Supporting young dads to become the fathers they want to be at North East Young Dads and Lads

North East Young Dads and Lads – known as NEYDL – has grown from a small Gateshead project into a specialist charity supporting more than 200 young men every year across the region and beyond. Dedicated to helping young fathers play an active and meaningful role in their children’s lives, NEYDL helps men take pride in their status as young fathers, rather than accepting the stigma that too often comes with having children at a young age.

Doug Laidlaw, Regional Programmes Manager, and Nikki Rummer, Fundraiser at NEYDL, explain why young dads need support that recognises their individual circumstances and how funding from the Greggs Foundation Community Action Fund is helping the charity build the foundations it needs to reach more young fathers – both in person and online.

NEYDL became a charity in its own right in 2017, but its story began a couple of years earlier when the Young Women’s Outreach Project (YWOP), a charity supporting young women and mothers in Gateshead identified that there was no similar support for young fathers in the area.

What began with a small pot of funding and just ten hours of support each week quickly uncovered a much bigger need. As Regional Programmes Manager, Doug Laidlaw explains,

“One of the biggest issues was isolation. Young fathers often didn’t know other people their own age who were dads and felt their new identity wasn’t always recognised or celebrated.”

That principle of listening has remained central to NEYDL as it has grown. Today, its work includes intensive one-to-one support, peer groups, parenting support, advocacy, training and digital resources. Its face-to-face services extend across much of the North East, while its DigiDAD e-learning platform gives young fathers access to support wherever they live.

Seeing and supporting young men from all walks of life

The challenges facing young dads can be complex. NEYDL supports young men dealing with everything from housing, debt and unemployment to relationship breakdown, social care proceedings, poor mental health and difficulties maintaining contact with their children.

Its approach is deliberately flexible. As Doug says,

“We might get a referral that tells us what a professional thinks the dad needs to work on. We understand that, but then we meet the dad and ask what’s most important to him.

“Sometimes, before he can really start thinking about parenting, we need to sort out his housing or debt or make sure he’s getting the right benefits. Often, these men are described as ‘hard to reach’ but we don’t see it that way. We meet them where they’re comfortable and build trust however quickly or slowly they choose.

“If it’s a five-minute meeting, great. If it’s a two-hour meeting, that’s absolutely fine. It’s about what fits that young man’s life.”

It is an approach reflected in the charity’s “revolving door” policy. Young dads can return for further support when circumstances change rather than reaching the end of a programme and finding the door closed.

Changing the way young dads are seen

For Fundraiser, Nikki Rummer, part of the challenge is changing perceptions of young fathers themselves.

“There are some very good reasons why a lot of services are focused on mum,” she explains. “But in that process, dad – and particularly a young dad – can sometimes be considered more as a risk than a resource for his children.

“What we’re asking is: what support can we provide that will help him become the parent he wants to be? Some of these young men have had really difficult experiences, so even getting someone to engage in a face-to-face meeting can be a big win initially.

“You need to build that relationship before they feel comfortable talking about their vulnerabilities.”

NEYDL’s results demonstrate the value of doing so. The charity now supports more than 220 young dads annually, spending an average of more than 45 hours with each person.

Incredibly, 100% of the dads they have worked with over the last three years said they would recommend NEYDL to another young dad when surveyed.

Making support accessible online through DigiDAD

DigiDAD is a free digital learning platform covering subjects including parenting, mental health, bereavement and navigating family courts. Crucially, its content has been co-created with young dads themselves. Doug says,

“Most of the voices and people you see on there is a dad who has been involved with the service. They’re involved with the script writing and the style of the animations. The videos are short, snappy and there’s humour in them because that’s what the dads told us they wanted.”

The visual approach is particularly important for young fathers who may find text-heavy parenting resources difficult to engage with.

The charity is now also exploring online gaming as another route into support. Young dads can meet in a safeguarded digital environment, play games and gradually build relationships with peers and NEYDL.

For some who have been reluctant to attend face-to-face sessions, it has provided an important first step. Nikki explains,

“We’ve seen young dads who were really isolated start to make connections and talk about being a dad. One has gone on to engage much more widely with NEYDL and is now becoming a trustee, which is really exciting.”

Laying the foundations for growth with core funding

As NEYDL’s reach has expanded, so too has the organisation behind it. From a project originally involving only a handful of people, the charity expects to employ more than 20 people by the end of 2026. Currently, six members of its workforce are former beneficiaries.

Supporting that growth requires investment not just in frontline programmes, but in the systems that allow them to operate effectively. This is where a grant through the Greggs Foundation Community Action Fund has been so important.

NEYDL have been awarded £20,000 per year for two years with unrestricted funding allocated to a number of essential core costs for the charity. Nikki says,

“We’re doing a lot of capacity building and making sure we’ve got the staff, resources, leadership and administrative structures in place to handle that growth. It’s the sort of work that can often be difficult to get funding for, but for us it means everything.

“Being able to utilise Greggs Foundation funding for salaries and HR costs has been crucial in helping us to deliver our projects.”

For an organisation working with vulnerable young people, strong systems aren’t desirable; they are absolutely essential. This is because they underpin safeguarding and help ensure growth happens in line with regulations and best practice.

Doug adds,

“It might not be the most exciting thing to fund but if those things aren’t in place, it becomes really difficult to be out there doing the work.”

Helping more young dads find their place

NEYDL is now entering the first year of an ambitious new strategic plan. Alongside expanding face-to-face provision across the North East, the charity wants to take DigiDAD to a much wider national audience and develop specialist support around neurodiversity, domestic abuse and advocacy for young fathers involved in children’s social care proceedings.

It is also developing training to help other voluntary and statutory organisations become more father inclusive. At the centre of those plans, however, remains the principle NEYDL started with: listening to young dads and building support around their lives. Nikki says,

“We’re ambitious, but it feels achievable now that we have the right plans and structures in place – something we couldn’t have achieved without core funding from the Greggs Foundation Community Action Fund.”

You can find out more about the work being done across at NEYDL across the North East and beyond by visiting their website here.