– Young person

Since the programme began in September 23 we have reached over 150 young people with long term health conditions, who are accessing hospital services. The project is led by Lead Youth Worker Hannah Potter and it runs across all Newcastle Hospital Trust sites including, the Great North Children’s Hospital, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Freeman Hospital and the Newcastle General Hospital, working with young people aged 11-25 and supporting them through their journey with the health services. Since starting Hannah has visited other hospital youth services around the country to gain knowledge and meet other health based youth workers.

The impact of youth work within hospital settings is important, part of Hannah’s role is to support long term inpatients offering tailored 1:1 or group sessions on the wards, support to manage and explore different areas of life that their condition may impact and advocating for young people whose voice may be overlooked. Hannah also works with the wider Multi-Disciplinary Teams in Clinics to offer support to young people around the transition into adult services, career guidance, educational support and youth voice. Hannah has also worked closely with the teams to support underrepresented groups of patients, an example is the work we have done with our Sickle Cell patients, providing support they have never been offered before, she has started to run Teen Social days for patients, giving them opportunities to do fun activities and socialise, worked with external charities to provide educational days for young people to help manage their condition and support with the Young Persons Advisory Group and Youth Forum, both of which give young patients a voice and allows them to have their say on what happens within the health service.

Hannah also works alongside other teams working on projects with the Newcastle Hospital Charity, delivering sound workshops with patients to create music for the Northern Light show and Newcastle United Foundation to deliver programmes across the wards together such as ward Olympics, Teen Christmas Parties and group work sessions. The youth service is continuously growing and we are looking forward to what the next year brings. Having now secured funding up until July 2026, Hannah is excited to continue to grow this programme and really make a difference to young people’s lives.

STATISTICS

Impact Data

To showcase the impact of our work here at YFNE, all of our projects and programmes have their own indicators under specific themes, linked to our overall Theory of Change.

During 2024, we collated impact data from young people we worked with at two points during the year, from across the range of projects we have delivered, utilising either hard copy or digital QR codes.

Our impact data tells us that young people felt they had developed in the following areas:

Self-awareness
Aspirations
Feeling safer
Physical health
Workers they know they can trust

Feels their voice matters and is heard by YFNE staff
Enjoys their time when with YFNE
Team work
Confidence
Self esteem

Partners tell us that the support we provide is needed and has been “positive and helpful”. We have continued to work to “raise the profile of youth work as a need for young people and a recognised profession”.

For 2025, we will increase how often we collect impact data to every 3 months to support our internal continuous improvements and developments.

Young People Attending Per Local Authority (2021 - 2024)

Number of Young People Attending Per Month (2019 - 2024)

Number of Young People Attending Per Year (2019 - 2024)

Business Strategy

At Youth Focus North East, we believe passionately in young people and in the power of high quality youth work to support their personal, social, political and educational development. We are, and have always been, an ambitious, forward thinking youth charity. We are extremely proud of our history, numerous achievements, and ground-breaking projects. This strategy is rooted in both what we have learnt and what we are committed to challenging ourselves to achieve.

In recent years, we have progressed significantly in terms of income, range and reach of work and organisational size. We have evolved from a largely strategic organisation to one which brings together the complementary elements of infrastructure support, direct delivery and development.

It is this evolution and our collective ambition that has resulted in our strategy to ‘Drive Change, Create Connections and Take Risks through Collaborative Approaches’ that is at the centre of all we are aiming to achieve for young people, our sector and partners.

Through our infrastructure support role, we ensure that youth sector organisations get the advice, support and representation they need to improve the circumstances of the young people and communities they work with.

This is provided via these following functions

Policy & Influencing

Influencing practice and policy on behalf of the youth sector and young people

Learning

Collect, analyse and disseminate data & research to inform, develop and support the youth sector & young people

Championing

Embedding youth voice and leadership across organisations and communities

Capacity Building

Enabling and supporting collaboration, income generation and workforce development

Qualifications

Helping the youth sector to ensure high quality environments and relationships, through a highly skilled and qualified workforce

Our Strategy

We now operate in an environment where we are constantly adapting, reprioritising, and finding ways to navigate the ever-changing context we find ourselves facing. Therefore, our strategy needs to be adaptive, evolving into a process of ongoing decision-making. In such a context, we need to know where we are going, but the exact route to get there may not be mapped out in detail. We need to have an adaptive strategy which responds to this through a continual process of planning and budgeting, guided by a strategic framework.

