Young people in a coastal County Durham community will be getting more chances to express their creativity this year thanks to a four-figure grant from North East employer the Banks Group.
Non-profit youth arts organisation Creative Youth Opportunities (CYO) runs weekly after school arts sessions on Thursdays at Seaham Town Hall which aim to give young people aged between five and 17 the chance to try out a range of new artistic activities.
Around 40 young people have been taking part in the programme, with older volunteers helping to plan and run some of the younger children’s sessions and sharing their creative expertise and knowledge.
The £1,998 Banks Group grant will now cover CYO’s staffing costs for the 37 term time sessions that it plans to run, allowing the organisation to plan with certainty the events and activities it will put on through the coming year
Founded in 2014, Creative Youth Opportunities focuses much of its work on the nearby village of Horden, running a range regular creative youth sessions and developing arts-based projects there, but it is aiming to increase its presence in Seaham this year, with Seaham Town Council supporting this ambition by providing free access to the Town Hall.
The group created an eye-catching Christmas display in the window of the Town Hall, with dozens of local people attending a community event in December to see what the group had produced.
Work produced through its Historic England-funded Byron And On And On project, which tells the stories of five amazing women who made their mark on Seaham, has also recently been installed at the Town Hall as well.
Michelle Harland, CEO at Creative Youth Opportunities, said: “We use art in all its forms to enrich the lives of local children and young people, and they regularly amaze us with the quality and creativity of the work they produce.
“Involving our older members in planning and delivering our Seaham sessions for their younger peers gives them a real sense of ownership and it’s great to see how this helps them develop as people, as well as artists.
“This type of project really helps to connect young people to their peers and their community, but it can be difficult to find the funding to make it happen.
“The Banks Group’s support has given us a solid platform from which we can plan our activity programme for the year with certainty and we’ve got lots of exciting ideas for what we’re going to deliver for local young people through 2025.”
Lucy Hinds, executive assistant at the Banks Group, added: “CYO is helping to open the artistic horizons of young people in our home county and is providing them with opportunities which might otherwise be out of reach to them.
“We’re very pleased to be helping them to keep delivering their excellent work in Seaham and look forward to seeing what their young artists create through the year to come.”