Children and young people from refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds have been particularly badly affected by the recent riots.
Bridget Stratford MBE, who manages our Young Lives project, said:
“Children are feeling afraid and not able to leave the house. They have been unable to attend their summer activities and are feeling isolated and alone.”
So we’re very grateful to Newcastle City Council, NE Youth, Cowell’s Garden Centre, Newcastle and an anonymous donor for gifting seed kits and a total of £2,000 so that we can send out 200 wellbeing packs and take children on trips out next week.
Each pack is age appropriate and contains a range of different activities such as sunflower seed growing, colouring books and pens. They also include information on where young people can go to get help and who they can contact to speak about their concerns in order to support their mental health.
Bridget added: “Some of our families have been directly affected by hate crime incidents whilst others have been fearful of what they’ve seen on the TV about the riots and feel unwelcome in the UK.”
“We hope these packs will remind them that there are lots of people who care about them and want them to be happy here.”
Young Lives is running a programme of activities over the summer, including a residential trip to Yorkshire and staff will be working hard to rebuild children’s confidence over the coming days to support them to make the most of the school holidays.
