LandAid is awarding four donations of £1,000 to charities to deliver projects to improve the lives of the young people they support.
The third award we’re publicising is a donation to Local Solutions, to help them purchase exercise equipment for their Young Person’s Hub.
LandAid’s donation will enable Local Solutions to purchase exercise equipment for young people to use at the Hub. It plans to buy equipment such as a rowing machine, spin bike, boxing gloves and pads, yoga mats, slam bags and weighted bags.
Darren Browne, Project Co-ordinator at Sports Horizon at the Young Person’s Hub, said: ‘By receiving the grant from LandAid to purchase fitness equipment for the young people who access this Hub, it will allow the young people a means of accessing fitness equipment with no direct cost to themselves. Some of the young people who access the Hub can lack motivation and may be suffering from mental health problems.
“By having fitness equipment available to these young people in a space that they feel comfortable can help them to begin exercising by using the equipment and will also allow team building and confidence building sessions to be run using the equipment. Alongside providing the equipment for the young people to access for free this can be a gateway for them to discover something new that they enjoy and then provide them with a stepping stone to then join a gym and continue to expand their physical exercise regimes.’
Local Solutions is a charity supporting a wide range of disadvantaged groups across the Liverpool City Region and North Wales. Local Solutions support homeless young people through a young person’s hostel, Supported Lodgings, Nightstop services and Mentoring services.
Local Solutions supports around 240 young people at any one time through its accommodation and support services.
In 2019, Local Solutions launched a Young Person’s Hub’ in Liverpool where homeless young people can access support from a variety of projects including AIMS (Accommodation Intense Mentoring and Skills), Sports Horizon (Sports engagement project funded by Comic Relief) and Liverpool Supported Lodgings. The Young Person’s Hub has everything in one place – support and advice the opportunity to get online and access to specialist services such as substance misuse and sexual health services who will regularly attend the Hub.