Wallsend Children's Community

Project lead Wayne Daley with pupils of Churchill Community College Wallsend promoting the community survey in the local press.

Goodlabs was delighted to be appointed to undertake an important piece of community research on behalf of Wallsend Children's Community - an exciting new partnership with Save the Children. The project belongs to a wider network of Children's Communities around the country inspired by the highly successful 'Harlem Children's Zone' model.  

Still in its early stages the leadership team at Wallsend Children's Community required insights into the 'Attitudes, Behaviours and Capacity' of residents, particularly with respect to volunteering. The target post code of NE28 consists of five electoral wards and around 20,000 households.  

The survey, branded 'Great NE28' received coverage in the local press and revealed valuable findings including: 

• A large proportion of residents are involved in either volunteering, or giving unpaid help to someone (child, older person or someone with a disability).

• A larger than expected group of those surveyed reported that they would consider volunteering locally if asked.

• Almost everyone: Admires those who give some of their time to helping others; Believes that volunteering is good for the person doing the helping, as well as those being helped; Believes that a strong community is a place where everyone helps each other.

• A small minority: Believe that It is important to help your family and friends but it should end there; Don’t see why people volunteer, i.e if it takes time and effort you should get paid. 

The Enterprise Village - Tees Valley

Architect's impression of the new facility.

Low productivity is one of the major economic challenges facing the UK, and raising it is an issue that requires innovative collaborations between the public, private and charity sectors. The Enterprise Village, to be located on south side of Stockton-on-Tees, is gearing up to address the challenge with an exciting new approach.

Goodlabs are supporting the team at Tees Valley Community Projects to build on their prior success in providing accredited training, delivering children's work, youth work, family work and wellbeing services. The Enterprise Village will transform the lives of thousands of Tees Valley residents through developing economic and social potential side by side in a uniquely resourced location.

It will be a collaborative community within which local entrepreneurs grow their businesses parallel to disengaged young adults taking significant steps towards entering the regional workforce. Others who have experienced major interruptions to their career through redundancy and illness will be retrained and upskilled.

The Enterprise Village will be strategically located off the A66 in Eaglescliffe, Stockton-on-Tees, adjacent to The Oakwood Centre – home of Tees Valley Community Church. It will be an attractive energy-efficient campus of workshops, serviced office space, training rooms, event facilities and community wellbeing services. Instead of the hard-edged formality that is a feature of large scale business and educational facilities the Village will emphasise accessibility and an atmosphere  of hope, opportunity and collaboration.

Goodlabs is supporting the development of the detailed research case and business planning required to underpin the £4.5 million fundraising target. We secured £72,000 of investment-readiness funding for the charity in order to support this work. 

Architectural visualisation above provided courtesy of Grace Choi Architecture.