After six decades of service, the youth club continues to support and empower young people in the community.
Established in 1960, the Youth Club Hut was built at the community centre to offer young people a place they could call their own.
Throughout the years, the youth club continued to develop and grow, and in the 1990s, it was recognised that the Youth Hut was too small for the needs of the youth club. Therefore as part of the Long Ashton Millennium Project Redevelopment of the community centre, it was decided that plans would be drawn up for a new space for the youth club.
As part of the development, North Somerset Council Youth Service worked closely with LAMPRO to design a better space to enable the youth club to expand its service for the young people.
Whilst designs were being drawn up, the youth club temporarily moved into the community centre Griffin Lounge to make use of the bigger room.
During this time, the North Somerset Council Youth Service prepared a grant submission to the National Lottery Community Fund, and as the leaseholder of the community centre, the Long Ashton Community Association submitted the grant request on their behalf.
As a result of the work by North Somerset Council Youth Service, they received a whooping £148K from the NLCF towards the build, with the remaining cost of approximately 15% raised by LAMPRO as part of the village hall re-development fund.
After a lot of hard work, in 2001, the youth club finally moved into their new home, which was aptly named the Club Room.
The new Club Room was well received by the young people, and now with each new generation, it continues to be their place to make friends, have fun, learn new skills and find support when they need it.
We have had some incredible years, and over the decade’s youth club has worked with thousands of young people, but it hasn’t been without its challenges.
One such challenge was when North Somerset Council removed funding in 2012 and closed its youth services throughout the county.
The North Somerset closures created an uncertain future for the youth club. But thankfully, the Long Ashton Parish Council recognised the need for youth services in the village and decided to increase its grant in 2012 to help us respond to the challenge. And to date, continues to provide significant grant support.
Although this was a differcult time for us, it also presented an opportunity to create a community-based youth service here in Long Ashton. Hence the youth club management committee decided to convert the charity to a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), that completed in 2015.
In addition to the Parish Council yearly grant, our youth club management committee, alongside our service provider, raise additional funds via grants, fundraising events, donations, and the 500 Club.
With the support we receive from the community, we have thankfully been able to keep the youth club running and after six decades of service, the youth club continues to support and empower young people in the community.
