A shared love of animals has sparked a new working relationship between two leading North East charities.
Northumberland-based Blyth Star Enterprises, which supports individuals with complex mental health needs and learning disabilities, has teamed up with Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter in a partnership which aims to provide mutual charitable support and learning opportunities.
Blyth Star approached Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter about any potential opportunities to work together following an introduction to the Shelter’s Community Engagement Team through a member of Blyth Star staff.
After learning more about Blyth Star’s charitable mission and the work it does to provide living skills training and enrichment experiences to people with lifelong mental health needs and disabilities, the Shelter kindly offered to pay a visit to the organisation’s adult social care day service at The Steamboat in Blyth to host a meet and greet with some of the animals currently in their care and talk to service users about the work that they do to rehabilitate and rehome them.
Carol Boyd, The Steamboat Day Services Manager at Blyth Star Enterprises, commented:
“Our service users absolutely adore animals, lots of them have pets of their own at home, so we had been looking to find an organisation who we could partner up with to provide some education and support to our service users on topics like animal care. When the opportunity came along to meet with the Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter, as a fellow charity, it just made perfect sense.
“It was wonderful to welcome Jack from Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter along with the lovely Lola, one of the dogs from the Shelter, into The Steamboat. Everyone was very smitten with Lola and absolutely blown away by the incredible work that the Shelter does to promote animal welfare. We’re hoping to make a reciprocal visit to the Shelter at Benton North Farm very soon.”
As means of saying thank you to Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter, service users at The Steamboat decided to carry out some fundraising activities. Through the sale of handmade craft items and by using an ‘honesty box’ to accrue donations for clothing alterations carried out on behalf of service users, in total, the team raised £110.00 which they then donated to the Shelter during their visit.
Jack Brydon, Community Engagement Officer at Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter, added:
“It was an absolute pleasure to visit The Steamboat and see first-hand the amazing work Blyth Star Enterprises is doing. Lola loved the attention and made some new friends too! It’s brilliant to see how our animals can bring joy and spark connections. Our Shelter is 100% reliant on the good will of our community to keep going, and partnerships like this show the true power of community and compassion.”
For more information about Blyth Star Enterprises, visit www.blythstar.org.uk or to learn more about Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter, visit www.dogandcatshelter.com.