We currently have 4 funded projects including projects responding to Covid-19 crisis in our communities, in addition we have 2 ongoing voluntary projects.

Weekly Food delivery for Vulnerable People (Emergency response)
Finding out that there were many more people who were not taking advantage of the many food delivery initiatives in the area due to language and other barriers, since the lockdown we started running a pilot scheme to deliver donated food along with fresh produce purchased from supermarket, supporting many households to continue to stay safe and self-isolate. This was initially funded from our reserve. Thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund, we were able to continue and expand on the project, delivering food packages to the most vulnerable people in our communities whilst providing some regular face to face contact at a safe distance and a brief chat to check everything was okay and made sure they had up to date health information.

Training Community Champions with lived experience to help others (Employability)
Funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust Covid 19 Support Fund, this project enabled us to re-engage 2 experienced sessional project workers from refugee backgrounds to work intensively with community champions from various Refugee Community Organizations (RCOs). These community champions were supported to work  among their own respective communities to deliver direct support to around 160 refugees and asylum seekers affected by the crisis in the Tyneside region.  The work involved reconnecting with volunteers and help them identify beneficiaries most in need, deliver virtual drop-in sessions via zoom and WhatsApp to support service users with issues related to c19 with particular focus on employability, such as updating CVs and helping them apply for jobs, help with form filling and benefits, but also arranging mock interviews and helping with building confidence.

Befrienders  Project (Volunteers Coordinator)
Funded by the Power For Change Covid-19 Community Led Organisations Recovery Scheme (CCLORS) grant, this project enabled our charity to manage an increasing volunteer intake, ensuring they were properly inducted and trained for the tasks required, and properly supervised. This ensured a more efficient delivery of the service for our clients, and safer for the volunteers and clients.
The volunteers who needed this support were our new intake of befrienders for vulnerable people.  The trained befrienders managed to reach about 120 people from diverse refugee communities in Gateshead and Newcastle primarily addressing the isolation and loneliness and associated mental health problems caused by the pandemic.

Lloyds infrastructure fund (Capacity building)
There are 35 Refugee Community Organisations (RCOs) and 5 new migrant (East Europeans etc) led community groups in the northeast that Triangular currently works with.  The total membership and beneficiaries of these organisations are estimated to be over 10000.
RCOs often act as a first point of contact for refugees and migrants, providing advice and reassurance for people who may have arrived in the UK under traumatic circumstances, and without sufficient understanding of the language and culture here.    They also provide a voice for refugees and asylum seekers with the receiving community, local authorities, and other local service providers.  They are often led by well educated, well-meaning and dedicated volunteers but mostly lack the capacity to run an efficient  organisation in the UK.

Since Feb 2021, funded by the Lloyds Foundation, the charity has started an exciting  capacity building programme supporting  RCOs with  quality assurance of organisational standard and support with putting in place appropriate and necessary  policies and procedures.

3 groups were supported so far with potential members/beneficiaries of more than 900 people

Drop-in Sessions (Unfunded and volunteers led)
This service is the most popular service where people with variety of needs (i.e, housing, immigration, education, language, volunteering etc) are addressed in a culturally appropriate manner.  It is led  by trustees and qualified/experienced volunteers within the community. At least 20 people are served each week (some repeat clients) on a first come first serve basis. We often turn people down due to lack of capacity.


Tailored Community Exercises Tyneside (Unfunded and volunteers led)
Following March 2020 government’s lockdown measures and social distancing restrictions on movement, all activities and sports centres were forced to close, leaving most of our beneficiaries without regular exercise.
Wishing to improve levels of fitness of our service users staying safe indoors, helping and encouraging them to keep active, while they remain in their homes in line with guidance, we started an online physical exercise project by using technology on phones, tablets, laptops or computers- all run and managed by volunteers.
We estimate more than 100 people have benefited from this project. Service user are reporting that this has been hugely beneficial not only on their physical health but mainly on mental health as well. They also say that it has introduced them to a digital world where they are able to continue to attend other sporting and non-sporting activities