Millennium Powerhouse unveils its new look youth offer and hub

A Youth Investment Fund grant of over £2.7M has had a transformational impact on their work with young people, enabled Millennium Powerhouse to establish a new youth work team, and has helped bolster the charity’s long-term sustainability.

The newly renovated youth hub was declared open at a celebration event to mark the occasion. Young people, youth workers, partners, funders and supporters joined together on 28 March 2025 to explore the new look building, meet the youth work team and hear about Millennium Powerhouse’s transformation. Lord Khan of Burnley, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Afzal Khan, MP for Rusholme joined Millennium Powerhouse for the celebrations.

Millennium Powerhouse is a multi-service youth hub, offering young people a wide range of services including music, drama, sports and arts and crafts, as well as specialist mental health services and support for young people who are not in education, employment or training.

The team at Millennium Powerhouse is passionate about giving young people a voice and power and had a big ambition of changing the way they deliver youth work. Prior to receiving the £2.7M Youth Investment Fund grant, their youth work offer had been delivered by partners, but they wanted to change this and grow their in-house team. To achieve this ambition, they needed major capital and revenue investment to make their hub sustainable, make better use of the space, reduce their carbon footprint and recruit new youth workers.

Before securing the funding, Millennium Powerhouse was expensive to run and heat, spending over £50K a year on energy. The Youth Investment Fund grant has paid for major capital works to reduce its carbon footprint and make the space sustainable. Works included:

• Repurposing the space, making it more accessible to all young people.
• New insulation throughout.
• New roof, doors and windows.
• New energy efficiency systems, including solar panels.

The Youth Investment Fund’s revenue grant and additional support have enabled Millennium Powerhouse to strengthen its in house youth offer, with five new youth workers. The youth team now offer three weekly in-house sessions and four community outreach sessions. It has also helped them to improve their governance, fundraising, monitoring and evaluation, project management skills and enabled them to develop a Youth Champions Group that can feed into its governance.

Lisa Samuels, CEO for Millennium Powerhouse added:

“The Youth Investment Fund has made our vision a reality. It’s amazing to have a new, modern and sustainable building, but what’s more important is that it’s transformed our youth work and given real power and voice to young people.”