Latest news with #youthclub
BBC News
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
New outdoor youth club in March attracts 'fantastic turn out'
An open air youth club set up five weeks ago to address concerns about anti-social behaviour in a town is attracting "a fantastic turnout".The club in March, Cambridgeshire, is organised by Junction Youth Project, and runs on Wednesday 11, said she enjoyed the free food, limbo dancing and drawing, adding: "We get to see our best friends and that's the best part."Organiser Katy Shroff said: "It's all about bringing our community together, making the youths of our town happy." "They've said they were bored and people were saying they've been anti-social, but we just need a different approach and that's what the Junction Youth Project is all about." Ms Shroff, 45, who has lived in the town all her life, added: "We've had a fantastic turnout, this is about kids and about them having a wonderful upbringing - they always say it takes a village to bring up a child and here we are doing that."She added she "cannot thank people enough" for the amount of support the project had attracted in the town. Nevaeh, 13, said she loved going along."It's better than sitting in the skate park or somewhere else - everything's so nice - and my parents are happy we're coming here," she added. The volunteer-run club, funded by Cambridgeshire County Council and the Clarion Housing Group charity, is based at the town's newly-pedestrianised Broad Street. Youngsters can try table top football, make jewellery, play pool and there are refreshments. Bricklayer Alfie Robinson, 24, one of volunteers, said: "I want to help give back and redirect them onto a better path, because I'm on that path now."But it's not just about whether someone's going on the wrong path, there's a lot of parents who haven't got money for bits of food - it's all free for them here." Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
17-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Southend: Youth club 'gutted' after £1.2m grant is taken away
Members of a youth club and a boxing club say they are devastated after £1.2m of government money to build a new facility was subsequently withdrawn, despite them already starting the Boys Club moved out of its premises in Southend-on-Sea two years ago ahead of an anticipated rebuild, but it has been left with no home - as has Southend Amateur Boxing Club, which is now in a temporary facility which it says it cannot Essex Boys and Girls Clubs (EGBC) - an umbrella organisation which secured the grant - said the decision to pull the grant funding was "gutting".Social Investment Business (SIB) which distributes the grants on behalf of the govrenment said it had to be confident that projects could be delivered on time and represent "good value for money". 'Ready to go' Lifstan Boys Club has been running since the 1950s and moved into its premises on Lifstan Way in the 1960s, with the Southend Amateur Boxing Club joining a few years later.A pre-fabricated building, it was only meant to last for 30 years, and its roof and floor were too costly to maintain or repair. A grant of £1.4m to demolish the building and construct a new one was secured by EGBC from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as part of its Youth Investment said around £200,000 of the money had already been spent on preparatory work and surveys. After its initial contractor pulled out of the project, it found a new one who was "ready to go" when it heard the rest of the funding was being Solder, deputy county director of EGBC, admitted there was a "slight shortfall" between the grant and actual cost of the build, but his organisation had enough funds to cover it."But that wasn't enough for SIB to deem the project worthy of continuing," he told the BBC."I just couldn't believe that we'd invested so much time into a project, to get it so close that everyone was ready to get working - for them to still say 'no', it was gutting really."John Plummer, treasurer of both the Lifstan Boys Club and Southend Amateur Boxing Club, said he feared the two clubs would "become extinct" without a new building."I think that's disgraceful that it could happen," he said."I hope we find a solution but I can't see one in the near future." The Southend Amateur Boxing Club has moved to a former dance studio a mile-and a-half (2.4km) away, but its volunteer staff said it is too expensive."One month's rent [here] is pretty much a year's rent at Lifstan," said Danny Neville, head coach at the boxing club and a committee member at Lifstan Boys Club."This town needs this club - there's no other youth clubs about," he added."There's nothing left in this town apart from computer screens and crime - the kids need us."Joel Brown joined the boxing club when he was just nine years old. Twenty years later, he is now the club's child welfare officer, but he is worried about its future."I don't know if we'll survive, to be honest with you," he told the BBC."To see it go would really be a disservice to the city, and as a Southend man it would break my heart to see it." 'Value for money' The Department for Culture Media and Sport declined to comment, although it said that it has invested £145m into youth programmes for 2025-26.A spokesperson for SIB said: "We appreciate how disappointing the loss of funding will have been for Essex Boys and Girls Club"."The withdrawal of funding is never a step we want to take and is only ever a last resort."But the spokesperson said it had to apply "a thorough and consistent approach to all projects as part of managing the funds for DCMS". "Whilst the Youth Investment Fund seeks to support as many young people as possible in a meaningful way, with nearly 200 projects successfully completed, it also needs to be confident that projects can be delivered successfully within the timescales of the fund and represent good value for money," they added.
