Where we work

Our centre is based in Middlesbrough, however our work with young people expands primarily across the whole Tees Valley area including Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees and Hartlepool. We have previously worked with young people from Darlington and North-Yorkshire too.

Local area map

Issues our young people face

Third generation unemployment and benefit culture are prevalent issues within the Tees Valley area. Tackling the misconceptions about a life on benefits is common within our daily working practice. Many young people aren’t aware there is any other way and just presume that ‘signing on’ is their next step.

The decline of the steel industry has given way to a real service industry economy which causes a lack of local people accessing local jobs as many people commute to Middlesbrough for work rather than live in the city.

A high percentage of our young people present drug and alcohol related issues upon their engagement with us. We also have the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in the North East.

In 2007 the programme ‘Location, Location, Location’ voted Middlesbrough the worst place to live in the UK giving way to misconceptions amongst thousands of people in the UK and negative judgements made upon the city and therefore the people who live here. The results are of course disputed by ourselves and the Middlesbrough community.

Local stats

1 in 5 children and young people in Middlesbrough have a behavioural problem.

17% of all young people in the Redcar and Cleveland area are living in households where parents are unemployed, only 60% held regular conversations with their parents and less than a third ate meals with their parents. (DFES report)

Employment rates amongst people under 20 years are significantly higher in the Tees Valley than that of the national average.

1 in 10 people in the North East region were found to have significant mental health issues.

8/10 of the most deprived wards in the whole country are found in the North East.

The North East has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates of all English regions.

Crime rates in the Tees Valley are significantly higher than the national average.