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Fran Heron, left, and Sarah Gregory from Youth Initiatives
with Father Nick Wheeler and children from the youth group |
'Beacon of hope' youth project hit by cash cuts
Community urged to back scheme that keeps teenagers off streets
A PROJECT described as a “beacon of hope” for Camden’s
young people is facing severe cutbacks after its funding dries
up next month.
Youth Initiatives, based in Polygon Road, Somers Town, was set
up in 2000 to provides outreach services, summer activities,
music projects and healthy eating schemes for many of Camden
Town’s most disadvantaged 8-19 year olds.
But the project’s £300,000 a year funding from the
government’s Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) is due to
come to an end on March 31 – leaving managers struggling
to find new funding.
The SRB, set up by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in
1994 to improve life in deprived areas, provided funding for
projects for a maximum of seven years.
YI director Sarah Gregory said: “The idea was that these
projects would eventually become part of the mainstream, with
funding by other sources like the local authority. But there
is no funding available from Camden Council.”
According to Ms Gregory, the project’s services would continue
in a “much reduced form” thanks to a £149,000
grant from the Lottery Fund for the next three years.
She said: “From April we will only be able to afford three
professional youth workers instead of the 12 we have at the
moment. We are fund raising massively in all sorts of little
ways to get more money.”
At a meeting organised by YI staff in Camden on Thursday to
discuss the changes, Father Nick Wheeler from St Michael’s
Church in Camden Road, urged the community to support the project
– and warned that the recent death of 18-yr-old Mahir Osman
proved the need for the project.
He said: “People think that if you are young Camden is
the place to be but for those of us who live here it is a very
different story. Mahir Osman went to his death the victim of
the drug wars fought daily in this community. And yet the world
carries on by so easily as if nothing had happened.
“Over the last few years Youth Initiatives has been a beacon
of hope in Camden. But now all that is about to disappear unless
our community resolves to do something about it and unless we
can find a new energy to ensure that our young people have a
future.”
Aisha Leigh, 13, from Agar Grove said: “Youth Initiatives
has been very good to us. It’s got young people off the
streets and given them someone to turn to.”
A Town Hall spokeswoman said: “Camden has been helping
more than 60 projects funded by the SRB. Part of this has been
to offer support and advice on how to keep the projects going
by tapping into other funding streams, once the original funding
stopped.
“We have agreed to discuss further with them how we can
work in partnership, sharing resources and advising them on
the relevant available funding they can now apply for.”
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