The PENG Project

Working alongside Forward Leeds, our Director Phil Pearce created a project called PENG to be delivered by Forward Leeds.

PENG to a teenager refers to something that’s good and for the adults it meant Providing Entrepreneurs for the Next Generation.

The idea was to take a group of youths currently working with Forward Leeds and give them a project that they control. There were a lot of activities such as bowling which were good but only engaged the young people for the time they were there. Phil wanted to see if a longer term project would keep them focused.

The panel had chosen their project but now they had to decide how they were going to fund this. We had the opportunity to request funding but we wanted our panel to be completely self-sufficient.

They spent three separate days making toasties at lunch time and raised £170!

We decided we would use this opportunity to give the panel an experience they might never get again and work alongside a professional artist. They were taught different techniques for spray painting and stenciling. Then we worked with the panel to decide on a final design.

The project really brought the young people together. When we would meet after not seeing them for a few days they would tell us about ideas they had and their opinions on things which shows we had kept them engaged. There was a positive and noticeable change in their behaviours after speaking to their support workers and each one was asking what’s next.

The panel even sacrificed some of their school holidays to work on the project.