We have chosen four strategic priorities to steer us going forward…

These four priorities are interconnected and are planned to be delivered collectively in order to meet our overall organisational aim and carry out our strategy.

Full Report

diabetes transition team

Over the last year Youth Focus NE and Newcastle Hospitals Trust have established an exciting youth work offer within the Newcastle Diabetes Service.

The Diabetes Transition Project aims to provide support for young people aged 16-25 who have been diagnosed with diabetes. Diabetes, Type 1 in particular, is a challenging condition to manage on a daily basis. We found that young people with diabetes were struggling with the transition from paediatric care into young adult care as well as with socio and economic factors such as poverty, mental health, disabilities, risk of homelessness, debt and other daily struggles.

Mark Lowdon (Lead Youth Worker) alongside a clinical psychologist, diabetes nurse educator and the wider diabetes team have been providing holistic approaches to supporting young people with managing diabetes but also providing support around other issues that may impact young people’s lives and impact diabetes management.

The project has won a prestigious award at this year’s Nursing Times Awards, the project was nominated for His Royal Highness Integrated Approaches to Care, the project was praised for offering support from various professionals such as youth work and psychology.

Sector Work

Peer Action Collective

Through the Peer Action Collective (PAC) young people are working to make their communities safer, fairer places to live. PAC is a ground-breaking network of Peer Researchers, Social Action Leads and Changemakers. Young people with lived experience of violence find out what needs to happen to make their area a better place to live and turn these insights into action. From influencing school practises, to improving local mental health services, co-producing violence reduction strategies or supporting more young people into employment – together, they are ensuring that young voices respond to issues that directly affect them.

Working with NE Youth, we collectively employ 10 young people who work across Gateshead and Middlesbrough on this project. Throughout 2024 the Middlesbrough PAC team have been working really hard conducting their research with 30 young people across Middlesbrough. The PAC team held a Stakeholder event to broadcast their findings to key decision makers in Middlesbrough. There were people who attended from all different backgrounds including; a Councillor of Middlesbrough, staff from Arch, Mind, multiple youth provisions and teachers. The PAC team then turned their findings into social action work and created informal education workshops that were tested and trialled in youth clubs across Middlesbrough, with the young people giving the team feedback on what they found fun or what they found boring to make sure this workshop was informative and engaging. We ended the year at our PAC celebration event in London to celebrate what we have done in the past year.

Gateshead Food Partnership

Funding from Gateshead Food Partnership has allowed us to prioritise healthy food across our youth clubs as part of a ‘Healthy and Wholesome’ project. Young people have discussed various topics relating to healthy food choices, such as sugar consumption and the importance of eating 5 a day. Young people have taken part of the preparation and cooking of simple, but healthy and delicious meals., learning life skills which will help them in the future. We are dedicated to reducing food poverty across the communities we serve.

Belong Collective

As our Belong Collective project came to an end we hosted an event at Gateshead Central Library which brought young people and professionals together to celebrate the work which has been accomplished over the years through the project. It saw UK Youth showcasing the national work which has been done, as well as hosting creative workshops. Young people and professionals engaged in slam poetry and visual art to explore what Belonging means to them. Young people sat on a Q&A panel where the topic and experiences of their own isolation and loneliness was explored. The event ended with musical performances from young people engaged in the project, and we enjoyed the saxophone and guitar.

After our Train the Trainer sessions with professionals came to an end we were invited by Autism Family Support Oxfordshire to deliver a seminar to families within their services who support young people experiencing isolation and loneliness. The seminar was an emotional space with families feeding back that the session was “very informative and felt like a very safe space” and “This space makes me feel less alone”.

Members of
Youth Parliament

(MYP)

After the sudden closure of the British Youth Council, a new contract began with the National Youth Agency. We are the regional lead for the North East and our role is to support the Local Authority Workers and the young people in their role as a MYP. As part of the new contract, we have delivered two face to face events and held online meetings with Local Authority workers and MYP.

The purpose of these events and meetings was to bring together the MYP across the region to support them in future activities required as part of their role, get to know each other and learn from each other. One event was held in Redcar and Cleveland in November, where we had a guest speaker talk about their journey as a young person into politics, delivered team building activities and the young people took part in consultation on the Curriculum and Assessment review.

Holiday Activity Fund

Easter, Summer and Winter Provisions

This year we were funded by the Holiday and Activities Fund to run fun and engaging activities for young people during the half term periods.

