21ST CENTURY YOUTH PROVISION... COMING TO WIRRAL
Did you know 66 % of young people spend the majority of their leisure time in their bedroom whilst a staggering 82 % of young people think that their local area offers very little for them to do outside of school?*
It’ s clear young people need help now more than ever before. Whether it’ s a lack of ambition or qualifications, or negative behaviour and attitudes, the current childhood crisis is real and well documented.
Visited by over 3,000 young people every week, Bolton Lads and Girls Club( BLGC) is a state-of-the-art custom-built, modern youth club offering a wide range of sport, art and enterprise activities. Open 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, BLGC is driven by a powerful combination of public, private and volunteer sector support.
In 2006, serial entrepreneur, Bill Holroyd was approached by officials from BLGC to chair the Club’ s Board. Bill willingly took on the role and realised very quickly that other towns and cities in the country would clearly benefit from a first class facility like Bolton. It was this vision that inspired Bill to develop the charity, OnSide Youth Zones and spearhead the development of the Youth Zone‘ model’ across the country.
OnSide was officially established in 2008 with one simple aim … to build a network of 21st Century Youth Clubs, giving young people, safe and inspiring places to go in their leisure time. They are designed to give young people aged 8 – 19 years old( 25 for those with a disability) somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to in their leisure time; occupying their bodies and minds with fun activities, learning new skills and socialising in a safe, positive way.
Youth Zones promise to offer over 20 action-packed activities every evening from sports and arts to music, dance drama, employability and enterprise schemes – a Youth Zone is a childhood dream. Open 7 days a week, they are proven to reduce anti-social behaviour levels
in their areas of service as well as create hundreds of jobs. To be more specific, at least 50 full time jobs as well as 100 volunteers are recruited to make sure service provision is of the highest of standards.
So how are these world class facilities possibly funded in these times of asperity? Youth Zones cost £ 6million to build with £ 3m and the site provided by the local authority and the remainder made up of grants, trusts and philanthropic giving. The annual running costs for a start-up Youth Zone are £ 1million; 40 % met by local authority support, 50 % by the local private sector and 10 % through membership and entry fees from young people. OnSide works with the Youth Zone team to raise the first three years of private sector funding ahead of opening. This unique partnership of the private sector, local authority, young people and the community forms a dynamic four-way, inter-connecting relationship, which drives the sustainable success of an OnSide Youth Zone.
OnSide has since impacted on the lives of over 20,000 young people, opening six centres in Blackburn, Carlisle, Manchester( The Factory), Oldham( Mahdlo), Wigan and more recently Wolverhampton( The Way) – the Midlands first OnSide Youth Zone. The growing national charity also has numerous‘ live’ developments on the go with confirmed Youth Zone projects in various locations. Here in the North West; Chorley, Preston and Warrington are set to have a Youth Zone in the coming years, whilst in the capital, Barking and Dagenham, Barnet and Croydon are to become London’ s first OnSide centres come 2018 – the South is following the North – refreshing change!
And now we move on to Wirral which is set to have its first £ 6m youth facility come April 2017 when the doors officially open. Named by local young people as‘ The Hive’, Wirral Youth Zone is located in the centre of Birkenhead next to the fire station and construction is well underway with the project progressing rapidly. The superstructure is complete and main roof and windows have
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