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No ‘nightmare summer’
• COUNCIL leader Keith Moffitt declared (New Journal, April 10) the council was ‘very interested in talking to young people directly and listening to what they have to say’
Well, we are Fresh Voice, a group of politically active young people based at the Highgate Newtown Community Centre and we would welcome the opportunity to speak directly to Cllr Moffitt here at our centre.
What’s Fresh Voice about? Our aim is to secure for young people services which will help curtail certain forms of anti-social behaviour by providing “safe zones” where they can learn how to be healthier and fit in rather than be excluded from society. The sad thing is that one such facility has just been denied lifeline funding by Camden. FRESH (a three-in-one complex consisting of an advice centre, gym and juice bar), which has been hugely popular with young people for the last seven years, has now closed its doors.
All its services were extremely well used. A typical four-month period saw attendances of 1,496 from young men and 1,042 from young women from all over Camden. FRESH was not just a gym but provided job opportunities advice, work experience and training. Its loss means the disintegration of chances for a community life, personal support and sense of purpose for all the young people who use it, not just those from around Highgate Newtown, but for all areas of the borough. It is an absolute imperative that we find new and continuing support for FRESH. It is one of the cornerstones in our lives and promotes social harmony in the immediate area and the wider community. We also believe that it deserves the council’s support because of the way it has consistently performed way above satisfactory levels in the government’s Every Child Matters criteria (be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, and make a positive contribution.)
What will happen without FRESH? Young people will hang around on the street, earning their street cred, becoming involved in crime or become a victim of crime. The project has already made an impact on curbing the effects of territorialism, turf wars, gang culture and drugs. Without it we may well be heading towards the “nightmare summer” that others fear.
FRESH VOICE YOUNG PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE
Nick Roxan
Highgate Newtown Community Centre, N19
Valued club
• AS a board member of Castlehaven Community Association (CCA) I went to the Town Hall to support our deputation against the cut of over half the budget of the only youth club in our area and hear how the council could justify this sad decision.
Councillor John Bryant, who responded, could not.
His first argument was that money is being given to other areas.
If it is, then the criteria are insufficient.
You cannot just cut over half the budget of a youth club in an area with the second highest levels of deprivation in the borough, with one of the largest numbers of young people and in a designated crime hot-spot. Yes, expand in other areas but don’t cut what is working well.
It’s said services are too high a quality. Castlehaven is doing exactly what, from parents to teenagers, youth experts to politicians, say should be on offer.
As well as a place to meet each weekday evening, at weekends and holidays, the club provides real value working closely with the police and council on addressing anti-social behaviour (for example, anti-gang and knife workshops), boosting skills, helping with school, increasing confidence, and guiding club members into training and future jobs, as well as offering a range of activities from art to sports.
This valuable work is precisely that which is being targeted by the cut.
The final attempt at justification is that CCA gets other council funding.
True it does, for example, for much younger children and for providing the borough’s youth inclusion project which takes children from across Camden.
CCA also fundraises significantly for its work. But this does not negate that a valued youth club and only one in the area will lose over half its funding and most experienced staff.
The cut is £25,000, a tiny sum compared with the overall council budget of hundreds of millions and to the thousands that police and the council would spend if a young person ends up in the criminal justice system.
This is exactly what well-run clubs, like the Haven, can help avoid and give real chances for our young people.
The answer definitely isn’t slashing a vital youth club.
JAKE SUMNER
Chalk Farm Road, NW1
Accusations
• IN your article (Cuts to youth services will cause ‘nightmare summer’, April 10), Councillor John Bryant is quoted as saying that “the bid from Gospel Oak didn’t qualify on quality grounds”.
He also states that spending in the past “has been concentrated on Labour’s favoured friends”. Despite numerous invites Cllr Bryant has never visited the youth clubs provided by QCCA in Gospel Oak. Could he please provide information on where the Gospel Oak bid did not meet the “quality grounds” and in particular whether need was one of the “quality criteria”.
Gospel Oak is rated the most deprived ward in Camden and we would like to know whether this was one of the criteria used in refusing Gospel Oak funding.
Could he also please provide evidence that in the past grants for youth work have been given to Labour’s favoured friends. Staff and volunteers at Queen’s Crescent Community Centre work very hard to deliver services not only to young people but to a wide range of local residents. His unsubstantiated and uninformed accusations on our work are to be deplored. Could he either substantiate his remarks or withdraw them.
MICK FARRANT
Oak Village, NW5
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