Young people are celebrating in Shotton Colliery. A Youth Investment Grant of over £1.2 million will fund a brand-new Outreach Youth Hub. Once complete the Youth Hub will support around 150 young people a week. It’s a first for Shotton Colliery, the area has not received any major youth investment before. It is very welcome news for young people, and everyone in the local community.
Securing their Youth Investment Grant is testament to close collaboration between Shotton Parish Council and Shotton Partnership 2000 Ltd, who have a bold ambition to build a new youth service offer to young people across Shotton Colliery and neighbouring villages in East Durham.
The Outreach Youth Hub will be built in Shotton Community Park, which is an ideal location to engage more young people and will offer services and activities that have been identified by the young people of Shotton. The grant means that the team can now start to develop a wide range of support and services for young people. The Outreach Youth Hub will initially provide youth sessions four days a week, as well as a session at the weekend. The services and activities will include sports and games; a ‘chill out’ space; coaching; music decks; film nights and social nights, to name a few. Work is already underway, and the team hopes to open its doors to young people by Spring 2024.
Young people’s ideas are at the heart of the Community Youth Hub. Young people will be consulted on what they want from the youth services, and wherever possible, the team will bring their ideas to fruition. It will give young people a purpose-built centre to explore and help develop the services and activities they wish to be involved in as well as create greater engagement and support for their personal development.
Young people supported by Shotton Parish Council & Shotton Partnership 2000 Ltd played a key role in developing the bid for this exciting new project, sharing their ideas and creating a video to support their application. Tilly Oliver, Shotton Youth liaison representative said:
“Wow, I didn’t think that when I took part in the video, we would get the money – when I was told, it feels like I’ll be part of history.”
We are delighted and proud to announce this significant investment to provide dedicated facilities and services to invest in our young people. It is a testament to our successful and strong community partnership working in Shotton Colliery. The funding will support and help address concerns and issues raised by our community and our young people.
Councillor Lorraine Cox (Chair of Shotton Parish Council) and Audrey Hepworth (Chair of Shotton Partnership)
