Project

We provide youth club in our own youth club building for young people aged 11-17 living in the rural location of West Lavington and surrounding villages, where there is no public transport in the evenings, and nowhere else for the young people to go.

What does your charity/project do?

We were open four nights a week, keeping young people off the streets and providing them with a variety of activities so that they can learn new skills and have somewhere safe to meet their friends. Recent cutbacks in public spending and grants have resulted in a cut back in our services and we are currently open only one night a week, with a second night starting in the neighbouring village in September. The availability of the youth club for young people helps to reduce anti-social behaviour

How does your charity/project support the local community?

The community as a whole benefits from a reduction in anti-social behaviour, and the young people benefit from having somewhere safe to go in the evenings, and to try new activities. The youth club is staffed by trained and paid youth workers as well as volunteers, so parents can be sure that their teenagers are properly supervised. The youth club has the backing of all the local parish councils, and they receive regular feedback from the management committee and are involved in major decisions.

What do you plan to use the CommunityForce award for?

The funding would be spent on opening the youth club for an extra night each week. Each weekly session costs £5000 a year (50 sessions). This is mainly staff wages. With attendances of around 25 young people per session, we have three staff on duty. Staff are paid on a sessional basis. We would also fund some trips for the young people to enable them to try new activities or sports, such as go-karting, paintballing, quad biking etc, which most of our young people could not otherwise afford to do