Our first blog – Making changes then till now
Our First Blog

Hi,
My name is Jasmine Inaiyah, Founder and Managing Director of Making Changes NE.
I am so excited to be writing our first ever blog on our brand new website! This will be a quick one to introduce the organisation and let you know of our history.
Making Changes started off as a constituted organisation in 2018, when myself, Sarah Louise Ashley and Mirander Haye had identified that many of the people we knew in our local area were suffering from negative mental health. Whatever the reason was, it was clear that there was a direct correlation to bad mental health, loneliness and isolation.

We made it our mission to combat these issues through a series of workshops, completely voluntarily, and we had great success in improving the mental health and well being of many.
We regularly put on courses, a session a week, spanning from 4 and up to 12 weeks.
The different courses we found most successful were healthy eating, cooking, gardening, sewing, mindfulness and creative writing. For a couple of our courses we had a celebration event on the last session, one where we went canoeing and one where we all went for a meal at Frankie and Bennies.
Due to other commitments, in 2019 Sarah and Mirander could no longer offer their time but continue to create a difference in their community, with Sarah even starting her own organisation called OurLives.Gateshead C.I.C, specifically for the people of West Gateshead.
Unfortunately, since lockdown 2020 we have only managed to have one face to face sewing course which had to come to an end when the rules changed but it has given me a unique chance to grow making changes, to make an impact on many more lives.
Making Changes is now a Community Interest Company (C.I.C), working not for profit to make a difference in Gateshead, Newcastle and Northumberland.
We are currently offering online sewing classes and are hoping to expand where we can in terms of offering more online services.
We are keen to find out what would make a difference to YOU. To get involved, or have your say you can fill out our contact form or any of our surveys.