Author: Lynne Haigh

Fresh Futures are thrilled to update you about the 100 Top Kirklees Companies event that took place at Brian Jackson House last month. This event, hosted by Fresh Futures and coordinated by a partnership including 3M, Huddersfield University, Huddersfield Examiner, and Huddersfield Hub, was a resounding success.

Fresh Futures was delighted to invite companies into our main hub, Brian Jackson House in central Huddersfield, to raise awareness about the charity and to offer a summer networking opportunity to the corporate sector of Kirklees. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of all involved, we achieved this and more.

Sue Cooke, Chief Executive Officer of 3M Buckley Innovation Centre, encapsulated the spirit of the evening perfectly:

“A big thank you to Fresh Futures for hosting the annual summer networking event for the Kirklees Top 100 Companies. It was fantastic to see so many local organisations come together to connect and build relationships. There was a real buzz around the room, and it certainly felt like a celebration of our local business community, with inspiring speakers, from emerging to longstanding companies, that shared their success stories, topped off with amazing food and drink

The evening was an opportunity to network and find out more about the exciting developments in the commercial sector within Kirklees and Fresh Futures’ employees would like to share their appreciation for all those who delivered motivating and informative speeches on the night. Additionally, Fresh Futures was delighted to welcome representatives from the top 100 companies in Kirklees, alongside SMEs and key stakeholders, including some of our much-valued Patrons.

Katie Shephard, Head of Engagement at Fresh Futures, said:

“It was a pleasure to deliver such an exciting event for the commercial sector of Kirklees. Despite the ongoing economic challenges, the country continues to face, it was fantastic to host an event attended by businesses to better understand their ongoing contributions to the local community. Fresh Futures’ vision is to engage with children, young people and families from Kirklees and this event was our opportunity help celebrate the contribution that the corporate sector makes to our region.”

On behalf of all employees at Fresh Futures, thank you once again to everyone who contributed to making this event a great success. Fresh Futures look forward to more opportunities to connect and collaborate with our local business community.

Join the Fresh Futures Patron Scheme

Fresh Futures would like to take this opportunity to invite you to join the Fresh Futures Patron Scheme. As a Patron, you will play a vital role in supporting our mission to provide opportunities and support for children, young people and families across Kirklees. Your involvement will help Fresh Futures continue  work in education, skills development, and community engagement.

By becoming a Patron, you will receive:

• Regular updates on Fresh Futures projects and impact
• Invitations to exclusive events and networking opportunities
• Recognition on Fresh Futures website, social media and promotional materials

Your support is crucial to our mission of empowering the next generation. Together, we can create a brighter future for our community.

For more information on how to become a Patron and supporting Fresh Futures, please visit Fresh Futures website or contact us directly via [email protected]

Stay tuned for further updates and future events! #FreshFutures

The youth unemployment rate has increased, and young people experience many barriers when looking for a job. From their work with young adults, Fresh Futures have learnt low confidence and self-esteem, social anxiety, emotional issues and mental health challenges prevent young people from accessing work.

Fresh Futures have developed their innovative Employability Programme to help young people get employment ready and equip them with the skills, experience and understanding to feel confident applying for jobs.

Over the course of one week, the Programme will empower young people to build their skill set and feel confident about searching for job opportunities.

The mornings will focus on building core employability skills, e.g., CV writing, interview techniques and how to research for jobs. Fresh Futures will also provide a free lunch to each young adult attending the Programme.

In the afternoons, the focus will shift towards working with the young people to provide useful experiences to overcome the barriers they face on their journey into employment. This might include trips out, visiting guest speakers or learning new, creative skills such as photography or video editing.

After completing the Programme, the young people will be given the opportunity to undertake 10 hours of voluntary work within an employer from across Kirklees to help build their experience and bolster their CV. Placements will be tailored to young adults’ personal career goals for the future.

Christine Rhodes, Community Connections Services Manager, says: “This new programme is an exciting opportunity for young people to gain valuable knowledge about how to access employment as well as gaining experience of the workplace. We’re keen to offer placements for young people in a variety of different industries across Kirklees and if this is something your business could accommodate, we’d urge you to get in touch today to find out more.”

