Youngsters leading the way for us.

Kicking off our week in style, we were asked to take part in Barclays Industry week in collaboration with Newcastle college. One of several local business handpicked to join in, team Sunshine were very excited to take part in such a fantastic opportunity. Hosted at Barclays quayside, on Monday, we met with Newcastle college business students who were there to help solve some real-life business problems, offering insightful and innovative solutions to the challenging issues organisations may face

Our sunshine students were set a task in helping us renovate and build on our current social media channels and following. We asked the eager learners to come up with creative ways in gaining more followers on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages, all whilst keeping in mind our charity ethos. The students were then given a chance to find out lots more about us and how we work, acquiring a real insight into the daily lives of our staff and gaining some hands-on experience of what it’s like to be part of the working world.

Challenged with their task, the students were asked to present their solutions at Barclays Eagle Labs at the end of the week, outlining their ideas. As a small team it was a wonderful experience for us to have the opportunity to collaborate with local youthful voices who had inspiring and contemporary ideas to pitch to us, whilst also watching the student’s confidence grow and experiencing some valuable knowledge of real industries. We were proud to work with some fantastic local businesses as well as some extremely talented students.

Engaging with young voices right here in the North-East is so important to us as we understand that there are so many passionate young people who want to engage with the world of charity and support children, locally.

Northumbria university student Jade Featherstone, who completed an internship with us last year, is supporting the charity further by hosting her own net ball event raising funds for us right here at The Sunshine Fund. The “Girls Play Ball” sporting event takes place next Saturday and will see promotional staff from all over the region, including teams from Livello, Avika and Miss Newcastle, take part in a netball competition. The day will feature raffles, fundraising opportunities and of course, lots of competitive spirit.

It’s so great to see young people in the North-East be engaged with charities and trying to make a difference by supporting us.

We receive no statutory funding and so we rely solely on the support and generosity of local organisations and individuals to raise the money that our children so desperately need for their life changing equipment. Being such a small team, volunteers are a huge driving force for the charity and without them we wouldn't be able to run so many of our events to support our fundraising efforts.

Katie x