L O A D I N G

Follow Us On

Get Daily Update

Groups and Projects

We care about your rights! This means a lot of our work is with organisations who offer services to children and young people. 

We aim to help you make these services better, for your benefit and for the future. We run groups that link to services or topics you care about.

To see upcoming meetings and events click here and if you want to come along or learn more about any of our groups get in touch.

eXtreme Group

We are a group of young people in County Durham with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND). We meet regularly to share ideas and help to make SEND services better for young people. eXtreme members attend events on behalf of Investing in Children, organise events and work with Durham County Council and the NHS!

We enjoy having our voice heard, being respected, meeting new people and building our confidence. 

Young people are paid to share their views and attend external meetings. Click here to find out more. 

Children and young people from across Investing in Children come together to take an active role in shaping the organisation. By working collaboratively, they contribute to important discussions and help make key decisions that influence the direction and future of Investing in Children as a whole. Click here to find out more

Since 2001 we have worked with children and young people living with Type 1 Diabetes along with their families and the clinical teams throughout the North East and North Cumbria. We have various monthly group sessions throughout the region where we do lots of fun things which include day trips, hold cookery workshops, go on an annual residential and more! But we also have space to discuss the issues children, young people and families face living with Type 1 Diabetes. Click here to find out more

Your Autism

This project was an idea from a young person, who attends the eXtreme group, who thought a resource for young people with autism would be helpful. They felt there was lots of information available for parents/carers, but not a lot for young people themselves. We received NHS funding to enable this project to happen and young people decided that a dedicated website was the best way to share the information. Our aim is to have information specifically for children and young people with autism, so they are able to learn to support and understand themselves, and help to demystify autism – it’s not all negative! The website has been created for young people with autism by young people with autism. Click here to visit the website

We are a group of children and young people who come together to express and be ourselves. Our group is a way to get creative, in-tune with your mind, feel better in yourself and also make friends. We work on a range of tasks to communicate different messages and projects through the use of art. 

Seen & Heard is a young person led local heritage project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Young people created the Seen & Heard project with the aim of shining a spotlight on children and young people in the North East’s history, uncovering untold stories and sharing these creatively with the public – doing history on their own terms. The group conducts it’s own research, including oral history interviews, and works with local sites including Locomotion, The Story and Beamish Museum

Click here to find out more.

The LGBTQIA+ project was set up to support the voice of LGBTQIA+ children and young people. The group meet regularly and have identified the areas they would like to improve/ change when it comes to the support and services they receive. Click here to find out more.

Investing in Children are a delivery partner of the STAR project (Support Targeted for Anxiety and Resilience) which follows on from the successful delivery of The Anxious About School Project, Durham Resilience Programme, Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM) and Nurturing Our Wellbeing (NOW). However, it aims to bring them all together under one roof and offer schools access to the support through a structured and supportive process led by an Advisory Inclusion Teacher. STAR focuses on early intervention and prevention of mental health difficulties. As part of this offer Investing in Children will support schools to: 

  • Embed pupil voice within their wellbeing offer through a series of focus groups
  • Deliver awareness raising assemblies and workshops
  • Delivering the ASDAN accredited Peer Mentoring Programme
  • Deliver the CPD certified Train the Trainer Staff Development Programme

Click here for more information

  1. The group have been consulted on the Public Office (Accountability) Bill (known as the Hillsborough Law) particularly around the Centre’s social media presence, the Centre’s research agendas, provided feedback on research applications regarding proposals in the areas of dental care, temporary accommodation and the physical punishment of children in England and most recently provided their thoughts and opinions on the Gillick competency case. Click here to find out more

We work with young people from Ukraine who have come to County Durham. The social action project that the young people have been involved in was all their ideas.

If you are a young person who has recently arrived in the area and would like to get involved, please get in touch or for click here to find out more