Just 4 Youth is running a project for girls aged 11 and over from the West Middlesbrough area, to develop their own fashion business.
The project, called Catwalk Queens, takes second hand clothes, either purchased from charity shops or donated from friends and community sources, and recycles them into clothes that they can sell at a profit. The project hopes to develop skills and opportunities for young women including dress making, budgeting and marketing, as well as teaching life skills and raising job prospects and aspirations. It will also challenge negative perceptions about young people in society, and demonstrate the positive rather than the negative impact that young people can make in their community.
The project is running at Whinney Banks Youth and Community Centre until 17th December, and is funded by WMNT’s UChoose programme.
The young people involved in the project have designed their own logo to go onto the clothes and give them a distinct young person’s identity all of their own. The project is culminating in a Fashion Show at the Acklam Garden City Social Club on Burlam Road on Wednesday 17th December from 5pm. There will be an auction to sell the clothing made during the project, with money raised going to a local charity of the young people’s choice.