Age Concerned

On the 29th July and 4th August 2010, young people from the Truth About Youth project visited two Age Concern lunch clubs in Newcastle. These events followed their successful fundraising day in April, where they raised money by holding a charity day at Design Works in Felling. The young people held a raffle, name the teddy competition and sold cakes they had baked themselves in order to raise money.

Using the £300 they raised at the charity day, the young people organised some entertainment for the Age Concern events, as well as purchasing cakes for the older people to enjoy. The young people also discussed with the older people what it was like when they were younger. Interesting conversations occurred between the generations about how perceptions have changed over the years.

Some of the older people believed that the image of young people is bad and that more needed to be done to promote the good activities that young people take part in. We asked some of the older people what they thought about what the young people were doing. The consensus was that the older people felt that it was fantastic what the young people were doing, and appreciated the young people giving up their free time from their school holidays provide entertainment. The older people also seemed pleasantly surprised that the young people had fundraised themselves for the event.

All of this work is part of the Goodie in a Hoodie campaign, which is one of the projects of Truth About Youth. The Goodies in Hoodies are a taskforce of young people (wearing hoodies) doing positive activities in the community, in order to take positive action against the negative stereotypes of young people in hoodies. They do this by volunteering, fundraising and being involved with community projects.

Overall the events were incredibly successful. Both the young people and older people really enjoyed getting to know each other and getting involved in the entertainment together. Most importantly though, it helped show to the older people that not all young people are like how they are portrayed in the press, and once again demonstrated that there is such a thing as a Goodie in a Hoodie.