A North East homelessness charity is extending the support it can provide to local people in crisis at a time of need, with the help of a four-figure grant from the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund at the Community Foundation.
Oasis Community Housing runs a range of housing and support services to help address individuals’ immediate needs and the wider root causes of homelessness.
A core part of its work revolves around its Basis drop-in resource centres in Gateshead and Sunderland, which ensure vulnerable people can have their urgent needs met and can also easily access a range of services and specialists through a single location that can help them regain control of their lives.
Oasis Community Housing, which helps around 1,000 people every year, is now using the £3,000 Society grant to boost its welfare fund, which it uses to cover the cost of whichever items its service users require to meet their immediate and longer-term needs.
Hazel Ditchburn, corporate relationship manager at Oasis Community Housing, said: “Getting a grant of this size from Newcastle Building Society, especially in the current financial climate, means we’re able to plan our services with a much greater degree of certainty ensuring the people walking through our doors get the right help and support they really need.”
Robert Boak, manager at Newcastle Building Society’s Waterloo Place branch in Sunderland, added: “Organisations like Oasis Community Housing step up to help vulnerable people who often have nowhere else to turn and their impact on local communities is immense. With the need rising significantly for the help they provide, Oasis Community Housing’s role has never been more important and we’re very pleased to be contributing to its essential work.”
Mike O’Brien, the co-founder of Tyneside tech consultancy Opencast, has been named as the Entrepreneur of the Year at the Entrepreneurs’ Forum Awards.
Mr O’Brien, who took the trophy at a black tie awards dinner and ceremony at the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead, won the award which singles out experienced entrepreneurs who show resilience and strength to lead their business to outstanding success through innovation, teamwork and leadership skills. Whitley Bay-born Mr O’Brien started his tech career as a software developer, working on projects for the NHS and Strategic Systems Solutions.
He worked with Capgemini on financial services projects including for Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Nomura. He went on to be a founding member of regional tech network Dynamo North East and an early-stage investor in Atom Bank.
Mr O'Brien co-founded Opencast with Charlie Hoult in 2012 – moving into Hoults Yard to launch the business with little more than a laptop – on the back of a vision for a new kind of tech consultancy which could be an independent alternative to the traditional corporate model. Opencast now has over 300 permanent staff and operates a hybrid working model from four bases UK wide.
He said: "We’ve always tried to do things differently at Opencast – to work hard and be nice to people. When people said that won’t work I knew that they were wrong. And when they said you can’t put trust in the values of your company, I knew that was ridiculous. I hope that what we have achieved shows what can be done with the right approach.”
North East art and design studio Atomhawk is helping to raise awareness for a charity by creating a piece of artwork for a unique beekeeper project.
Atomhawk, which has provided artworks for global clients including WB Games, Xbox Game Studios and 2K Games, has teamed up with the North East Young Dad & Lads (NEYDL) charity and Newcastle University to create a design for the ‘Postindustrial Pollination project’, which is currently being held at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead. The studio was approached by Newcastle University, who have worked with the charity on previous campaigns, about the project which features a number of beekeeper hives located on the roof of the Baltic building.
NEYDL was founded in 2015 to support young dads aged under 25 who live, work or study in the North East to tackle the stigma that young dads are not unreachable, unteachable, or disinterested. Darren Yeomans, studio director of Atomhawk, said: “The artwork takes its theme from a project called ‘The Realm’, which is a unique world based where nature has reclaimed the North East region. The team loved re-visiting this project to create new original artwork to help such a worthy local cause.”
Dr Michael Richardson, senior lecturer of human geography at Newcastle University added: "The Realm chimed with my work with the North East Young Dads and Lads Project. Through urban beekeeping with the young dads, I have been researching the possibilities of Postindustrial Pollination with thanks to funding from the Catherine Cookson Foundation.
"In doing so, I’m helping manage two beehives on the rooftop at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, where I am currently working on an Innovation and Knowledge Exchange Sabbatical from Newcastle University. Atomhawk were keen to help support the young dads and their families whom I work with, and so in a process of co-creation we worked together on placing a beekeeper within their fictional world.”
Atomhawk’s artwork will adorn the jars of honey from the BALTIC Bees which will be sold in the BALTIC shop.”
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