Fresh Futures have a wealth of experience working with different organisations across the region to support young people through a range of projects. Over the last four months, they have been working with Youth Social to produce a podcast series promoting the benefits of youth volunteering. You can listen to Omar, the Sustainability Volunteer and Freya, a Young Adult Volunteer at Fresh Futures on Episode 5, Part 2. Daisy Whitby, the Volunteer Support Officer at Fresh Futures, also features on Episode 6, where she shares her insights on the volunteering opportunities Fresh Futures offers young adults.

These podcasts are now available on all the main podcast platforms including Spotify and Apple Podcasts – Search ‘Youth Social Podcast’, click the following links:

Apple http://tiny.cc/5mrwxz Spotify: http://tiny.cc/cmrwxz

If you’re struggling to find a career path, or don’t know how to progress into employment, Fresh Futures can help you!

Contact the Community Connections team to find out more about Fresh Futures’ Employability Programme email [email protected] or call 01484 415465.

As part of our campaign to showcase 50 Faces of Fresh Futures to celebrate our 50^th birthday, we’re shining the spotlight on Lucy Jackson.

Brian Jackson founded the charity in 1974 and Lucy is Brian’s daughter. Lucy continues her involvement in the charity to this day – she has recently joined the Board of Trustees at Fresh Futures and also sits on the Income and Partnerships committee.

Tell us about yourself and your involvement in Fresh futures?

In 1974 – when I was 11 – my father (Brian Jackson) founded what was then called ‘The National Children Centre’. We had just moved back to Yorkshire, and being a very proud Yorkshireman he was really keen to develop something in his home town of Huddersfield that would make a difference to the people of the town (especially children under 5) and also have a wider impact on national policy and research.

I have a clear memory of going to busy sessions at Longroyd Bridge (the first home of the charity) and seeing lots of colourful activities, toddlers from all different communities, laughing and running around. I used to help empty vans of resources which dad had managed to convince people to give us. It was always a happy place to pop into, which we seemed to do regularly…

Tell us about your dad, Brian Jackson – why did he establish the charity and what was his vision? 

Dad was very passionate about working class communities, and also multicultural communities. He saw the impact that education and wider social, emotional and practical support could make to the future of children from all communities living in poverty. He was also very passionate about Huddersfield (including Huddersfield Town) and Yorkshire (especially the cricket)!

In 1974, when we moved back to Yorkshire from Cambridge, I think he saw an opportunity to bring his passions together. At the time he was working on a study about childminders – the world they lived in and the influence the registered, but mainly unregistered, childminders had on very young children. He was also looking at the lack of support childminders received. For him, supporting childminders was critical to supporting the future development of young children from working class communities.

As with everything dad did, he never wanted to leave it as ‘an interesting research project’ to have published in relevant journals – for him the prize was always making a difference to and seeing action within the lives of children and communities. For him the vision of Yorkshire’s Children’s Centre (as was) was to have somewhere that could both provide both practical support for childminders, parents and others supporting children, and provide somewhere for young children to develop and flourish.

Why do you think Fresh Futures is so important in West Yorkshire?

I don’t think I ever consciously went into my profession of Public Health, because of my dad’s legacy  – but for me my public health values, beliefs and ethics are exactly why Fresh Futures is so important today (as much as it was 50 years ago) to the present and future communities of West Yorkshire.

Child poverty is at its highest level for over 20 years. Families are experiencing a range of issues from poverty to housing crisis, and facing increased physical and mental health issues. All of which impact significantly on future generations. There is a need for practical and emotional support for families, children and young people to support them to reach their full potential which Fresh Futures’ can provide.

The Charity has been established for 50 years, what are the most significant events from your perspective?

Securing Longroyd Bridge was obviously the first significant event. The play bus and taking the vision out into the streets was significant – the charity’s focus of going out to communities is high in my memory in the early days.

I remember as things developed, and as I became a teenager, dad also brought support for young people more into focus. 

However, once we moved to Bristol and my visits to Yorkshire became less I lost touch with what was happening at the charity. – although it was a household joke of how often there were still calls between dad and Hazel (the CEO at the time). I had just completed my A levels and was at a David Bowie concert the day that dad and my younger brother ran the charity race in Huddersfield to raise money for the charity . It was only when I returned from the concert that I received the phone call to say he had collapsed on the run and died.

From there, my connection to the charity over the next years was intermittent – I remember being invited to the opening of Brian Jackson Centre (now House) and feeling really proud of dad’s lasting legacy. I also went to memorial lectures the charity organised each year with Huddersfield Polytechnic, aimed at keeping the cause in the national eye with high profile speakers.

