Big funding day for charity DAY

A County Durham charity has scored a major shot in the arm from the National Lottery.

Durham Area Youth, a small charity aiming to empower young people, has been awarded £290,000 from weekly UK draw will help support more young people and local communities across the region.

The charity offers a service to young people aged six and 18 in villages around the city of Durham, including Pittington, Shadforth, Sherburn Hill, Sherburn Village, West Rainton, Great Lumley and Bournmoor.

DAY delivers 360 youth session a year, which is more 19,000 hours of contact with young people in the county and 44 per cent of participants are from deprived areas and in the last year they have had more than 180 new participants.

The charity helped more than 400 young people on a weekly basis and more than 700 in total throughout the course of the year, who will benefit from the lottery grant.

It is the third time the charity has received a grant from the Reaching Communities England – National Lottery Communities Fund, and this time the funding has reached a total of £299,261.

Emily Burns, DAY’s chief executive said the money will be used to reach and support the young people the organisation needs core funding.

She said: “We are so grateful to the National Lottery for this support which will be fundamental to us continuing our work, ensuring we reach as many young people as possible.

“It will also support our workforce development which is key to ensuring we have the right staff to deliver a wide range of services. 

“This is amazing news for DAY and means that we will be able to continue to provide inclusive, open access youth provision over the next three years. 

“It also means we can create innovative, targeted, inclusive opportunities for key transitional ages 10-12 years old and 15-18 years, enhance service delivery in current geographic areas by increasing activities to meet those communities' needs, considering equity, diversity and inclusion and develop a culture of learning and improvement based on a deep rooted understanding of people and place.”

The youth sessions are held with trusted youth workers, from which young people build confidence and learn skills that will help them become good citizens and steer them through the path into adulthood.

Emily said empowered young people make positive change for themselves and their communities and also build a sense of purpose and pride about their community, often go on to work in jobs that give back to their local environment.

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