A TYNEDALE youth charity is experiencing a huge rise in demand for its services and activities due to the cost of living crisis.

The Hexham Youth Initiative runs a wide variety of activities and projects including a drop in, sports and fitness sessions, an art club, a garden project, trips during schools holidays and groups for young carers, young parents and LGBTQ+ young people. 

The long-established organisation, based at the town's community centre on Gilesgate, worked with more than 600 young people last year, with demand rising.

It has been awarded £14,000 by UK Youth and the Pears Foundation to help cope with the cost of living crisis.

Keda Norman, coordinator at Hexham Youth Initiative, said: "For some young people we are simply a good place to come to meet friends and socialise. For others, we are a lifeline.

"We work with young people with a wide range of issues and help with both emotional and practical support.

"At the moment, because of the cost of living crisis, we are seeing huge demand for our various services and activities and are having to seek extra funding to cope with both increasing demand and universal rises in utility bills, food, staffing costs and so on."

"One of the main things we have noticed is food," she added.

"We’ve always provided food to young people but it is now a primary concern of every session and activity. We have to make sure we have food available for everyone including healthy options and something young people can take away with them.

"We also see real problems with transport. We are in a rural area and we cover a wide area so we are travelling up to 40 miles in every direction to pick up, for example, young carers for a weekly session with us.

"The costs and time involved are huge but if we didn’t do it those young carers would not have a break from the family home and an opportunity to spend time with each other, because they can’t afford the transport costs themselves."

According to new polling of 16-25-year-olds and parents in the North East from UK Youth, more than half of young people (57 per cent) said their mental health has been negatively impacted by the cost of living crisis.

It also found 51 per cent of young people are concerned about the impact of the cost of living crisis on their ability to heat their homes, while more than one in ten (13 per cent) say it’s impacting their access to regular meals.