The National Youth Agency: Myplace

In this series we look at a range of generic and specialist youth facilities to encourage ambition and vision in support of Myplace bids, linking each to one of the programme's ten key principles.

The Crew Club, Brighton

Key principle: Community leadership - encouraging community ownership of assets and the wider buy-in and active support from parents and the wider community.

The Whitehawk Estate on the outskirts of Brighton and Hove is an area of social and economic deprivation, with high levels of young people not in employment, education or training and teenage pregnancy. The original club was set up in 1999 by local parents following a fatal stabbing. Residents approached the council about using disused portacabins on the estate and within a year more than 200 young people were using the club, which was open on several evenings a week and had begun to run holiday activities. A new club building opened last year. Local residents continue to be involved as paid staff and the centre acts as a focus for their capacity building, with local people acting as role models for others. The original volunteers have undertaken training to equip them for their professional roles. The club organises and gets involved in a range of neighbourhood events and members organise an annual Christmas party for elderly people and have just run a community fundraising fun day - illustrating the strong place the project occupies within the local community.