A new £3.5 million youth centre in Islington will be shaped by the people who know best what it should contain.
A group of young advisors aged between 16 and 24 has been recruited to represent the views of young people in Islington on the development of a flagship youth centre in Finsbury Park.
The old laundry at the Hornsey Road Baths site is being refurbished, after Islington was awarded My Place funding by the Government in March. The 14 young advisors employed by Islington Council will represent young people’s views on various aspects of the centre’s development, such as how it should look and what services it will offer.
In the next few weeks, the group will be interviewing and commissioning the architects and will then work closely with them, making decisions on the design of the building. They will also be finding out about the views of other young people, parents and residents in the area through creative events and activities such as focus groups and workshops.
The group of advisors come from a variety of backgrounds and all bring different skills to the job. Some have been involved in drama and peer mentoring at the National Youth Theatre, or running local community events through the Finsbury Park Youth Forum.
Zach, 16, a student from Islington said: "I'm looking forward to being involved in this project and making sure that young people's ideas are really listened to."
The new youth centre will give young people access to a safe space where they can socialise with peers and work on art, music, technical theatre, film, fitness, dance and other performance projects. The centre will aim to raise aspirations – something that young people themselves identified as being an important objective when they prepared the bid for funding.
Islington Council’s Executive Member for Children and Young People, Councillor Paula Belford said:
“Young people were fully involved in securing the money for this project, so it’s only right that they should continue to have a big input now. We want this new centre to make a real difference to the lives of young people living in the area so it’s really important that they will be leading the way, directing the development of the centre and commissioning important work.
“I’m looking forward to hearing some of the feedback and seeing how the project progresses over the coming months. I also hope that when it’s finished, some of these young advisors might be involved in helping to run their centre.”
The 14 young advisors will be managed by local arts organisation All Change, who run a programme of combined-arts projects with young people and community groups in Islington. All Change will help the advisors to come up with creative ways of engaging other young people and the local community in a creative consultation about the development of the youth centre.
Suzanne Lee from All Change said:
"We’re really looking forward to working with the young people on such an exciting project, and finding innovative ways to use the arts to involve both the young people and the wider community in determining the design and use of this new building."
The YMCA will also be offering leadership training to the advisors, whilst The Sorrell Foundation will be providing advice on high quality design and helping the young advisors to understand their roles. In addition to this, they will support Kaveh Rahimi - who was involved in putting the My Place bid together - to make a film about the development of the project.
ENDS.
Page Last Updated: 30 June 2009