Superb Swimathon

On the 14th February Truth About Youth held a swimathon fund raising event at the East End Pool in Newcastle in aid of Breast Cancer Care. The East End Pool provided a lane free of charge to show their support for the event.

Around 25 young people engaged in the fund raiser; some swam and others took to the streets with collection boxes and breast cancer pins to sell. The young people that swam took it in turns to swim in two hour time slots from 7am-6pm swimming breast stroke hence our slogan “Breast Stroke 4 Breast Cancer”. There was also a Just Giving page set up so that people could donate via text or online and our target was £500 of which we have raised £314 with more still to be collected in.

If you wish to donate please click here.

There was a great response from the public in terms of donations and the change of perceptions of young people; Carol Lovejoy Duty Manager said;

“It was great to see so many young people give up their free time to raise money for a good cause; it just shows that there are some very kind and caring young people out there who do a lot for society. We were very happy to help.”

TAY and Street League football tournament

Last Tuesday (29th November), over 50 young people and 10 adults took part part in a football tournament, aimed at tackling the negative stereotypes of young people that are not in education, employment or training. A group of 9 young volunteers that are involved in the football charity Street League, including David Douglass, Truth About Youth’s newest member of staff organised the event. The young people gave passionate speeches about their experience of being one of the 1 million young people aged 16 – 25 in the NEET category, then the tournament got underway. Teams included Princes Trust, Cyrenians, Crisis, Turning Point, Ingeus, Wor Hoose and Street League. The overall winners of the tournament were Turning Point, with Princes Trust winning the fair play award. Training providers also turned up on the day, including Tyne Met college, Job Centre Plus and Newcastle City Learning, to offer participants information and advice about training schemes on offer to young people.

TAY Member sits on National Panel

Rachel Blair, aged 17 from South Shields has been chosen to represent Truth About Youth – North East on the national steering group for the Truth About Youth project, which is a Co-operative Foundation project. Rachel joins 6 other young people from across the country to give her opinions on the best way to promote the project nationally, to help challenge the widespread negative perceptions of young people.

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Truth About Youth Young Advisors

On Saturday 10 young people from Truth About Youth were trained as young advisor’s. The training went very well and the group are looking forward to putting their new skills into use. Young Advisor’s will be available to youth proof documents and assess service accessibility. For more information please contact tay@rywu.org.uk

Truth About Youth Highly Commended

Truth About Youth North East travelled down to London on Thursday (17th November) to collect their certificate for being highly commended in the Children and Young People Now Awards 2011, for the Volunteering and Youth Participation category. They were just pipped to the post by Youth Voice, from Your Homes Newcastle. This is the second high profile award that TAY have been recognised for in 2011, so we are delighted!

PoSBO Applications CLOSED

The PoSBO applications have now closed, we have had a lot of great entries this year and the judging panel will be getting their noses into all the paperwork over the next few weeks.

Shortlisting will begin properly the week of the 28th November and the lucky shortlisted will be informed by the 2nd December.

Good Luck to all those who entered!

Last Chance for a PoSBO

This week is your last chance to nominate young people for the prestigious POSBO Awards 2011

The deadline for this years POSBO awards is looming, so don’t miss out on the opportunity to get your young people recognised for their hard work this year! Do you know an outstanding, committed, passionate and hard working young person or group of young people? If so these awards are for you. Simply fill out the application form by Saturday 19th November 2011 to nominate.

If your young person / group of young people are short-listed, they will be invited to a prestigious award ceremony at the Centre for Life on Thursday 15th December. The evening will consist of great food and fantastic entertainment and of course the awards.

For more information please contact Laura Iveson on 0191 4404410, or e-mail on laura@rywu.org.uk.