During these times we engaged with a variety of local services providers to support our delivery, these ranged from:

Local artists who came into to run a series of workshops;
Music workshops where the young people composed their own pieces of music,
Animal encounters who came in to show and teach the young people about different reptiles;
Additional sports coaches who ran a multitude of activities such as wheelchair basketball, football, badminton, cricket, boxing, multi sports team games.

We also provided all the young people with a healthy hot meal in the sessions, throughout Easter and Summer we worked alongside Middlesbrough College who provided these meals for us for the sessions and then in Winter we took the opportunity to engage the young people in cooking their own healthy meal in their session.

Regional Impact Network

The Regional Impact Network is funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) through the YMCA George Williams College.

We have delivered 3 regional impact networks on the theme of Leading Impact, Evaluation and Quality including topics on Impact and evaluation within the university context and exploring CRM systems for showcasing and reporting youth impact. 41 professionals attended the network meetings to gain insights into the topics and share their own learning and practices of measuring impact.

Reflections from participants included:

“Valuable to consider what CRM’s are available/suitable and what we can get out of them”

“Opportunity to think more carefully about how we organise our evaluation data”

“Our target is about impact so really useful to think about the systems we use to do this- lot’s to think about”

“Really informative and helpful discussion thanks for bringing us together. Really excited to see some guidance around data collection and hopefully funders can be brought into the conversation regarding their expectations”

Local Youth Partnerships Research

We carried out a review of young people’s involvement in the Young People’s Foundation Trust (YPFT) ‘Local Youth Partnership Capacity Building Project’s locality areas.

The review aimed to understand the extent of young people’s involvement in these areas, the methods and models used, what’s working well, the challenges, and what support is needed.

The review aimed to help inform the YPFT’s future work and support further potential investment in young people’s meaningful involvement in Local Youth Partnership development locally, regionally, and nationally.

Key findings were that capacity and funding around local youth partnerships were key players in how much work went into them.

Youth and Culture Collaboration

Previously known as Culture Bridge

Our work with the Youth and Culture Collaboration has led to an exciting year of events, bringing youth work organisations and cultural organisations closer. The steering group hosted a carousel event aimed at providing CPD, and networking opportunities to the two sectors. Our ‘Try something different’ event at The Baltic, Gateshead saw young people from across the region attend to take part in three different cultural workshops – slam poetry, drama and mandala painting.

More recently three small grants were awarded to organisations as part of our youth and culture collaboration work. The Youth and Culture Grants aim to foster collaboration between the youth and culture/creative sectors, promoting shared learning, co-production, and youth-led initiatives. The grants contribute to the cultural and youth sectors by:

Delivering CPD opportunities for cultural professionals to understand youth work and integrate youth voices into decision-making.
Providing CPD for youth workers to learn about cultural engagement with young people.
Creating joint learning opportunities for both sectors.
Coordinating pilot projects using action research to explore new collaborative approaches.

Three grants were awarded to support youth-led cultural initiatives in the North East:

Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival & Partners:

Young people from Newcastle and Northumberland will explore youth issues through film, with CPD to strengthen youth-cultural partnerships.

Bullion Community Resource Centre & Partners:

Young people will produce a short film, learning skills in scriptwriting, prop-making, and storytelling.

Acumen Community Buildings Ltd & Partners:

Youth-led live events in Houghton-le-Spring, with training in sound and lighting.

Paul Hamlyn

Our Paul Hamlyn Foundation work centres around three key themes which were identified as priorities by young people and form the ‘Gateshead Youth Offer’. We have continued to develop each theme through practitioners meetings and meetings with young people, developing a youth strategy for each theme. Through this work a Gateshead Youth Work and Strategic Partnerships was formed and continues to meet regularly, bringing together several local organisations focusing on further developing the youth offer.

HEALTH
& WELLBEING

We have continued to develop our early intervention projects targeting young people’s mental health by collaborating effectively with local professionals to deliver workshops around topics which young people identify as important. We have also been able to provide easier referral pathways for young people by communicating with professionals, and allowing them to attend sessions – taking out the need for young people to attend clinical appointments, and bringing services to us.

Early intervention includes (but is not limited to) Suicide prevention, self-harm intervention, food instability, housing, eating distress and more.

EDUCATION
& TRAINING

Through our consultations with young people we have identified that young people with disabilities, and young people from minority backgrounds feel they are not able to access the education they would like to. We have begun exploring collaborative opportunities with education providers to support young people to access education in more informal settings, and through our training arm are able to offer young people access to our Introduction to Youth Work training.

