News

Recently, we were featured in The Guardian in a great article by Mattha Busby about our Empty Homes project and our apprentices. The following is an excerpt from the article. 'Two years ago Jones, 23, was homeless and relying on friends to let him sleep on their couches while he struggled to find work. Today, he is painting a wall in a gutted home on a quiet street, part of a group tasked with refurbishing some of the area’s many vacant, derelict homes. Last week, Theresa May pledged an extra £2bn for housing associations to fund large-scale developments. But with new house building not providing enough affordable homes for more than 1 million people on waiting lists in England, social enterprises and councils are trying to bring empty homes, which number well…

This is a picture of Doorsteps reception area for young people. Simon, Stephen, Louise and Adrian visited Doorstep in Grimsby as part of a learning exchange. We found many similarities with Doorstep,  sharing similar values and developing organically responding to local need since the early 90's. We were all impressed with the commitment and dedication of the Doorstep staff, providing a range of services to meet the needs of the young people they house and support, and the ways in which they add value to the local community.  

On Sunday 9th September, Simon took part in The Great North Run finishing with a race time of 2 hours 34 minutes. So far Simon has raised an amazing £651.25 for the Middlesbrough & Teesside Philanthropic Foundation. Foundation have been great supporters of CC87 with generous donations over the past 4 years that have funded our continued commitment to provide apprenticeships to young people who would not otherwise had the opportunity for such training – its life changing. If you would still like to sponsor Simon you can do so here.

Simon is preparing and currently training to take part in the Great North Run in September, raising money for the Teesside Philanthropic Foundation. If anyone wants to help the cause they can donate at -https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/simonvirth     

Shanice was on a volunteer placement as part of her Health and Social Care course at Middlesbrough College, she was based in Middlesbrough Support Services for approximately 6 months, this is what she said about her time with us. "I really enjoyed my time doing work placement at Community Campus.  I was nervous to begin with on my first day but it soon past as the members of staff were lovely and beyond welcoming.  My time in the office allowed me to develop new pieces of knowledge regarding legislation and policies that will benefit me in my future.  I was also given the chance to visit the tenancies service users live within, the accommodations had a nice homely feel to them and the service users that I encountered were lovely.  I…

This generous young man, Andrew Tierney contacted Community Campus in Middlesbrough as he wanted to donate his saving to a homeless charity. He saved up all his pennies, counted them, bagged them up and brought them into the office with his grandparents.  He said he doesn’t like to see people on the streets and wanted to help. He had saved up a total of £19 which is amazing and we would like to thank Andrew and his family for their kind and thoughtful donation.  We will put this in our Young Peoples' Welfare Fund to assist them when they are in crisis. Thanks again Andrew for thinking of other people and mum Samantha for having such a generous son.  

On the 16th January 2018 our apprentices were featured in a film for BBC News.  If you haven't watched it yet check the video out below.

Martyn is 22 years old and applied to our service for housing and support in May 2016.  He had a history of substance misuse, mental health problems and a pattern of repeat homelessness.  He had stayed in various temporary accommodations over the last few years but had been unable to sustain a tenancy for various reasons.  He had terrible anxiety, no self-confidence at all and just having to speak to people was terrifying to him. He moved into a one bedroom flat with Community Campus and received support from his key worker around managing money, motivation and engagement, problem solving, substance misuse and managing mental health.  The level of support has tapered off as Martyn has become confident in maintaining his tenancy and providing his own solutions for any problems…

Community Campus ‘87 would like to say a big thank you to the National Citizens Service and the Middlesbrough FC foundation for providing us with support and funding with homeless people on a project on Borough Road.  In addition to funding and donations including soft furnishings we also had the chance to work with a group of hardworking young people on this project which saw some brilliant results. The National Citizen Service is a UK Government voluntary personal and social development programme for young people in England and NI.  As part of this programme the MFC Foundation works through the summer with a group of 16 and 17 year olds from across Middlesbrough.  This programme includes an outdoor adventure residential and a community residential that helped the young people develop…

On the 21st February 2017 Community Campus 87 facilitated a Music Taster Day at St Mary's Centre in Middlesbrough. Parissa Zarifi from Musinc originally approached us with the idea with the goal of engaging homeless young people.  We at Community Campus saw this an excellent and unique opportunity for young people to try, engage in and hopefully discover something new with music and were more than happy to go forward with this exciting prospect.  This also presented a great opportunity for the young people to interact socially and have fun. The event itself attracted a few young people who took part in musical activities involving instruments and technology, leading one of the young people involved to pursue this interest further with Breakthrough Music resulting in further excellent experiences. This event…