A YOUTH center is set to reopen in Bewdley after years of uncertainty due to funding cuts.
Youth provision is once again in Bewdley following years of negotiation with Worcestershire County Council and the National Lottery ‘Reaching Communities’ team
Bewdley Youth Centre, which is attached to Bewdley Leisure Centre, was built in the early 1990s, but closed its doors due to government funding cuts in 2012.
The re-opening of the Youth Center is a joint project between The William Mills Foundation and The Bewdley School.
Whilst Bewdley Youth Café in the town center filled the void left behind for a number of years, it also had to close three years ago due to funding pressures.
Thanks to national lottery funding, it is currently being refurbished with a view to opening its doors as a ‘The Will Mills Centre’ next month.
The core activity of the center will be ‘The Youth Hub’, run on weekday evenings by Katy Thorne, the new Youth Center Manager.
The William Mills Foundation will be offering its ‘Future Steps Programme’ to children from Wyre Forest Schools in the afternoons.
This program has been running with students from The Bewdley School over the last two years, and the opening of the center will enable the foundation to open this offer out to other schools in the area.
The Will Mills Center will also act as a multi-agency hub during the school day, with access available for a range of services to support young people, including health care, social care and community policing.
Once established, it is also intended to offer hire of the facilities at weekends to members of the Bewdley community, for clubs and other activities.