Lighthouse Project shines bright with funding boost

A Newcastle-based youth and community initiative is one step closer to opening following a major grant to support its wide-ranging programme for local families.

The Lighthouse Project at St Michael’s Church, in Byker, has secured £100,000 from Benefact Trust, the charitable arm of financial services firm Benefact Group. 

The funding adds to a broader package of support, including a £4.2 million grant from the Department for Culture, Media & Sport’s Youth Investment Fund, and through the generosity of Lord Crewe Trust and The Squires Foundation.

Set to open later this month, officials say the facility will offer activities for around 1500 young people annually, including youth clubs, homework help, wellbeing support and forest school sessions.

They add it will also feature a purpose-built youth annexe, e-sports suite, rehearsal spaces and outdoor sports areas, as well as providing a new home for the Byker Scout Group and a reimagined worship space. 

Ben Roman, chief executive at the Lighthouse Project, which recently signed a ten-year sponsorship agreement with British Engines, said: “The amazing support that Benefact Trust is providing, alongside our other corporate partners, is helping us to realise the widest possible concept of what the Lighthouse Project can be for our community.

“Their enthusiasm for our work is very humbling and we know that their support will deliver tangible improvements in the opportunities and life chances that open up for young people living in Byker and beyond.

“We’re very close to being able to share this fantastic new facility with our local community and the wider city, and are continuing to speak to several other major name businesses and organisations across the region about how they might also get involved with our work.”

Andrew Bass, senior grants officer at the Benefact Trust, added: “Our funding is designed to have a positive impact on the wider community by tackling social issues from homelessness and poverty through to climate change and cultural cohesion.

“The Lighthouse Project fits these criteria perfectly and the scale of the vision that’s being realised at St Michael’s is absolutely breathtaking.

“The connection between the church and the community that it encapsulates made the decision to support it a very easy one for us and we’re now actively working to extend our presence across North East England by backing more projects with similar ambitions.”

Newcastle-headquartered insurance broker Lycetts, part of the Benefact Group, played a key role in connecting the project with the trust and encouraging the Lighthouse Project to submit a grant application.   

Charles Renwick, divisional director at Lycetts, whose great-great-grandmother officially opened St Michael’s Church Hall back in 1928, added: “This is an extraordinary project that’s located in an extraordinary part of our home city.

“The Lighthouse Project will deliver a significant range of community benefits and will have a particularly positive impact on the opportunities that young people in the surrounding area will get in the future that might otherwise have stayed out of reach.

“Lycetts has always held a strong community ethos at the heart of its operations and as such, we’re very proud to be associated with such an outstanding new community resource.”

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