The National Youth Agency: My Place

THE PUMP, BIRMINGHAM

Key principle: Community cohesion - providing opportunities for young people to build relationships with others from different backgrounds and encouraging and improving intergenerational relationships.

The Pump is a £4m new build young people's centre in the Kitts Green area in South East Birmingham. Formally opened last year, agencies currently operating at the centre include the youth service, Connexions, an international school and city college, with plans to extend this range of agencies in all three sectors. The four storey centre includes a large open ground floor area with reception, office space, two small interview rooms, internet access, a community cafe - which is intended to break down the barriers with local adults and show them what a modern young people's centre is like - and a cybercafe. The basement includes a large chill-out space, a dance studio and a recording studio. The second floor includes a range of meeting rooms of various sizes and the centre actively promotes hiring these out for meetings and training events to other local organisations, particularly community and youth organisations and those involved in the education sector, both to build community relations and to raise funds.