On Tuesday Catrina Flynn our fundraising manager and I went to London to make a presentation to the national committee of a Charitable Trust and answer questions. Naturally we prepared and rehearsed carefully for the hour long meeting with a panel of 5 people. I am delighted that today we were contacted to say the Trust would like to visit WEYES to satisfy themselves that the project is as good as we said it was and to make a recommendation to the Trust's Board of Trustees to make a grant towards the cost of the WEYES building project.
This really is exciting news. We are not there yet but well on the way to getting some help towards the cost of the building project. I am not going to name the Trust until it is definate but you can tell I am very hopeful.
The 5 people we met in London were very interested in the project and asked intelligent questions (in fact the hour we spent with them rushed by). I think one of the most telling was asking whether it would not be better to do outreach work to young people in need by going to places where they gather like burger bars. There is no Macdonalds, Burger King or Kentucky Fried Chicken in the area where WEYES is and the reason is that the area is not wealthy enough to support businesses like that. And young people are the ones least likely to have money to spend in them even if they did exist. It is easy to forget just how disadvantaged Benwell, Elswick and many other wards in the North East are compared to other parts of the country.
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