Leeds Children's Charity signs as Charity Partner

Silicon North has named Leeds Children’s Charity at Lineham Farm as its Charity Partner.

It’s an organisation with unusually deep roots in the city. Its history goes back to 1904, when the Leeds Poor Children’s Holiday Camp Association was established to give children living in poverty the chance to get away from the city.

More than 120 years later, Leeds Children’s Charity is still doing essentially that: giving children experiences and opportunities they might otherwise miss out on.

The charity works with more than 3,000 children each year, many of them living with poverty, difficult circumstances at home or other challenges.

Its base at Lineham Farm is only six miles from Leeds city centre, but feels a good deal further away. There are 120 acres of countryside, woodland and open space where children can stay, learn outdoors and do things that can seem completely ordinary until you realise not every child gets the chance to do them.

Ride a bike. Build a den. Sit around a campfire. Get muddy. Spend time in the countryside. Have a few days away from whatever is happening at home.

Since the charity began, more than 100,000 children have been supported.

There’s a reason we wanted Leeds Children’s Charity involved with Silicon North.

We spend a lot of time talking about investment, growth, technology, skills and building a stronger Northern economy. That’s our job.

But there’s another Leeds alongside the cranes, new offices, growing companies and technology jobs. Around one in four children in the city is growing up in poverty.

That’s a fairly sobering number.

Silicon North is becoming a network of businesses and people with money, expertise, contacts, time and influence. Bringing Leeds Children’s Charity into that network gives us a chance to put some of those things to useful effect.

Not just by raising money.

There will be opportunities for the charity to tell its story through Silicon North, meet businesses across the network and take part in our events. We’ll also be looking at practical ways our participants and partners can get involved with Lineham Farm and the work happening there.

Geoff Shepherd, founder of Silicon North, said:

“Leeds Children’s Charity has been doing important work in this city for more than a century. Lineham Farm is only a few miles from the centre of Leeds, but for some of the children who stay there it provides access to a completely different world.

“Silicon North is about building a better connected and more successful Northern economy. I think we also have a responsibility to connect some of that success to the places and people around us.

“We have a growing network of businesses and people with resources, skills and reach. If we can point some of that towards helping Leeds Children’s Charity do more of what it already does very well, then we should.”

Sharon Milner, CEO of Leeds Children’s Charity, said:

“We're proud to be Silicon North's charity partner, working alongside an inspiring network of businesses that share our passion for supporting communities and creating brighter futures for children in Leeds.”

The partnership starts immediately.

Leeds Children’s Charity has been part of the city for 122 years. We’d like a lot more people in the Northern business and technology community to know about it — and, more importantly, find out how they can help.