A team of unemployed young people from across Teesside has been thanked for completing a project that will improve life in a number of ways for a community at Marske.
With the help of funding from UKSE, the Tata Steel business-support subsidiary, eight young people on a Prince’s Trust Team Programme, run by Education Training Collective, stepped in to transform a bare grassy area adjoining Marske Football Club.
The £1370 from UKSE’s special Community Support Fund helped to buy equipment, bags, plants, tools and paint after the team presented their chosen community project to UKSE and were awarded the funding.
The team built compost bins, so that the football and bowls clubs can recycle their pitch and green cuttings, and three raised beds for flowers and sensory plants.
The young people, aged between 16 and 25, live in Redcar, Guisborough, Loftus, Billingham, Darlington and Stockton.
The 12-week Prince’s Trust Team Programmes help young people into employment through work experience, help with applications, interviews, skills including budgeting and teamwork and a community project.
UKSE is a long-term supporter of the programmes and has contributed more than £70,000 to its community projects in the region.
Peter Taylor of UKSE said “Our core business is the provision of a range of investments and managed premises to support businesses but our Community Support Fund is also important to us. These programmes not only help our young people into employment but also improve the lives of people who live in local communities.”
Stan Glover of the Marske Sports & Recreation Partnership said: “This neglected area adjoins both the football and bowls club premises and we have wanted to revitalise it for some time. We are very grateful to the team and UKSE for helping us to develop a real community club here in Marske. The young people have done an amazing job and the garden will be used and enjoyed by the whole community.
“We already have youth and senior football, outdoor bowls, a brass band, a well-used clubhouse for community groups and walking football. We intend to build on the work the team has done and improve it further by adding more beds and benches and opening up the access.
“I spent my working life in the UK steel industry so am particularly pleased that this support has come from UKSE,” he added.
Martin Copley, Prince’s Trust Team Leader at Education Training Collective, said: “We really value having UKSE as a long term partner, not only in terms of the funding they provide but also the time they spend with team members on their project presentation.”