We are pleased to announce that we are supporting a new charity, Onside.

What does OnSide do?

OnSide is a national youth charity determined to make sure that all young people have the opportunity to discover their passion and their purpose. The organisation builds, launches, and supports a network of state-of-the-art multi-million-pound youth centres (Youth Zones) in the UK’s most disadvantaged areas.

OnSide is a unique partnership between young people and their community, local authorities, and supporters from the private sector (including businesses and philanthropists) who help to fund and build each Youth Zone. 

Since 2008, OnSide has raised millions of pounds in funding and built local and national partnerships. You can read some of their success stories here. 

How to help?

Support live projects

OnSide is currently fundraising for new Youth Zones in Barnsley, Bristol, Grimsby, Preston, Thurrock, Warrington, and West London (Hammersmith & Fulham). 

Each Youth Zone starts with a circa £9m capital campaign run by OnSide, creating a new local independent charity which then becomes part of the Network. The capital build is half funded by local authority investment and half by philanthropy.

For each project they also seek to secure the first three years of a Youth Zone’s annual revenue and expenditure. 

You can find out more about how you can support current fundraising opportunities for new Youth Zones here. 

Grow the network

In the next five years, OnSide plan to continuing growing by opening four new Youth Zones each year and significantly increasing the number of young people accessing their support whilst growing their membership to over 100,000 young people. 

They are looking for partners who share their vision and are interested in making a transformation to how young people are supported in society.

Further information about how you can help them grow their network can be found here. 

Support innovative network wide projects

Over the last five years, young people, staff and volunteers across Youth Zones have collaborated to enhance mental health and wellbeing, mentoring, digital skills, financial literacy, careers and enterprise, sport and activity, Youth Voice, and citizenship. 

Youth Participation and Inclusion gives young people a greater voice in the matters important to them, both within their Youth Zone and in society. 

OnSide are currently looking for support with training and development, commit to fit and employability – you can find out more about each of these projects here. 

Charities we regularly support

Throughout 2022, Bluestone has donated around £10,000 across multiple charities, totalling around £45,000 over the past five years. Some of the charities we regularly support are:

• The Children’s Hospital Charity 
• Wakefield Hospice 
• MS Society 
• Mind 
• Normanton Food Bank 
• NEW: OnSide

Other charities we’re proud to have supported: 

• Great Ormand Street 
• Guide Dogs UK 
• Children in Need 
• Macmillan Coffee Morning 
• Oxford’s Children’s Hospital 
• Just Giving 
• FSL 
• Brave the Shave 
• Martins House Hospice for Children and Young People 
• Alzheimer’s Society