We're running for Soft Touch Arts this year because of the amazing work they do with young people across Leicester and Leicestershire.

Any money raised will be used to improve their incredible youth arts centre on the iconic New Walk. Soft Touch Arts are planning to expand their community café/performance/exhibition space so young people have an even larger, higher spec space where the city and county can enjoy their work, their voice, their creativity – and their food!

Over 600 young people a year go to Soft Touch Arts often because something isn't right, something isn’t working out - they may not be going to school or struggling in school. Maybe having a tough time with their own mental health or situation in life.

Just over half are boys, just under half are girls and 2.5% are non-binary and transgender. About half identify as White British, about half with different ethnicities. 2 out of 3 young people they work with in Leicester are from the city’s poorest neighbourhoods. More than 1 in 3 already have a long-term health diagnosis.

Their inspiring art, music and cooking projects grab their interest. Then, the real work begins. Their team of skilled creative and youth workers listen to them. They build up their confidence, secure their trust, develop their creativity, develop skills - key skills too, like team working, critical thinking and constructive criticism. Young people learn to feel better about themselves, feel better about their future and about what the world has to offer them and what they can give back.

And Soft Touch’s amazing New Walk facing, young people led space - that your donations will expand and improve - is where the product of this process and young people’s creativity and progress presents itself to the world.

Their community café, their exhibitions, their markets and their gigs is where a young person can show the world that something is working out, something is going right.

For a change.

This is what Soft Touch’s amazing work looks like and what your donations will be supporting.

Thank you.