DIY SOS BBC Children in Need Special 2021 Heads to Hull with Your Help

BBC ONE’S flagship property renovation show, DIY SOS: The Big Build, will head to Hull this September to take on a charitable build with BBC Children in Need.

The Children in Need Special will work on St Michael’s Youth Project in Hull on a build that will help children and young people get out of the city and into green spaces.

The programme’s team of Mark, Chris, Jules, Billy and adventure playground engineer, John O’Driscoll, join with kind local tradesmen and volunteers to transform an empty 2 ½ acre field into a purpose built ‘adventure camping site’.

DIY SOS Special 2021

For over 30 years, St Michael’s has been working with children and young people in Hull and surrounding areas to deliver a variety of activities that support children and young people’s confidence and self-esteem, raising their aspirations and encouraging them to reach their potential.

The project works with over 500 children and young people who have little or no access to gardens or greenspaces. St Michael’s organise camping trips and residentials throughout the year at sites that are at least three hours away, which means that not all of the children they support are able to access them currently. Some also lack the confidence to be away from home overnight.

The team from St Michaels & DIY SOS: (l-r) Derek Pye – H&DAA Fishing, Matt Rogers & Jo Lorenz from St Michael’s, DIY SOS’s Julian Perryman and John O’Driscoll from Adventure Playground Engineers.

St Mike’s has been receiving funding from BBC Children in Need for several years. A three-year grant of £64,012 is currently being used to deliver The Eating Table project which delivers weekly activity sessions based around food and healthy eating for children and their families, which aim to help prevent hunger and encourage a positive relationship with food.

Jo Lorenz, Project Lead at St Michaels Youth Project said: A lot of the work we deliver is focused on the outdoors, as we know the value this has on young people’s lives. The pandemic has had a huge impact on many of the young people we know. We are over the moon that the DIY SOS team are going to transform this space into somewhere which will have such a huge impact on our community and for all of the children and young people of Hull.”

The DIY SOS build site in Hull

DIY SOS, along with local trades and volunteers, will transform the empty field into an outdoor area which will allow the children to get close to nature and enjoy breaks from the inner-city areas that they live in. The team will create:

• A field kitchen to teach cooking and to cook
• A landscaped campfire
• A pizza oven
• An exterior covered classroom
• A circular mountain bike course, dual skill level about 1 km
• A bird watching tower
• A low walk rope
• An adventure playground
• A toilet/shower block (maybe from donated containers)
• A storage unit for 20 tents / 20 bikes

How You Can Help

The team would be immensely grateful for the following donations:

• timber, aggregates, steel containers, septic tank or treatment plant, solar panels, wind turbines, mountain bikes, tents, rope, outdoor furniture, play equipment and internal fit out of shower block and field kitchen.

Mark Millar, Build Manager on DIY SOS said: “DIY SOS always gets a great response in East Yorkshire, and we look forward to returning to work with this wonderful community on what is an inspiring charitable build, please join us.”

DIY SOS charitable builds are hugely ambitious and rely on the generosity of trade volunteers and company donations and so is appealing for landscapers, gardeners and tradespeople to offer support with the transformation in September.

Those interested in volunteering as a professional trade or donating product to this ambitious charitable build should email: diysoshull@bbc.co.uk. There will be a Trades Day on Tuesday 17^th August, those interested in attending must email the address above before attending.

The two week build will take place from Wednesday 8^th – Thursday 16^th September 2021. The programme will be broadcast in November 2021.