YOUTH VOICE
& DEMOCRACY

In partnership with Dunston Drop in we have developed two stands of work with young people. The first has been to work with young people to identify the issues which affect them to create a user-friendly website for young people to easily access support in times of crisis. The website was designed and the content has been completed by young people for young people and is now being shared with the other members of the Gateshead Youth Partnership to add the input of other young people in the borough.

The second strand which is early in its development is a Youth Led Podcast, providing an opportunity for young people to explore issues which impact their own lives and that of Gateshead. This Podcast has a thematic inquiry led format and encourages a forum which encourages all to discuss, explore. The future plan is, when developed, to invite representatives from various organisations to engage in discussion and debate with local young people.

We are pleased to have supported Integration Station who have been working with young people to develop a school resource which involves creating a Rap on Climate Control and The Climate. Youth Focus has been able to support the financial securing of a sound engineer and producer to support the development of this resource. Integration Station is working on developing links to share with schools in the Gateshead area.

The latter part of 2024, we have successfully recruited a sessional worker to support with the development of a local youth forum focussed on supporting the work of The Gateshead Partnership. The focus of this group is to engage with young people who wouldn’t ordinarily have access to youth forums, those who might be disengaged with their local communities, we are looking to work with young people who access SEND provision at school and looked after children.

GATESHEAD YOUTH PARTNERSHIP

Gateshead Strategic Youth Work Groups has in 2024 formally named itself the Gateshead Youth Partnership, now working with about 15 organisations across the Gateshead area. The group has been actively engaging with the statutory sector to understand how funding is allocated and how it could be used more effectively to create a sustainable, long-term framework for youth work. This kind of collaboration is crucial for ensuring that youth services remain impactful and can be maintained over time.

Formed by Youth Focus North East and NE Youth in 2020, the North East Youth Alliance (NEYA) has been created to support the development and sustainability of the people and organisations working to improve the lives of young people across the region.

Our ambition is to support a culture shift across the youth and community sector – to get people thinking and working differently. The overall outcomes of the NEYA are:

Improved capacity, collaboration and co-ordination in the youth sector
Increased influence of young people’s voices in shaping of services
Increased sustainability of services and support for and with young people

Supported by investment from the National Communities Lottery Fund our focus in 2024 was centred on three main areas of work across the region:

Workforce Development
Youth Voice
Local Youth Partnership Development

We continue to provide a comprehensive and diverse regional workforce development offer. This is informed by what the sector tells us is needed, along with us utilising our networks to broker opportunities to allow for connectivity on a regional and national basis. This collaborative approach is helping to ensure there is not only reduced duplication but that organisations across the region have knowledge of, and are able to access, training and development opportunities to enhance and improve their practice and offer to young people.

Without their support, we wouldn’t have been able to reach such a broad range of organisations across a dispersed geographical area in such a short time. NEYA is an asset to the region and its young people.

Following a range of consultation events across the region with a wide range of young people a number of issues/topics were identified which they feel are important to them:

Mental Health

The Environment

Policing and Safety

Transport

Education

For each of these topics we have established a Young Person’s Steering Group. Each Steering Group has co-designed a set of associated resources and toolkits to disseminate to other young people, youth workers and decision makers. The North East Youth Symposium was delivered on Friday 12th July. The event brought young people together with decision-makers and sector leaders across the North East to discuss four key themes:

Poverty and Inequality
Physical and Mental Health
Community Safety
Education and Employment

Further information about the event can be found on the NCS website, click the button to find out more.

Kings Academy Steering Group

The development, sustainability and growth of Local Youth Partnerships continues to be high priority for the NEYA and we are now involved in facilitating these models of localised collaborative working in 7 of the 12 Local Authority Areas within the North East:

County Durham (Established)
– ‘Youth Print Durham’ Partnership in place and operating
Gateshead (Emerging)
– ‘Gateshead Strategic Youth Partnership’ in place and developing
Sunderland (Established)
– ‘All Together Consortium’ in place and operating
Stockton (Established)
– ‘Stockton Youth United Alliance’ in place and operating
Middlesbrough (Established)
– ‘Middlesbrough Youth Mutual’ in place and operating
Darlington (Emerging)
– Local Youth Partnership model in place and developing
South Tyneside (Emerging)
– Local Youth Partnership model in place and developing

Youth Voice

STEERING GROUPS

As part of our work through NEYA, we have worked with young people from schools, youth clubs and SEND groups across the region to create five toolkits. The themes explored were Mental Health, Environment, Education, Transport, and Policing and Safety.

