ALTON Town Council has agreed in principle to provide £66,750 over the next three years to kick start a youth hub for Alton.

To be based in the youth room at Alton Community Centre, the decision was taken at last Wednesday’s meeting of the town council’s community committee, to accept a proposal by The Kings Arms to work alongside stakeholders to deliver and grow a youth provision in Alton until March 2020 but with funding that will take the scheme forward, with further approval, to 2022.

The project will see the engagement from December 1 of a Kings Arms service manager for Alton who will be paid £20,000 a year and will spend 20 hours a week in the town drawing up a strategy, setting up, fundraising and managing the implementation of a youth provision, with support from other local organisations and volunteers who will be trained to provide the service.

The decision to go ahead with the project was based on the findings of an Alton youth provision and facilities working party, which flagged up the need in the town for a co-ordinated approach to tackling drug, alcohol and mental health related issues amongst young people, particularly those out on the streets who are not inclined to join organised groups and where police response is often perceived as “very slow”.

Speaking at the meeting, a youth worker for Community First, the East Hampshire-based charity which has recently received funding from Alton Town Council and Alton Lions to run a year long ‘Street Strong’ outreach team in Alton, said there was a “high level of challenging needs” in Alton, and particularly in the 11 to 16-year-old age group.

The proposal by The Kings Arms, a youth work provider set up 18 years ago by Christians in Petersfield, which already has relationships in Alton through its work with young carers, the shared provision of ReMind anxiety courses and the Early Help Hub, is to support the local community in the provision of a youth service custom-designed for Alton and its needs.

Backed by the expertise and support network of KA, whose operations manager, Caroline Aeschliman, has already applied for up to £65,000 worth of grant funding to support the Alton project, the service manager will co-ordinate the programme, drawing together existing services and provisions, reinvigorating and relaunching others, and seeking out volunteers to help.

In stressing the need for the local community to work out what the needs are and to commit to the provision of a sustainable service, Ms Aeschliman said of the aims of KA: “We work alongside young people to enable them to reach their full purpose and potential in life. We offer a friendly listening ear, help and advice and provide opportunities for learning new skills and trying new things as well as offering a safe place of refuge.”

Rev Andrew Micklefield, vicar of the Parish of the Resurrection, was among the first to express his support for the KA proposal, confirming that “the churches will be involved.” Already providing some good youth services the church would, he said, be sure to provide volunteers to support the project, and not with a view to an evangelistic opportunity but as wider community support.

Alton Community Centre had already offered up its existing youth room, welcoming the opportunity for the facility, built in the 1980s as a self-contained youth cafe with its own entrance, toilets and bar, to enjoy a new lease of life. While noise could be a potential problem, ACA chair Pat Lerew agreed that part of the responsibility of youth taking over their own space was to learn to be good neighbours and that compromise would be the name of the game.

Alton Community Centre has just gone into partnership with Community First and ATC to launch a new Thursday evening youth club, ‘Linked @ ACC’ for young people at school in years 6, 7 & 8 and aged 10 to 13. Open from 3.30pm to 5.30pm this kind of junior youth club can, according to youth workers, make a “massive difference to lives.”

The club will form part of the youth hub provision which is expected to grow to offer regular week day youth sessions at the community centre, supported by outreach work in the town and in local schools.

While it is hoped to attract outside funding to support the project, town clerk, Leah Coney cautioned that although funding was readily available for start up projects it was more difficult to find revenue funding.

Nonetheless, councillors voted unanimously to take £6,570 from ATC reserves to finance the cost of a youth services manager for the four months from December 1 to March 31 and, in principle, to underwrite £20,000 a year for three years from April 1 next year, subject to the forthcoming budget workshop and to be ratified at full council.

As one member of the committee commented: “Any money spent on youth work is worth so much more.”

To find out more about Linked @ACC, visit cfirst.org.uk/youthfirst or call Liam Moloney on 07467 941006.