Covent Garden Area Youth Club

All community groups have suffered since the fire last summer in the building housing the Community Centre. The Youth Club was very fortunate to be offered space by the Red Lion Square Tenants Association and we gratefully accepted and have been using their hall one evening a week since before Christmas. It is all credit to our two workers, Anthony Gentle and Phillipe Corette, who have worked very hard in keeping the group of young people together. They do outreach work every Tuesday, meeting the young people outside Dudley Court then usually going off to the cinema with them or maybe bowling or ice skating. On Thursday they meet in Red Lion Square, and although there is no space for a pool table or table-tennis, they have their music and various board games and its just a warm safe environment for them in which to meet up. During this time we have had an Ofsted Inspection by Westminster and their two representatives had to meet with Anthony and Phillipe in the street, but they got a true insight into how difficult it is to have any kind of youth provision in an area such as Covent Garden, where premises are of a premium. But we have had very positive feedback from Westminster and they were very impressed with the workers and the young people. Westminster have constantly been in contact with the Management Committee and are trying to help with regard to premises. We have also had help from Caroline Keen, but funnily enough not many local property companies seem willing to give up "valuable commercial space" to house a charity-run youth organisation - I wonder why? Anyway, we carry on regardless and have now taken on-board a female worker called Faye - who has worked with the youth club in the past - she does a lot of arts and crafts and its very good to have a female worker to balance things out for the girls.

The youth club battles on and we can't wait for the day when the Community Centre reopens. The Youth Club Management Committee would like to take this opportunity to wish the Community Centre all the best for the future and I'd like to say thank-you to our workers and the young people of Covent Garden for keeping the Youth Club going through such a difficult period.

Janet Reid

 

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