ALTON Community Association youth services are under threat from a 75 per cent cut in grant funding from Hampshire County Council which, it is feared, could have an adverse impact on vulnerable young people in the town.

In a statement of concern, the community association is appealing for financial support from the community to enable it to continue providing these services.

It is a dire situation. While accepting that it has had to cut grant funding for youth services by 75 per cent across the county from April 1, due to “significant and unexpected cuts in Government funding”, the county council says that enforced restructuring of the funding available, so that it is targeting the most vulnerable, has meant that Alton Community Association’s application didn’t meet the new funding criteria.

Describing youth services as “unique within the Alton area”, Alton Community Association trustee Haydn Chappell pointed out that this year’s (2016/17) grant of £23,000 had enabled the community association to provide valuable support to young people in the town in a number of ways.

Based at Alton Community Centre, the association employs trained, qualified youth leaders who currently run three hub evening sessions per week, which also act as a sexual health hub providing pregnancy and chlamydia testing.

The centre also provides a separate weekly session to help young people who are not in employment, education or training.

Mr Chappell said: “We engage with vulnerable young people in our area and work with local schools and our local Early Help hub who refer young people to us. We currently have some young people attending from a local care home.

“During our hub sessions, we deliver targeted sessions on issues affecting our young people, such as internet safety, sexting and bullying. We will also offer one-to-one sessions and support a young person who is experiencing problems at school, home or college. Our youth workers have been known to accompany a young person to the job centre or other places that are intimidating when you visit for the first time.

“We can help with a range of issues, including drugs, alcohol, sexual health, homelessness, gaining employment, self-esteem and anti-social behaviour.

“We also provide sessions to local schools and have delivered sexual health advice to entire year groups and self-esteem training to a selected group of young women.”

In addition, Alton Community Association is about to start street dance sessions to help improve physical health and, working in partnership with three other youth services in East Hampshire, is planning a girls’ weekend in March for vulnerable young woman, which will address issues that come from risky behaviour.

“This service is very flexible and responds to the ever-changing needs of our community as they arise,” said Mr Chappell.

But this year Alton Community Association is facing a crisis as Hampshire County Council’s grant is cut from £23,000 to £5,799 from April 1 “so our very valuable and professional youth services are under severe threat”.

Mr Chappell continued: “The reduced grant will only fund one hub session per week which is far below the needs of Alton youth, is not viable for the staff, and will inevitably result in more troubled young people in the town.”

In a statement, the county council confirmed that a reduction in Government funding has meant that it has been forced to re-provision the services it provides and restructure the funding that is available for youth services.

“As such, we carried out extensive engagement last year, with providers of youth services across the county, on plans to potentially move from providing grants to introducing contractual arrangements – to commission these services from providers. Such a move would allow funding to be focused on where it is needed the most, and ensure it meets local needs.”

The statement continued: “Alton Community Association youth services applied for a nought to 19 funding grant of £11,598 for 2017/18. Unfortunately, their application was not sufficiently targeted at meeting the nought to 19 funding criteria. Additionally, the application stated that the money would be used to fund services to schools, when services to schools are covered already by other sources of funding. For these reasons, the total grant awarded was £5,799.”

In the face of adversity, Alton Community Association is calling on “individuals, local groups and businesses in our area who could possibly help us by providing some funding to support this much-needed project”.

Mr Chappell said: “If we could achieve a further £5,000 this would enable us to continue to run two sessions per week and provide some one-to-one support. £10,00 would mean that we could continue with three hub sessions per week together with the other services.”