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Behind the scenes at South Leeds Youth Hub
MUSIC HUB: Ste Pye, senior outreach worker at Future Arts with David Thompson and Jimmy Hassett, on the Urban Arts Programme.
Bosses of a multi-million pound youth centre in Belle Isle have issued a rallying call as they celebrate a year in business saying “We want to pack this place out”.
The state-of-the-art £5m South Leeds Youth Hub, off Middleton Road, opened in February last year – one of about 70 similar initiatives nationally.
It provides educational and leisure activities for young people, including an industry-standard £200,000 music and video recording studio, a dance studio, a mechanics’ garage, a hair and beauty salon and a sports area.
The number of people using the Hub has grown steadily. It had nearly 5,000 visits in October and November.
But manager Leon Reed said there was plenty of room for development.
“This is a resource like I’ve never seen in my career,” he said. “We’re developing a model of working with young people that can be replicated elsewhere.
“In ten years’ time I want this place to be packed out, brimming with activity and acting as a flagship for similar pieces of work to take place in other parts of the city.”
Sue Pennycook, a freelance NHS consultant who has been working at the Hub since October, said: “This challenges the idea of what a youth centre is – the old preconception of a dusty church hall held together by chewing gum.
“Young people are starting to hear about us, but we have a lot of work to do in promoting the fact that we’re here.”
The idea for the Hub, which is on the old Merlyn Rees High School site, was conceived as part of the previous government’s My Place initiative, which set out to build world-class youth facilities.
It costs about £400,000 a year to run and is paid for partly by the NHS and partly by Leeds City Council, although bosses have had to find other means of funding because of the squeeze on public spending.
As well as bringing in schools and other education providers to use the building for teaching, they have started to let rooms out for conferences and other activities.
During the evenings there is a series of open activities including sports, dance and arts. Plans are in the pipeline to raise funding to teach enterprise skills to help young people start their own businesses.
At the moment the centre is operating at about 50 per cent capacity, five days a week. There are ambitions for it to open at weekends too.
Judith Blake, councillor for Belle Isle and executive member for children’s services at the council, said: “The Hub is an absolutely fantastic facility, but it’s still in its infancy and we want to make sure it reaches its full potential.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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