Posted on 27 March 2025
Working with our community partners to provide safe spaces in Peterborough
HELP (Helping Empower Lives in Peterborough) is based at Hereward Cross, and offers support for people living in our Peterborough communities. This includes youth group activities, drop-in sessions, practical support and educational workshops.
Activities and support range from youth cooking sessions and football, to one to one sessions for young people who need wellbeing and mental health support.
HELP also delivers practical support – providing food, clothing, SIM cards, pushchairs and access to their own English lessons and employment advisor.
Beckie MacLellan, Outreach Manager and Co-Founder tells us more:
“In setting up this project, we knew that there were certain activities that we wanted to run. We wanted to set up football sessions as we knew that young people wanted to play sport and didn’t have money to access facilities. We knew that young people wanted to make friends, and that the cooking sessions would be popular with young care leavers who wanted skills for independence.
“School holiday activities are accessed by families and young people on low incomes, who need something fun to do in the holidays that doesn’t cost any money.”
So far, the project has been a success with both young people and the community.
Beckie tells us more:
“We’ve helped young people integrate with other nationalities and parts of the community – it could be through teamwork or playing football. We engaged with young people who were hanging out in the park with nothing to do, giving them more constructive past-times.
“Our youth group provides a safe space for young people to socialise with people their own age. Often, these children have experienced barriers to socialising in other places, due to SEND needs, language barriers, religious or cultural restrictions for girls, or experiencing racism.
“We’ve also helped young people access wellbeing and mental health support in one-to-one sessions with our occupational therapist. It’s been great seeing how well the community events have brought a diverse group of people together– breaking down barriers and prejudice.”
All of the activities have been in demand and thanks to support from Hyde Charitable Trust and Match My Project – our social value matching platform - these activities can continue. Beckie thanked us by saying:
“The football pitch hire and football coaching costs each week are expensive and this funding means we can continue to support it. We’re also fitting a kitchen in our new premises, meaning we’ll be able to use our own space for future cooking sessions.”
Beckie tells us more about the support that HELP provides:
Youth group
Harry* is a 16 year old boy with autism, who struggles to make friends. He enjoys coming to the youth sessions as they are a safe space to meet new people and take part in social activities. HELP’s occupational therapist is also on hand to support him if he needs a familiar face or help with sensory issues.
Youth football
The youth football is very popular, with a mixture of local young people - white British, Romanian gypsy and refugee teens. They come each week and make friends with other young people they might not normally have socialised with.
G is 18 years old and from Sudan. He’d been unwell with TB and once recovered felt isolated and wanted to make friends and exercise. We gave him some football boots so that he could take part. He also accessed our mental health support at HELP and attended some cooking sessions.
Youth cooking
We have a regular group of 15 teenagers, who were mostly under local authority care. Over six weeks, they learned how to cook a variety of dishes from different countries. We gave them a printed recipe to take home so that they could cook it again if they wanted to. After cooking, the group were all able to sit down together and enjoy the meal they had prepared, they also took portions home along with any spare ingredients.
J is a teenager from Sudan. He is here alone and under supported housing due to being under 18. He had a farming background in Sudan and enjoyed teaching the other young people about the growing of certain ingredients.
Practical support for Hyde customers
Nadia attends our sewing group for social connection and learning new skills. She asked for help with a pram for her child, which we were able to give her from donated items we received. She also attended classes to improve her English.
We lent Mohammed a laptop for studying English online and gave him a six month internet sim card so he can access the internet to learn English, look for work and keep up with checking his Universal Credit account.
We gave Zoe a bag of food from our donation supplies and completed a food bank referral for her so that she could collect a parcel from Peterborough Food Bank. We also helped her to get in touch with the ‘Household Support Fund’, so she could apply for support with her heating.