Community bakery's pledge to help more young people

The #iwill pledge is being undertaken by 700 organisations and hopes to inspire young people to take part in social action.

Youth social action is defined as “young people taking practical action in the service of others to create positive change” and within LoveBread social action opportunities are the opening of the Saturday Morning Café Club at the LoveBread community bakery, No7 Martin Street, Brighouse.

LoveBread’s #iwill pledge is to run a café each Saturday morning. The café is run by a team of 15 young volunteers, aged between 10 and 20, who bake a range of sweet and savoury snacks, serve great tea and coffee and provide a friendly environment for local people and groups to meet.

This is a pay-as-you-feel café with 100 per cent of all donations going to a charity chosen by the team.

Liz Pearson, project supervisor at LoveBread CIC, said: “We have always had a wonderful volunteering team at LoveBread and now we are delighted to extend this opportunity to some of our talented young bakers, who get to experience running their own baking business.

“The café is open every Saturday between 10am and 12pm and we encourage local people to support this exciting venture. Come along to No7 Martin Street to find out more.”

Working with business, education and voluntary sector partners, the #iwill campaign aims to ensure that all young people can access social action opportunities, whatever their background.

The recent Youth Social Action survey found levels of participation by 10-20 year-olds stand at 42 per cent. The goal is to raise this to 60 per cent by 2020, which will mean 1.5 million more young people are active in their communities.

Charlotte Hill, CEO of Step Up To Serve, the charity which coordinates the #iwill campaign, said: “We are delighted that LoveBread has pledged to support our work, and today is sharing their progress to inspire others to take part also.

"If we are to make involvement in social action the norm for 10-20 year-olds we need partners to commit to tangible actions just as they are doing.

"The involvement of LoveBread will undoubtedly help us progress towards our challenging goal.’