Employees at regional legal and professional services firm Knights have come together to support a Teesside-based suicide prevention charity.
Founded in memory of local businessman Russ Devereux, the Headlight Project aims to reduce the number of deaths by suicide in the Tees Valley area, providing support to those bereaved by suicide as well as preventative education and training.
The Headlight Project was established by Russ’s wife and Knights employment partner Catherine Devereux, as he tragically took his own life in 2018 after experiencing acute stress caused by a workplace incident. Over the past year, the Knights team has provided support across several initiatives, including a ‘Turn Monday Bright’ day which saw workers wear vibrant clothes to work to raise awareness and show solidarity with the charity’s work across schools and businesses, and the wider community.
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Ms Devereux said: “The support from the team at Knights has been invaluable and has been extended in many great ways. Balancing my legal career with my work as a trustee at the Headlight Project can be demanding yet incredibly rewarding, so to have received the flexibility, encouragement, and generosity of everyone at the firm has gone beyond words. As the scope of the charity continues to expand, so does our ability to reach those facing unimaginable loss, offering a guiding hand and support when they need it most.”
A Newton Aycliffe-based community project is set to help young people develop new skills and self-confidence with the help of a four-figure grant from a County Durham employer.
Five Acres Community Garden CIC is using a £2,000 Banks Group grant to buy new woodworking equipment and accessories which will be used to help build a workshop at its new headquarters in Brafferton, which it is expecting to move into this spring. The organisation currently helps than 40 young adults with additional needs, or ‘champions’ as they are known at Five Acres, by empowering them to learn independent living, social and employability skills.
Currently based at the Rof 59 trampoline centre in Newton Aycliffe, Five Acres was set up six years ago by directors Debbie and Gavin Iceton, who had noticed while running their transport business a fall in the range of services available for young people with additional needs.
Their long-term vision was to create an agricultural and horticultural centre on a five-acre field they owned at Brafferton, and activities include cookery, gardening, small animal care and arts and crafts sessions, with some of the products made, such as keyrings, coasters and chopping boards, being sold to raise funds. The equipment purchased with the grant will also be used by the champions to build other items at the Brafferton centre, including raised beds, fencing and animal enclosures.
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Donna Martin, funding and marketing manager at Five Acres Community Garden, said: “We’ve been fundraising hard to ensure we have the resources we need to make the absolute most of our new home and to be able to show everyone that visits the passion we all have for our work. Support from local businesses like Banks is absolutely invaluable and will help us make even more of a positive difference to the lives of our champions.”
Kate Culverhouse, community relations manager at the Banks Group, added: “Five Acres is already providing young people across our region with the chance to achieve and succeed in lots of different ways, with the move to its new premises set to increase the tremendous impact that the organisation makes.”
Elderly and vulnerable people in the North East are receiving some joy from a specialist animal charity thanks to a donation from Tyne Tunnels operator TT2. TT2, has donated £2,500 from its community fund to pay for visits from dogs and their owners through charity Wag & Company, to older dog-lovers in their own homes, as well as vulnerable people in care or hospitals.
The money given to Wag & Company will fund either 186 home visits to isolated elderly dog lovers or 1,674 visits to vulnerable people in care or hospital.
Wag & Company connects volunteers and their pet dogs with elderly or vulnerable people who often have failing health or are bereaved or isolated. The visits give people something to look forward to, where they get human company for a chat, and cuddles from a furry friend.
Diane Morton, founder and chair of Wag & Company, said: “Loneliness can damage your physical, as well as your mental health and we know from feedback from the people we visit that the cuddles with our dogs and interaction with their owners make a huge difference to their wellbeing. We rely on donations to enable the life-changing work that we do so we are very grateful to TT2 for the support.”
TT2’s CEO, Adrian Wallace, said: “When we heard about what Wag & Company do, they were an obvious choice to support with our community fund. Dogs are proven to reduce stress, anxiety, depression and ease loneliness – it’s such a brilliant idea to have more people benefit from dogs.”
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Barratt and David Wilson Homes North East has teamed up with The Percy Hedley Foundation to help design and create more inclusive and accessible playgrounds for children.
Students from Percy Hedley School in Killingworth and Northern Counties School in Jesmond, both part of the Percy Hedley Foundation, were invited to visit two playgrounds in Morpeth on Barratt and David Wilson Homes, where they were asked to evaluate their accessibility and share thoughts on potential improvements.
The students visited the Barratt Homes offices in Gateshead to present their findings, with suggestions including making more user-friendly pathways, adding wheelchair-friendly roundabouts, and incorporating more sensory elements into upcoming developments.
Carl Sobolewski, managing director of Barratt and David Wilson Homes North East said: “Our continued work with Percy Hedley is hugely important to us, as it is one that sits very close to our hearts. We’re thrilled to be working with the students again, especially on a project which truly allows their creativity to shine such as this one..”
This collaboration builds on Barratt Homes’ previous work with The Percy Hedley Foundation, including the creation of an inclusive room in its Old Durham Gate Show Home in Durham and offering work placements for two students to bolster their employability skills.
John Preston, CEO of The Percy Hedley Foundation added: “Our longstanding partnership with Barratt Homes has been invaluable in empowering our students to contribute to the creation of more inclusive spaces for all from concept to build. They thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to present their feedback to Barratt Homes’ directors, and we’re excited to see more playgrounds developed that are accessible to every child.”
South Shields-based 海角视频 Docks Marine Services has been shortlisted for the National Family Business of the Year after three generations of the Wilson family built it from a small ship repair service into a national and international group with contracts worth more than £250m with the Royal Navy.
Harry Wilson, now 82, founded 海角视频 Docks on a single slipway on the Tyne in 1992, growing it into a national company operating across the globe before turning over its running to his three sons, Jonathan, Gary, and Chris, who are all directors.
The company has worked hard to maintain a family ethos across multiple sites, which has seen them shortlisted for this year’s National Family Business of the Year Awards. Currently, 海角视频 Docks is introducing the third generation of the Wilson family to the company, with succession planning forming part of the company’s long-term strategy.
Jonathan Wilson, who is now the managing director of 海角视频 Docks, said: “It’s an honour to be shortlisted and to be mentioned among so many great companies. 海角视频 Docks is now the biggest, family-owned ship repair and marine services company in the country and the family element couldn’t be more important to us. To prosper as a company over the long term, you need a close-knit group of people working hard in the same direction, and we’ve always made that one of our priorities.”
The winner of the 2025 prestigious title will be announced on June 18 at a gala awards evening at The Royal Geographical Society in South Kensington, which the family plans to attend. The company is in the North East and Northern Ireland section of the awards and will be considered for both regional and national awards.