A Northumberland charity that maximises the potential in young people has taken delivery of a mini bus that will be used to support their work in the community.
Bedlington charity Leading Link helps provide young people with confidence, resilience and the drive to do well in life regardless of their background or location within the North East. Now an established youth provider in the community, they link families, schools and communities through a variety of innovative and diverse projects which are accessible to everyone.
Leading Link are managing the Holiday Activity Provision on behalf of Northumberland County Council working with the North East Child Poverty Trust, National Lottery and the Department for Education. This is especially for those on low income, large families, people with a disability in the household or who are generally finding times tough. Activities include day visits to local attractions, coaching in sport, art and music workshops. Every child that attends is given a hot lunch too.
The new 17 seat mini bus will be used to transport the young people and equipment to various locations throughout the North East and funding has been sourced through a variety of donations from organisations including the Co-Op, Northumberland Freemasons, individuals and project funders.
Lyn Horton, CEO of the charity said: “The amount of young people we and our partner organisations have worked with on Holiday Activity Provision is amazing. For example our winter camps in 18 locations throughout Northumberland included 768 young people and crucially in this economic climate ,3329 hot meals were served.
“More than 27,000 hours of support have been given during the winter period with 9702 meals taken. Having to organise the logistics of this mammoth task with our partners hasn’t been easy but the new bus will help us to make sure that people and equipment are in the right place at the right time for future activities.”
Chair of Leading Link’s Board of Trustees, James Palmer was delighted at the acquisition of the new bus and with the huge workload that the Leading Link team has undertaken making sure that young people in Northumberland have such a varied programme of events to take part in during the school holidays.
“The bus is essential to help the charity in their busy work and I’d like to thank all of the organisations and individuals that have contributed towards it. I’d also like to thank the Leading link team for their hard work and also our delivery partners who have put a lot into the programme to make it work.”
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email info@leadinglink.co.uk or contact Leading Link direct on 01670 820088.
Photo: Lyn Horton and James Palmer (Highlights PR)
Media Keith@highlightspr.co.uk 07814 397951