Hadston Community Involvement.

 

A big part of the Shorebase’s charitable activity is working with local communities.

Over the years we have been particularly good at engaging people from various disenfranchised groups. Through participation in the activities we offer we have found we are able to greatly increase individual’s self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth, with the result that they can then go on to become engaged members of their community.

Our purpose built facility at Druridge Bay Country Park which opened in 2014 has allowed us to greatly increase our work with local communities. This is due to the fact we now have facilities people want to visit and modern equipment they want to use.

Even though we are based in beautiful coastal rural Northumberland the local area where we operate is rate by the UK Government of being in lowest 30% of deprived areas in the UK. This is mainly due to the very high rate of local unemployment and the low wages earned by those that are in employment. The immediate area close to Druridge Bay Country Park of Hadston, Broomhill and Red Row is a particularly deprived area. Most community support for the three adjoining community is based in Hadston.

We have worked with Hadston House, a youth and community project, to provide various sessions and activities.

We developed sessions for people attending their ‘Tomorrow’s People’ course aimed at young people who are unemployed and not attending school or college. The sessions we provide utilise water based activities  designed to help the young people to start to believe in themselves and raise their self-confidence, thereby allowing them to get their life back on track.

 

One of the course participants  has now been taken on by us as an apprentice . As part of his new training he is working towards gaining  his NVQ in Outdoor Activity Leadership.   He joins our first apprentice, another young man from Hadston, who has overcome personal difficulties resulting in poor school results, but who is now a qualified canoe and powerboat instructor.  He is now looking to develop his skills and qualifications to enable him to pursue a career in this line of work.

We also have established a free Saturday morning Watersports Club which was initially organised through the Hadston Youth Club, and later extended to other local children.  We run this club as part of our charitable activities and therefore to encourage participation by all children,  so that no children should feel excluded from taking part, there is no charge for attending  the club.

Due to the surplus funds that we make from our public courses we were able to run introductory sessions for all the local primary schools at a subsidised rate. We have used these sessions to encourage the children to come to the Saturday morning Watersports Club and to attend sessions run through the Coquet Canoe Club (which is a community club attached to the Shorebase) as a follow-on from this.

The link below will take you to the other case study

Working with people with disabilities.

Or return to our Charitable Work page

Please feel free to contact us for further information on our charitable work or if you would like to volunteer with us.