Futures Forum: Sidmouth Youth Centre closes: picking up the pieces
Sidmouth Youth Centre. Ref shs 0825-40-14TI. Picture: Terry Ife
There were calls to 'do something':
Talks could save Sidmouth Youth Centre - News - Sidmouth Herald
Urgent call to re-open Sidmouth’s youth centre - News - Sidmouth Herald
Then the Town Council and other bodies stepped in:
Futures Forum: Sidmouth Youth Centre to reopen with Town Council funding
SIDMOUTH: Young Devon set to launch youth services
13th January 2015
YOUTH services will return to Sidmouth this month, following the completion of a deal between the town council and charity Young Devon, writes JACK DIXON.
Charity representatives have been working closely with councillors to restore weekly sessions for the town’s young people, and it is now planning to run three sessions a week at the Manstone Youth Centre. Young Devon says it is committed to creating a service in Sidmouth that is “shaped by and for the young people of the town”. And the charity will be bringing young members together with parents and carers to discuss how they want to see the service develop, with the youth centre at the heart of the community.
Duncan Cherrett, Head of Skills and Enterprise at Young Devon, said: “We are delighted to be working alongside the town council to ensure that young people in Sidmouth still have the youth work services that they are looking for. The town council really does understand that young people need to have these sessions open to them. My team is very excited at the prospect of working in Sidmouth and we are looking forward to getting to work in January.”
“This is not about our taking over buildings, but simply about working in partnership to make sure that young people in the town get the youth services they need,” added the charity’s chief executive Tim Tod. “Each organisation got involved in this project for absolutely the right reasons and I am really looking forward to creating an exciting partnership with the town council that benefits Sidmouth’s young people.”
The council has decided to maintain the Youth Provision Working Group to examine ways to help develop the new service. This will include consultation with individual youngsters, leaders, volunteers and organisations. The council hopes to include as many previous volunteers and workers as possible in the new service.
Councillor Ann Liverton, chairman of the working group, said: “The council has always worked hard to help and assist young people as much as possible. They are the future of the town. The reopening of the youth centre by the council in such a short space of time and in partnership with a well-established provider, Young Devon, is a reflection of this.”
SIDMOUTH: Young Devon set to launch youth services - View from Sidmouth
Many other such projects are happening across Devon, as reported last week:
Community groups step in to save youth centres hit by Devon County Council cuts
By Exeter Express and Echo | Posted: January 27, 2015
COMMUNITY groups with the support of town and parish councils, have stepped-in to save the future of a raft of youth centres formerly provided by Devon County Council.
In February last year, the council launched a 12-week consultation over its proposals to slash its youth services budget by almost £1m, threatening its 34 centres, of which 16 were in Exeter, East and Mid Devon. The county council is facing pressure from the Government to save £110m from its spending by 2017. The £970,000 cut for the youth service, which cost £3.7m per year, was part of overall cuts of £28m facing the council in 2014/15.
As a result of the consultation, during which there was widespread concern, the council resolved to operate the Youth Service from eight hubs: Exeter, Exmouth, Newton Abbot, Totnes, Okehampton, Bideford, Barnstaple and Tiverton, with youth workers working with schools and other outreach opportunities in local communities.
The council withdrew its resources from the remaining centres but many communities formed local groups to re-open them and utilise council funding pledged towards the transition. Cabinet member for education and children’s services, Councillor James McInnes said he’s “delighted” that many towns which saw their youth centres close, have seen them either re-opened or due to re-open. Meanwhile the council is focusing its more targeted youth service on helping vulnerable young people.
The council has also transferred the freehold of some buildings to town and parish councils for youth centres.
In Exeter, ISCA Church plans to re-open the Knight Club in Beacon Heath soon, while the YMCA plans to have Exeter’s Westside youth centre doors open again by April.
Ottery St Mary community group, 06, have been running the youth centre in the town since December.
Youth charity, Young Devon is providing some training in Honiton for a voluntary group which is working towards re-starting youth sessions in the next few months. Honiton Community Church has also relocated its youth sessions to the same building.
In Sidmouth, the town council has commissioned Young Devon to run youth sessions from the current building in the town, and has taken on the temporary lease...
Community groups step in to save youth centres hit by Devon County Council cuts | Exeter Express and Echo
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