The Youth Club – a viewpoint

My daughter was a baby in 2004 when a good friend took me along to a public meeting where the notion of a Parish Plan for Audlem was first tabled. The meeting broke into discussion groups and I was asked to feedback the thoughts from my group to the gathering at large.

Meanwhile, in the unexpected and gruelling almost ten years it took to start a family I did a fair amount of voluntary work with young people alongside my day job in the ad industry of the 80s and early 90s.

We arrived in Audlem in 1999 when my son was 16 weeks old and I joined North Shropshire Youth Service as a volunteer, helping to run a group for teenage mums. They subsequently paid for my training as a part time Youth Worker and took me on to do sessional detached work from a Youth bus working in outlying areas of Whitchurch.

So it was in 2004/2005 that I was asked to join the Audlem Parish Plan team that year, with responsibility for the 'Youth' side of things. I was already 41 so I smile at the idea, but hey I'm not knocking it, that does feel young to me now.

I shan't labour my history too much. I wanted simply to explain a bit about how it is I came to be here and running Audlem Youth Club and the winding road to this point.

In the intervening years there have been two more Parish Plans I think. The last one that I was involved with must have been published around 2010. The Youth message was consistent. A place to meet, please.

Back to 2017 and this November the Public Hall annexe will officially open. Audlem Youth Club will finally have their place to meet for as long as they need it. Mission accomplished? Then why have I just resigned as Chair of Audlem Youth Club?

We can plot the campaign across 13 years but it intensified over two years ago in late 2014. The inclusion of provision for a Youth Club in the lottery bid for the new annexe was widely regarded as one of the potential keys to its success. Enter me and colleague Monique Hollinshead. We had both been attempting to fight in the 'Youth' corner on the Aphax committee for some time and so it fell to us to take action and actually go and start a Youth Club. Otherwise it's quite tricky claiming £600k for a building with a room for a Youth Club, when there is no Youth Club.

Happily, we really believed a Youth Club was needed and lots of young people agreed with us. Youth Club launched in July 2015 and now has a regular weekly attendance of around 25/30 young people. Our annual Summer 'Bangers & Splash' events attract over 50 young people.

About the time that I left the Youth Service, around 12 years ago, the government started to systematically dismantle Youth provision in England. Statutory provision is now only targeted to those areas of greatest need. Remember there was once a Youth Bus that visited Audlem? That too became a casualty of the cuts. Voluntary Youth clubs have occasionally sprung up to try and pick up the slack but these are becoming like hen's teeth. There is a tsunami of red tape, training requirements and unacceptable levels of exposure to personal liability that organisers are faced with. Gone are the days when the well intentioned can organise an informal Youth Club. Of course our children are better protected now, which is no small thing, but there is also the unintended consequence that voluntary Youth clubs are disappearing. All Youth Clubs are disappearing.

Audlem Youth Club is run by a team of 7 volunteers. All of whom have up to date DBS checks. There is always three volunteers on duty at every session. We were informally advised by Cheshire East Youth Service to keep staffing at these levels as a safety measure. A session is two hours long plus approximately half an hour for setting up and clearing away. Based upon an assumed hourly minimum wage rate across 36 weeks of delivery, that is a potential annual wages bill of £2,025. That does not of course include the time spent at planning meetings or in preparing sessions. We charge a weekly subs of £1 for which we provide free fresh fruit, free drinks, and a fully funded organised activity. Entry is kept affordable to ensure that the Club remains accessible to all. No child is turned away if they do not have the means to pay.

Why am I setting these costs out when Youth Club is a free amenity for the community of Audlem made possible by the time donated by volunteers? I have spent the past two years trying to persuade others to see it this way and have to now concede defeat. Youth Club is required to pay a weekly rent of £20 to the Public Hall for each two hour session. Annually that amounts to £720. The subs that we collect is reinvested into activities and the fruit and drinks that we provide. In order to survive we must rely on fundraising, grants and donations. My position has always been that rent, if it must be levied at all, should be set, at worst, at a level to cover costs, at best, at a peppercorn rate. The annual rental yield from Youth Club that is written into the business plan for the new annexe is £1000.

How did it all work historically? The last time there was a Youth Club operating from the Public Hall it received funding from the Parish Council which was sufficient to cover rent obligation and thus to sustain the club. I do not know what the weekly rent figure was set at during this period.

The Parish Council funded the launch event for the new Youth Club in 2015 but were not in a position to consider further funding when last approached due to the, then, unresolved situation with the management of the village playing fields and car park. It is also my understanding that the Parish Council now prefer not to consider applications to support running costs, i.e. Rent. This is not uncommon and we have found that the same applies with many grant making bodies. It is far easier to secure a one off grant for a piece of kit than it is to get your rent paid.

In speaking about Youth Club's ongoing financial challenges it is really important to celebrate the fact that Youth Club has received incredible and widespread support from the community since its launch. The Bridge Pub dedicated a fundraising evening to Youth Club, Ralph's Christmas Quiz at the Lord Combermere was in aid of Audlem Youth Club and prizes were freely donated by many Audlem Traders, Audlem Education Foundation have given generously this past year, Ian Jones allowed Youth Club to use his football game to raise funds at last year's Carnival, The Round Table have recently given a generous share of the funds raised by Father Christmas last year. Audlem Mill are staunch supporters. Youth Club have received grants from local bodies as well as one off donations from individual fund raising events. Without the goodness of the Baptist Chapel in offering their meeting room rent free the project may well never have got off the ground. Youth Club has been fortunate, which is why it is not about to imminently shut down through lack of funds. As a footnote to this, some of you may remember that funds were raised many years ago for an ill fated skateboard park project. These funds were made over to Youth Club by Audlem Action for Youth at the outset. One of the first actions taken by the Youth Club Management Committee was to unanimously vote to ring fence these funds for a future, appropriate project. Some of the young people who were to be the original beneficiaries of the skate board park now have children of their own.

It's difficult to convey the nuances of this argument without sounding all bleeding heart and 'get us, aren't we brilliant doing all this voluntary stuff'. In considering the wave of kindness that has come our way since we began I feel sure that the weight of community opinion is supportive towards Youth Club. We would very much like to be free of the energy sapping burden of an ongoing, unaffordable rent. This is not naivety, nor lack of commercial nouse. This is a matter of principle. We understand that we must fund raise to survive, there is insurance and other costs to cover even if we are free from rent. It is a question of whether or not one regards Youth Club as a service to the Community or as a hobby/interest Group run by members for the benefit of members. We are not ignorant to the financial challenges that management of the Public Hall presents. We are simply suggesting that there could be a more sympathetic model applied if one accepts that Youth Club is a unique case.

Although I will no longer be Chair of the Youth Club Management Committee I will be continuing as Organiser and will remain hands on at the weekly sessions. If this gets published it might be timely to don the old flak jacket. On the other hand it would be great to hear what your thoughts and opinions are on the matter. Supportive or otherwise.

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