Published Friday 4 August 2023 at 15:43
Audley and Queen’s Park Children’s Centre is set to be transformed as part of an impressive £1m scheme to create a brand new youth centre there.
Blackburn with Darwen Council has successfully secured the funding needed for the scheme through the Government’s Youth Investment Fund (YIF).
It’s one of four major projects announced for the area with £8m to be invested in facilities for children and young people right across the borough.
For some youngsters living in the Audley and Queen’s Park area, their nearest youth centre is currently up to a 40 minute walk away.
The new scheme will see the existing children’s centre extended to create new, dedicated youth spaces for them right on their doorstep with a specialist mental health offer, employability and rehabilitation support too.
The youth centre will be open seven days a week with the extension plans boasting a new Youth Suite, a flexible youth space, upgrades to the kitchen, a teaching kitchen, quiet area, workshop, new office space and a one-to-one room.
This will pave the way for more than 20 new sessions a week catering for more than 360 young people, with the youth offer being delivered by IMO Charity, a local community charity established in the Audley and Queen’s Park ward in 2006.
Celebrating the news, Councillor Julie Gunn, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education, said:
We’re on a mission to ensure every child and young person in our borough has opportunities to fulfil their potential.
Currently, there’s very little youth provision in the Audley and Queens Park area and we desperately wanted to change that. Now, after successfully securing this funding, we can create a dedicated youth centre there which we know will help make a massive difference.
Our teams and partners worked incredibly hard to ensure our bids were successful and it’s incredible that Blackburn with Darwen is set to benefit from four major schemes with £8m of new funding for children and young people.
This will allow us to build on the investment in our brand new Family Hubs and the £40m of Levelling Up funding we have secured for Blackburn with Darwen too, which will bring forward a new skills and education campus of national significance – again, benefitting our children and young people.
I can’t wait to see the work start and the facilities open for our young people to enjoy.
Blackburn with Darwen Council has helped develop a strong partnership across the borough, called the Strategic Youth Alliance, with 10 local organisations working together to deliver a wide range of services for children and young people.
One of those partners is IMO Charity, which stands for ‘Inspire, Motivate, and Overcome’ – a charity led by founder and CEO, Mohammed Tayyab Sidat (known locally as MTS).
IMO Charity delivers a range of services for children, young people and families across the borough and is excited to bring new youth services to the area where it first started.
Mohammed said:
We have known for some time that this location in the Audley and Queen’s Park ward (nostalgia for many who played on Delph grounds) would be best for young people, particularly as it’s in the heart of the community.
We are very excited that this has now become a reality so the hub can host services for young people seven days a week.
The youth hub will provide a range of age appropriate personal development programmes as well drop-in provision from Monday to Sunday.
Our thanks go to Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council for listening and making this happen for our young people.
Working in partnership with a number of excellent organisations across the borough will ensure we are able to make a difference to the chances of everyone who comes through our doors.
The IMO Charity is planning to offer the following activities from the hub:
- Arts and crafts
- Gaming
- Sports development, e.g. football, pool, team games
- Learning about safety – internet, road and first aid
- Learning about community
- Community relations and cross community initiatives
- Local and national residential workshops
- International exchanges
- Global awareness programmes
- Active citizenship community initiatives
- Health and wellbeing – drug awareness, sexual health, healthy eating and cookery.
A planning application will soon be submitted for the works at Audley and Queen’s Park Children’s Centre, and once agreed, work could start later this year.
The three other Youth Investment Fund projects in Blackburn with Darwen are:
▪ Darwen Youth Centre (£3.3m) – the Knott Street facility will double in size as part of plans to add an extra level on to the existing building. The redevelopment will boast a new wellbeing area, creative workshop space, recording and DJ studio, gaming zone and multi-use spaces and the outdoor sports facilities will be upgraded too.
▪ Blackburn & Darwen Youth Zone (£2.9m) – a brand new employment and skills hub will be developed by expanding the Youth Zone offer into the unused Fuse Box building. It’ll build on the Youth Zone’s huge success with employability and ensuring youngsters are work ready through strong links with businesses across the area.
▪ Shadsworth Hub (£800,000) – part of Together Housing Group investing almost £20m in an ambitious plan to improve community facilities, outdoor spaces and homes in the Shadsworth area, the new youth hub – opposite the local park – will be open to all youngsters in the area, offering impressive new indoor and outdoor spaces for them to enjoy.
For all the latest updates on the YIF investment, please follow Blackburn with Darwen Council on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Filed under : IMO | young people | Youth Investment Fund