MyPlace or MyPeople?
Adam Nichols
Monday, April 28, 2008
Last week I attended a briefing on the government’s new MyPlace programme, a £190m investment in youth facilities across England. It is clearly very exciting that the government is making this kind of commitment, and there is no doubt that the youth building stock is in dire need of revitalisation. However, there are a number of pitfalls that I feel ought to be avoided in order to ensure that this project is a success. Firstly, there is an assumption that local youth organisations have the capacity to develop and manage large scale capital projects. Talking to colleagues around the sector, there is widespread concern that this capacity does not exist and that some organisations may overstretch themselves or that the opportunity cost will simply be too high for them to take advantage. Secondly, the funding is ringfenced for bricks and mortar but, as we have seen with the Building Schools for the Future programme, erecting a beautiful building does not in itself transform a young person’s experience. What really makes centres like Bolton Girls’ and Lads’ Club and the Salmon Youth Centre in Bermondsey successful is high quality leadership and strength of the relationships they have with their young people. We would like to see MyPlace to allow and encourage its funded projects to invest in the human dimension of the facilities. Finally, there is a danger that these new facilities are unsustainable in the medium to long term; both in terms of funding and having talented people available to run them. Therefore, MyPlace should consider increasing its investment in the ability of organisations running these new facilities to create sustainable income after their financial commitments have finished.
There is always a tendency for the voluntary sector to respond with cynicism when exciting new initiatives like MyPlace are launched. My observations are therefore meant as a constructive critique of MyPlace’s initial plans. We remain hugely supportive of this initiative.