Children North East need your help in new appeal
Now might not be the best time to be advocating reaching into your pockets and sparing some change for a charity, but there are plenty of good reasons to mention Children North East at any time.
It was 1891 – an era which saw even poorer people living in even worse conditions below the breadline – when two local men wrote an open letter to the region under the masthead of The Poor Children’s Holiday Association, offering a free visit to the seaside for local children from poor backgrounds. Thousands took up the offer to flee the fug of a shipbuilding-centric Newcastle and take in salty sea air.
That charity has grown and changed over the years, but the same credo remains at its core: to help the disadvantaged children of the region through educational and informative services.
There are countless children’s charities that do plenty of good work, but many are national or multi-national corporations that can afford television advertising and widespread paper campaigns. Children North East has no real advertising budget to speak of. It instead relies on the goodwill of local volunteers and people willing to dig a littler deeper behind the sofa even in the most trying of times.
The WEYES (West End Youth Enquiry Service) Project is one of many ways the charity helps youngsters in the region, taking their cue from the actions of those two men in 1891 offering a trip to the seaside. It will act as a drop-in centre for those in the West End of Newcastle, giving advice on issues as complex as mental health and as basic as writing a CV. If those who utilise the WEYES Project just want someone to sit and talk to, Children North East volunteers are there to lend an ear.
Children North East’s good work has been recognised by a famous local lad and his wife, too. West End son Tim Healy and his wife Denise Welch have recently offered their support to the WEYES Project in an attempt to help the charity reach the £250,000 needed to give support to local youngsters aged 11-25.
The money will go towards urgent work needed to refurbish the dilapidated Victorian townhouse which provides the base for the WEYES Project and replenish it with state-of-the-art IT systems to help get youngsters off on the right foot. Planning permission has been granted and Children North East are looking for donations big and small, both of money, services and goods-in-kind, to help put the project into action – a project which will be long-lasting, tangible and have a seriously positive effect on the community.
Tim Healy is all too aware of the good the charity does in the region.
“Children North East not only looks after children but families who are undergoing problems and have no one to turn to. They are given great support and help from CNE. Being a family man myself and being born in Benwell makes this charity particularly special to me. I applaud the work they do.”
His wife, television’s Denise Welch, says that
“it is an honour to represent a charity that looks after our own.”
The charity has been looking after its own for nearly 120 years now, ever since two kind-hearted men gave up their time, services and money to provide children with respite from the grimy inner-city life. Today Children North East are looking for the same charitable spirit from local businesses and individuals to help improve the lives of some very worthy children. For more information on the charity and how to donate, please visit:
http://www.children-ne.org/
This blog post has been contributed by Chris Stokel-Walker.
Visit Chris’s website to find out more about him.
This blog post has been contributed by Chris Stokel-Walker.
Visit Chris’s website to find out more about him.
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If you would like to have your say at the Directory of Newcastle upon Tyne Blog contact us at support@directoryofnewcastleupontyne.com