Shine Space in Leeds – ‘gone above and beyond’ to help us deliver events that will reach new foster carers

Our amazing ambassadors at Shine Leeds continually strive to make a difference to the community, through their work.  Over the years they have found many ways to support the work of Child Friendly Leeds, including support for care leavers at Christmas, treats for children in care at Easter, regular support for local children and introductions to sympathetic business partners who have signed up as CFL ambassadors.

SHINE is a social enterprise with a mission to raise aspirations and create opportunities.  SHINE’s services are conference and meeting spaces, serviced offices and a café in a beautifully restored Grade II listed building with amazing staff and fabulous healthy food.  More recently SHINE has expanded its food offering to provide breakfast, lunches and canape events to city centre businesses on their site.

SHINE makes a difference in 3 key ways: It actively recruits, trains and mentors women serving a custodial sentence, these women are usually single mums trying to get their life back on track, making up 15-20% of SHINE’s workforce,  SHINE also works with the community to help raise aspirations by working with local schools to provide work experience for young people and educate children on healthy eating,  SHINE is also a fantastic place to start and grow your business with low-cost start-up space and networking and mentoring opportunities.

This year, the fostering service have a significant challenge to recruit new foster carers for children with complex needs, sibling groups and children who are over the age of 11.  School holidays present unique challenges to the fostering team as they work hard to create stable and long term placements for the young people – without the structure of school, often foster children struggle and this can sometimes lead to a break down in the placement.

We therefore hugely appreciate the support of SHINE Leeds, who have ‘gone above and beyond’ to help us deliver events that will reach new foster carers but also focus on ways to maintain the stability of foster placements.  Our teams are thrilled that the SHINE team have been able to provide rooms and catering in their beautiful conference rooms!

It is essential to create the right atmosphere when speaking to potential foster carers and there are few places better in Leeds to do this, than at Shine Space.  Their modern and beautifully decorated rooms are perfect for any meeting and the food they serve is simply sumptuous!  Their moto is to ‘Eat good, do good’ and they are as good as their word!

Stephen Maw, one of the event organisers, said :“Thanks very much to the people at SHINE who’ve given us a great deal on our booking for a training event with foster carers. It’s really important to have a great venue with excellent food, particularly for our foster carers who do such a brilliant job with our children. SHINE are providing exactly what we need”

“We are proud Ambassadors of Child Friendly Leeds and are delighted to support the children of Leeds in many different ways; including supporting the Foster parents, creating an edible garden and providing high quality theatre productions for the primary school children in Harehills,  providing work opportunities for the young people of Leeds and much more.”

When Shine was created, the local people thanked them for creating such a beautiful centre, from the shell of the previously derelict school building!  Trees used to grow through the dilapidated roof!  Thanks to the vision of Dawn and her co-founders, the centre is now a beacon of light and hope to the community.  At the moment, they even accommodate a nursery, so the sound of children’s laughter can be heard again, ringing from the basement of the building.  If you are looking for somewhere to hold your next event, looking for a base for your office, or a caterer providing healthy food from scratch, get in touch with SHINE at: enquiries@shinespace.co.uk or visit their website at www.shinespace.co.uk

Alternatively, if you are reading this and are thinking about fostering, why not get in touch with our recruitment team, who can answer any queries you have: Tel: 0113 378 3538
Email: foster4leeds@leeds.gov.uk