Case Study - Manchester Youth Zone

A six-month window into our work with Manchester Youth Zone.

“...We would just like to say a huge thank you to all at Bruntwood for your recent donation of £25,000. Raised from your annual curry quiz, through raffles, events, and many other forms of Bruntwood magic, this donation will really help us to keep transforming the lives of young people across Manchester and we cannot tell you what it means to us to have your support.

Bruntwood's support however, goes far above the financial donation…”  

One of our most-valued partnerships is that of Manchester Youth Zone and the tireless work they do for the young people of the region. Providing a safe place for people aged 6 - 25, they aim to provide young people with opportunities to make constructive use of their leisure time, to raise their aspirations and to choose a positive, independent lifestyle. Whilst we financially support the charity, we don’t believe in writing a cheque and backing away - it’s important to us to help our partners in a practical capacity, providing experiences and opportunities and in sharing our skills. 

We believe that children from all areas and backgrounds should have access to the same experiences and knowledge sharing about life skills and the world of work, and we’re happy to see Manchester Youth Zone empowering the region’s young people with this same ethos in mind. 

Over the last six months, we’ve had the chance to work together on a variety of events with the charity.

 Junior Choices is a 10-week prevention programme that works with young people at the risk of child criminal exploitation. Our colleague Emma Harvey joined the group for a teamwork session, working together to overcome obstacles. We invited Manchester Youth Zone to our Christmas markets, giving the young people a chance to celebrate, share what they do with our customers, and to make and sell their own festive gifts. Where is Home? was an open-call exhibition hosted at NEO. We asked for postcard designs to be entered into a silent auction, we invited Manchester Youth Zone to participate and worked with them to help support their design process. 

Some ongoing support that’s been exciting for us has been in offering regular work encounters to one of the young people involved with the charity. Every month Karl joins us to help out on art sessions that we run at NEO, with a view to opening up the world of work possibilities to a budding artist. We’ve also contributed to careers’ days, and we’ve even been visited by some Manchester Youth Zone Easter Bunnies in return. 

You can read all about the work we’ve been involved with in a little more detail in the Manchester Youth Zone newsletter. We’re looking forward to another six months, and continuing to help young people in the region in the future.