Let's keep youth centres for young people
By Mark Blundell, executive director of Salmon Youth Centre in Bermondsey, south London
Youth Work Now
8 February 2008
I have just completed the second leg of my Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship looking at larger youth centres in various cities in the US. Many of these offer facilities beyond our wildest dreams in the UK.
The biggest centre I visited was Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club in the Bronx, New York. The centre has a huge social area with seven large pool tables and three table football tables. There is also a fitness suite, two basketball courts, a dance studio, as well as many other truly amazing facilities. With all these spaces, it is easier to deal with...