Minister for Civil Society and Youth, Stuart Andrew MP meets young people at Alt Valley Community Trust’s Communiversity

Alt Valley Community Trust, based in North East Liverpool, aims to help communities to reach their full potential and lead happy, healthy, and fulfilled lives. Alongside supporting adults, Alt Valley provides vital support to young people via dedicated youth hubs across the region.  

The Youth Investment Fund will transform Alt Valley’s youth services across five centres in Liverpool and will enable them to reach another 882 young people per week. One of the Youth Investment Fund grants will greatly enhance and modernise Alt Valley’s Communiversity, based in Croxteth. 

The Communiversity has been awarded a Youth Investment Fund grant from the government of over £343K, and once the project is complete it will mean they can offer young people a new range of activities and reach another 100 young people per week.  

This week (10 May 2023), Minister for Civil Society and Youth, Stuart Andrew MP visited Alt Valley Community Trust’s Communiversity project to meet young people and see how the Youth Investment Fund will transform their youth hubs and enhance opportunities across North East Liverpool.  

The Youth Investment Fund will enable Alt Valley to redesign and refurbish their recording studio, giving young people more opportunities to develop skills such as blogging, recording online plays and creating digital content. There will be a new moveable performance stage with linked seating to facilitate performances with, and for local young people and their families and carers. The project will also enable Alt Valley to relaunch its successful pre-academic creative provision within a contemporary environment linked to a range of supportive community initiatives as well as employment and training opportunities.  

The funded project also includes renovating a cafe and providing a modern and multipurpose youth hub meeting and activity space, with accessible toilet facilities. The strong links with education and training within the centres as well as the links with the other community hubs will provide a wide range of opportunities for young people to try new things in a safe and supportive environment whilst raising their aspirations and life chances. One of the highlights of the new development will be a modernised café, where young people can learn skills to create healthy meals, learn about food hygiene, as well as enjoying fun baking sessions.   

The enhanced performance and creative space will enable more young people to develop drama and performance skills, including associated skills in putting on a play, such as production management and learning about stage hair, make-up, and costume design. Vitally, young people will benefit from the creative writing activities to help them develop confidence and improve writing skills. Craft sessions are on offer too, including crafts linked to seasonal events, giving young people more opportunities to socialise, have fun, develop new skills, and improve their well-being.