History
Bread is a charity that was established in 1986 in response to the findings of a study conducted Belinda French. It demonstrated the need for an organisation that would explore local and global issues that affected and shaped young people's lives, and provide necessary support and training to help young people to develop confidence, knowledge and self awareness.
As a result Bread's aim has been to increase young people's awareness of the political, economic and social forces that shape our communities. We began working with young people aiming to:
- Influence youth and community work practice
- Explore global issues
- Promote justice and equality
Through the work with young people and Youth Workers we identified a further need to focus more specifically on local young people and the issues that directly affected their lives.
Progressive approaches to youth work, and to equality issues such as racism, sexism and homophobia were developed locally. We created resources, such as Equalizer 1 & 2 and the Essence Board Game, to support work with young people in informal settings.
Throughout the 1990's Bread worked increasingly in partnership, tackling issues thrown up by HIV and AID's, sexual health and drugs.
Since then the organisation has developed its own unique approach:
- Delivery of services: peer education, delivering projects, training events, youth events
- Production of educational resources: workbooks and issue based games exploring sexism, sexual health, drug awareness, racism and empowerment.
Bread continues to work with young people to develop services that fill gaps in provision for young people.