The steering groups wanted the toolkits to be meaningful tools for professionals working with young people. Each toolkit shared what was highlighted in conversations with young people and included activities that could be done, such as games and quizzes. Something young people felt was important was recommendations based on what young people want from these themes.

LINKS TO TOOLKITS go here

JUNIOR CAMPAIGNERS

Junior campaigners is a campaign project where young people can take action on a topics they are passionate about changing in their local area. We have worked with a number of groups and the themes the young people have wanted to explore was homelessness and the lack of support, packs for homeless people to have key supplies for the winter months, food donations for a local shelter and isolation and loneliness and mental health for the older generation in a local care home.

STAFF

CEO
Kevin Franks

DIRECTOR OF YOUTH WORK
Laura Bush

DIRECTOR OF YOUTH WORK PROGRAMMES
David McCreedy

YOUTH STRATEGY MANAGER
Heather Insull

OPERATIONS MANAGER
Caroline Garrity

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
Zoe Jackson

OFFICE MANAGER
Amy Randall

YOUTH ENTERPRISE MANAGER
Kurt Heron

ADMINISTRATION OFFICER
Barry Flux

COMMUNICATIONS SUPPORT WORKER
Judith Bennett

PROGRAMME MANAGERS
Jodie-Leigh Foster

Rebecca Harrop

Samantha Logan

LEAD YOUTH WORKERS

Caitlin Stephenson

Daniel Trewin

Elizabeth Stephenson

Emma Abbott

Hannah Potter

Mark Lowdon

Megan Stratton

Simone Banks

PEER RESEARCHERS

Ellie Butters

Ellie Symon

Jack Cooke

Jessica Elliott

Katy Mann

Kendal Douglass

Liana Crump

Lucy Brannan

Othilde Dryden

Violet Joslin

Yousaf Khan

SESSIONAL YOUTH WORKERS

Adele Buttery

Amelia Bradley

Ann Hanratty

Bethany Risker

Bradley Mafuta

Cara Moore

Chichi Dagago

Frank Lewins

Hal Dryden

Joanne Smith

Kate Burman

Liani Weston

Lindsey Wayman

Marie Dorman

Mark Risker

Samual Mann

Sue Todd

Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure Account)
For the Year Ended 31st March 2024

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All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised during the year.

Young person awards + youth voice festival

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Menu

ANNUAL REPORT 2024

Driving Change

Creating Connections

Taking Risks

Collaborative Approaches

Introduction Trustee

Kevin Franks

CEO

Research Work

Engage Training and Consultancy

The Enrichment Partnership Pilot

Beth Kenney

Lori Bennett

Enrichment Programmes

OUR PROGRAMMES

Health, Positive Relationships and Well-Being Support

Youth Space

Junior Campaigners

Multi Sports

Multi Sports

Young Boro Champions

Thorntree

Children In Need

North Ormesby

Million Hours

Park End

Young Inspectors

Holiday Activity Fund

Springwell

Wrekenton

Rowlands Gill

Free Space

Safe Space

STATISTICS

Impact Data

Young People Attending Per Local Authority (2021 - 2024)

Number of Young People Attending Per Month (2019 - 2024)

Number of Young People Attending Per Year (2019 - 2024)

Business Strategy

Policy & Influencing

Learning

Championing

Capacity Building

Qualifications

Our Strategy

Full Report

diabetes transition team

Sector Work

Peer Action Collective

Gateshead Food Partnership

Belong Collective

Members of Youth Parliament

(MYP)

Holiday Activity Fund

Easter, Summer and Winter Provisions

Regional Impact Network

Local Youth Partnerships Research

Youth and Culture Collaboration

Previously known as Culture Bridge

Paul Hamlyn

HEALTH& WELLBEING

EDUCATION& TRAINING

YOUTH VOICE& DEMOCRACY

GATESHEAD YOUTH PARTNERSHIP

Youth Voice

STEERING GROUPS

JUNIOR CAMPAIGNERS

STAFF

Young person awards + youth voice festival

Members of
Youth Parliament

HEALTH
& WELLBEING

EDUCATION
& TRAINING

YOUTH VOICE
& DEMOCRACY