Youth Hub: It’s About Young People Connecting

 Thu, August 12, 2021

The global pandemic highlighted young people's struggle with social disconnection. To tackle this issue, we partnered with Kentish Town and Highgate Newtown Community Centres on a project for young people we named 'Youth Hub'.

Youth Hub is a weekly four-day program situated in multiple locations in North East Camden. The project offers a range of activities for young people aged 13-19, including football, basketball, table tennis, games, cooking, day trips, healthy living advice, as well as support with CVs and applications. At Youth Hub, young people can come together after school to meet friends, access one-to-one support with youth workers, develop skills and participate in high-quality workshops and activities.The program also offers a positive and safe space that aims to:

      •  Empowers young people to realise their best potential;

      •  Provides opportunities for physical, personal, and social development;

      •  Builds confidence, self-esteem, connection to each other and the local community;

      •  Gives  the young people opportunity to engage with physical activity and try something new;

The strongest asset of the Youth Club Programme is the award-winning youth team who do an incredible job at running the innovative and people-led program. Through innovative young people lead projects and practices, Jamie, Kentish Towns Youth Service Project Manager, lead his fantastic team of youth workers to achieve London Youth Gold accreditation.

Jamie said that one of the best things about leading the Youth Hub project was "building a relationship with the young people and seeing them develop." He added, "it's a challenging time for young people right now, so it's great to provide opportunities and trips that they might not get the opportunity to experience or visit."

We spoke to one of the young people who attend the program who said Youth Hub was a great space to "meet friends, try out new activities and take on new challenges." But, they also said, "it was really tough during the height of the pandemic because they couldn't go out and play sports." However now restrictions have eased, they would recommend Youth Hub to other young people.

Youth Hub is currently running its summer program here at Casstlehaven every Mon-Thurs from 1-5 pm throughout August. Find out more here.