BBC News
17-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Building purchase gives Callington youth group a 'secure future'
A Cornwall youth club is celebrating after it raised enough money to buy the building it calls Youth Project Group has bought the former Lloyds Bank building in Fore Street after securing grants from organisations, including the town and county group's chairman Paul Carey said the purchase gave the club "a secure future and an opportunity to do a lot more for the young people".The club has planned a celebration ceremony on Friday in which the key to The Vault, as the youth centre is known, will be presented to one of the young members. In April, Mr Carey said the group had managed to raise £130,000 in grants but had been short of £100,000 until it was awarded further grant funding in May, which enabled the purchase of the added the club regularly had 30 to 35 young people attend drop-in sessions three times a week and buying the building had been "a relief" as it ensured the club could continue.
BBC News
14-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Memories of Droitwich Spa Lido that was more like a youth club
"We all went to the lido and that was where we let off our steam. We let off our energy. We went swimming. We went on the boards, went down the chute. We met girls."In 1962, connection between the young people of Droitwich Spa happened in physical space, where IRL was IPP - in a public pool. The town's lido was like a youth club, then... just a wet one. These were the days before tech tailored to toes. There was no heating. And at the centre of this cold water world was David Sparkes; a 13-year-old earning two shillings and ninepence an hour - about £2.88 in today's been sharing his memories. Milestones bring it on. The restored art deco attraction is celebrating its 90th year. Let's go back some of that way in Worcestershire, where young David has moved on from the "hanger room" (in which people used to hang up the clothes). He's become a lifeguard. And it was an offer he could not refuse - not at an extra threepence a week. In the summer, queues were "unbelievable", Mr Sparkes recalled of earning his money. "Sometimes we had to stop letting people in."Things were nippy, though. "In those days there was no heating," he said. "It was a cold pool. [The water] was literally out of the tap."He stayed there until 1973, qualified as a swimming teacher, and eventually became chief executive of British Swimming and the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) – now known as Swim England. A typical day at the lido in the 1960s and 70s started at 08:00 when staff tided up and wiped down tables, before things opened at 10:00. Swimmers were in the pool until about 20:00 in the summer, with the site staying open until those days, workers used a brass instrument to measure density of the water and how much salt was in it, and they added enough brine to replicate sea water."There was a pipe that came in from the brine pumping station which was at the back of the high street in those days, there still is, I think," Mr Sparkes said. It was while teaching that Mr Sparkes felt a pull towards more advanced roles within the field."I decided I wanted to become a coach so went to Birmingham University... got into coaching and moved away from teaching kids."Eventually I got more into regional swimming which landed me on to the ASA Committee."But now, in the summer of 2025, the focus is more on the Lido's opening of 1935. And it would be unfair to let things pass without making a splash. The anniversary is being marked with a summer of water-centred celebration, running from June to August. Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
28-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Demolition and redevelopment of Rotherham youth hub proposed
Plans have been submitted for the demolition of a youth club in Kimberworth, to make way for a new, purpose-built youth and community application to the council proposes the demolition of the existing building on Baring Road, home to the Rotherham Blackburn Club for Young its place, the new building would provide a more modern and flexible space for local youth and community public consultation for the application runs until 19 June. The existing clubhouse is still in regular use, operating three evenings a week for young people aged eight to 18, offering activities such as sports, cooking, arts, and educational programmes, said the Local Democracy Reporting has been a part of the community since 1974, and has recently secured grants to expand its services, introduce mental health support, and involve older youths through volunteering opportunities. The proposed redevelopment would see the youth club expand its internal floorspace by 43%.Submitted by architects Corstorphine and Wright on behalf of the group, the project includes a main hall, youth rooms, an outdoor patio area, improved accessibility via a ramp and staircase, and secure plant and bin new design would use modular construction methods to reduce disruption and build time, meaning components will be constructed off-site, then transported for the building would be clad in timber-effect materials with black aluminium windows and doors, and a flat single-ply shrubbery would be planted to promote biodiversity.A total of 10 new cycle spaces would be added, and regular daytime and evening activity is expected to contribute to overall site would continue to maintain four part-time staff roles. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds or catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
