🎂Happy 5th Birthday to Us🎂

🎉 On this day (9th August) 5 years ago our journey started when we became an official Community Interest Organisation registered with the Charities Commission. However we didn’t start fully operating until 1st April 2017, and it has been a bit of a whirlwind ever since 🌪

😓 We have been through so many hard times to get where we are today.

🥰 Thankfully the support from families, our local community, our charity partner The JD Foundation and County Durham Community Foundation has helped us immensely.

📈 From day one we grew really quickly which caused financial challenges, staffing challenges and venue challenges.

We’ve moved three times. We’ve “robbed Peter to pay Paul” to keep our head above water. We’ve had to borrow staff from other youth projects but now we have a strong team of 13 part time staff and 10 volunteers.

🗓 It has taken a long time to get the staff and volunteer team right, to find a permanent base and to get a decent balance in the bank account. The sessions we run are high quality and are not cheap 💷

🙌🏻 🙏🏻 We would like to thank all of the children and young people who we have worked with during the past 5 years. We have watched them learn to walk and speak as toddlers and will be with them right through to celebrating the success of gaining university places and employment. We are so proud to be a small part of their journey and are excited about what the next 5 years has in store with the opening of our brand new Hub in the Autumn!

🏆 In five years we have become an award winning leader for youth provision in the area. We have been called a 5 star youth project and trailblazers by the organisations we work with.

🥂Here’s to the future and the rewards and benefits we bring to our families and community 🎁