New young people’s foundation planned
Camden Council's Cabinet last night agreed proposals for a Camden Young People’s Foundation as part of revised plans to reshape the borough’s youth support services.
The new charitable youth foundation will involve the Council joining forces with voluntary and community organisations to harness our collective strength and pull in more funding for youth services than is now available.
The Camden Young People’s Foundation will boost partnerships within the youth sector and help protect youth work and services which are open to all young people from further central government cuts.
The youth foundation proposal was agreed by the Council’s Cabinet last night (Wednesday, 6 April) as part of changes to youth support services, which will save £1.6 million overall*.
An eight-week consultation received nearly 500 responses – many of them from young people. As a result of this feedback, none of the Council’s five main youth centres will close at present.
Somers Town Youth Centre, Fresh Youth Academy in Highgate and Kilburn Youth Station will become our three main ‘hub’ centres, opening for reduced hours – but for longer than originally proposed.
The Cabinet also agreed to keep the South Camden Youth and Connexions Access Point (SCYAP) running, while looking at options – including the proposed youth foundation - to protect our youth services from further cuts in future.
The revised plans also mean funding two posts to continue valuable work on preventing gang activity and youth violence and helping to address issues early before they become bigger problems.
Councillor Georgia Gould, Cabinet Member for Young People and Economic Growth, said: “We were struck time and again by how highly young people value our youth workers, projects and services.
"We have thought hard about what those who responded – many of them young people - had to say and have looked again to see how we can provide high quality targeted services and sustain a universal service for all our young people in the face of continuing cuts to our budget by central government.”
*Note: any decisions made at last night's Cabinet meeting (6 April 2016) are subject to a call-in period.
Find out more:
- Watch: Councillor Georgia Gould speaking about the Cabinet decision and thanking those who responded to the consultation (two minutes, 23 seconds).
- Read: the Cabinet report on changes to youth support services.