Youth Club

About the project

This project delivers 8 social action projects per year. It aims to provide young people with activities and safe spaces that help to promote a sense of belonging, reduce isolation and give young people the opportunity to build confidence, acquire new skills and develop positive relationships.

Our youth clubs, funded by the Co-op Foundation #iwill Fund, worked with over 200 young people in 2019 and developed some really successful projects. 2 of these will continue throughout 2021 in partnership with Leigh Town Council, Figuring it Out, Essex Police, Southend Council and Southend YMCA Community School. This project is open to young people from Southend & surrounding areas and aged 8 - 16 years old:

Leigh Community Centre, 71-73 Elm Rd, SS9 1SP

Thursdays (during term time) 4.30-7.30pm for young people aged 8-16 yrs old

BOOK

How we can help

#IWILL Southend aims to tackle youth loneliness by providing young people with 'Somewhere to go, Something to do and Someone to talk to'.

The project supports the 'Lonely not Alone' and '#LetsTalkLoneliness' campaigns and trains Youth Ambassadors to organise activities, events and workshops that help to tackle the stigma attached to youth loneliness and raise awareness of the issue amongst their peers.

More about the #iwill fund

The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department of Culture, Media & Sport are each investing £25 million seed funding to create the #iwill Fund. Co-op Foundation is acting as a match funder and awarding grants on behalf of the #iwill Fund.

The #iwill Fund is made possible thanks to £50 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to support young people to access high-quality social action opportunities.

The #iwill Fund brings together a group of organisations who all contribute funding to embed meaningful social action into the lives of young people.

Social action involves activities such as campaigning, fundraising and volunteering, all of which enable young people to make a positive difference in their communities as well as develop their own skills and knowledge.

The #iwill Fund supports the aims of the #iwill campaign - to make involvement in social action a part of life for young people, by recognising the benefit for both young people and their communities.

By bringing together funders from across different sectors and by making sure that young people have a say in where the funding goes – the #iwill Fund is taking a collaborative approach.