The launching of the Charity’s first alternative provision college for young people was for me the next significant event that I became aware of. Thinking back to the days of the ‘Youth Opportunities Programme ‘ – this felt very much in line with dad’s vision.  Again my own life took over with 3 young children and a career, so it wasn’t until a few years ago when social media connected me to another walk (rather than run) in aid of the charity that I once more became aware of the brilliant work happening 50 years later. Although these events are about the physical buildings – its dad’s ethos has remained which for me is most significant – Fresh Futures today is about people working together can change the future of children and young people, just as it was 50 years ago when it was launched by dad.

Lucy has recently starred in a documentary aired on YouTube, interviewing famous sociologists wives to better understand the support they gave to their husbands work over the years, you can watch it here.

Fresh Futures is celebrating its 50^th birthday year by launching a new Patrons scheme to enable companies from across Kirklees to support our work. Companies are being encouraged to donate £500 to the charity and every penny generated by the campaign will be spent supporting our work with disadvantaged children and young people.

The charity is thrilled to have secured early support for the campaign with two new Patrons announced this month: Brewfitt and Zest for Print.

James Paxman, Operations Director, at Brewfitt says: “We’re delighted to become one of Fresh Futures first ever Patrons. As a local company, the cause is very close to our hearts, and I’m personally committed to supporting Fresh Futures. I’m hoping to take part in a wing walk over the summer and I am hopeful I will secure sponsorship to support the charity’s life-changing work.”

Chris Woodhead, Director at Zest for Print, says: “Fresh Futures runs so many vital projects supporting children and families and we know that the money we’re donating will make a significant difference to the charity and the local community. We’re proud to become one of their Patrons to help them celebrate their 50^th birthday year.”

Fresh Futures was launched in 1974 by education visionary Brian Jackson, and has become an established way for disadvantaged children, young people, and their families from across Kirklees to access support. We run several services including child contact centres, domestic abuse perpetrator programmes, young adult employability services and alternative education provision for young people aged 13 – 16.

Katie Shephard, Head of Income and Partnerships at Fresh Futures, says: “We’re delighted to welcome both Brewfitt and Zest for Print on board as our first ever Patrons. This year, we’re seeking 50 Patrons to come on board – this support would make a significant and lasting impact on the services we can deliver across Kirklees. We’d urge all local companies to get in touch today to find out more about how to support us and build a lasting partnership making a difference to children and young people.”

For anyone interested in finding out more about the Patrons scheme, email [email protected] and one of the friendly Income and Partnerships team will get in touch with more information.

We are delighted to announce that our Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programme (DAPP) at Fresh Futures have been awarded £39,990.56 from the Mayor’s Safer Communities Fund.

This was part of a joint bid with EdShift, a community group who provides a space of safety, belonging and community, using the arts to transform the lives of children affected by domestic abuse and violence.
The Safer Communities Fund is part of an initiative by the Mayor of West Yorkshire, and has seen £1 million awarded to support victims of serious violence, hate crime and trauma and help promote community safety and steer young people away from criminality.

‘Little Nests’ will a rolling programme running over 12 weeks, supporting six children who are victims of domestic abuse. The sessions, run by Edshift will provide a safe and creative environment for them to reconnect with peers, encourage them to socialise through play and creativity and improve their resilience.

A key priority of this initiative is to hear and empower the child’s voice through the art program in order to achieve behaviour change in the perpetrators. The learnings from the Little Nest programme will be included within Fresh Futures’ domestic abuse perpetrator programme – their feelings and experiences will be fed directly into sessions with male perpetrators to help them understand the impact of their behaviour.

“This funding is key and will further build on Fresh Futures’ goal of challenging beliefs around abuse. Children are often the ‘forgotten victim’ in domestic abuse cases and this programme puts children at the heart of the intervention and also supports children to disclose the impact their home life has had on them.

The support EdShift offers will create a safe space to develop safety plans and confidence in children. This work, which incorporates art, drama and music therapy, is then presented back to the abusive parent within the programme to hopefully give them the message that their behaviour has been impactful. “

Jonathan Fell, the Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programme (DAPP) Service Manager.

The programme launched last month and will be running until October 2024 thanks to the funding secured through this vital initiative.

Find out more about DAPP here.