Gateshead Writes
Gateshead Writes is a programme of creative writing and reading activities for families, young people and residents of Gateshead. The programme has grown out of our Gateshead Young Writers City programmes at Kelvin Grove Primary School, Larkspur Community Primary School and Kingsmeadow Community School. It is focussed around the Bensham and Beacon Lough areas of Central Gateshead.
Gateshead Writes includes workshops for families, multilingual creative writing activities, programmes for care experienced young people and creative writing programmes for adults who have low confidence in relation to reading and writing.
Our work with young people and families in Gateshead is generously funded by the Kavli Trust. We also receive funding from NHS England for our health literacy work in this area.
You can read an evaluation of work we delivered in Gateshead between 2019-21 here.
For more information about our work in Gateshead please email New Writing North’s Senior Programme Manager (Young People & Communities):
Tell Your Story
Tell Your Story is a programme of creative writing workshops for adults in Gateshead who don’t feel confident with reading and writing.
The programme, taking place between January – May 2023, aims to use creative writing and reading to increase confidence and improve wellbeing for participants who struggle with literacy. The pilot, which is a partnership with Edberts House, the primary care network and Skills for Life, addresses the relationship between health and literacy.
Tell Your Story is lead by professional writers, Ruth Johnson and Danielle Burn, who work collaboratively to support participants to tell their own stories using writing, audio, illustration and conversation.
This is a pilot project funded by NHS England.
Family Translation Workshops
As part Young Writers’ City in Gateshead, we work with families who speak English as an additional language to explore creative and collaborative approaches to translation and multilingual creative writing. The results of some of this work can be seen in an anthology of multilingual writing we produced in Spring 2023, as part of the Rugby League World Cup Cultural Festival’s Power of Together programme.
Care Experienced Young People
Gateshead Writes includes targeted activity designed for children in care and care experienced young people. To date, this has included monthly creative writing sessions in partnership with Youth Focus North East and a series of creative writing masterclasses at Gateshead Central Library.
We are very excited to be collaborating with poet, activist and performer Louise Wallwein on a new programme for children in care and care experienced young people in Gateshead. Starting in 2023, this programme will address the lack of provision for care experienced young people to take part on cultural activity and have their voices heard.
