The Avenues youth club in North Westminster delivers open-access programmes that aim to support and motivate local children and young people to broaden their horizons and become healthy, confident young adults, motivated and equipped with the skills to make the most of their futures.

The purpose-built facility provides a safe space for a membership of over 1000 young people, after school, at weekends, and during holidays. Aged 8-18, and evenly split by gender, members reflect the diverse cultural and ethnic composition of our community, one of the 10% – 20% most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK. 93% of members are from the global majority.

The Avenues has delivered popular and effective Holiday Clubs for 44 years. They are needed now more than ever for young people to have free-to-access space; to play and socialise, build skills, and receive support in a safe space. In the school holiday the clubs develop communication, teamwork, leadership and resilience whilst offering a progression route to our tailored employability programme.

This grant will fund 3 days of the Summer programme, equating to 315 places, and include football, multi-sports, cookery, dance, music-making, art, design, content creation, podcast and radio broadcasting. Many of these activities set up the potential to spark an interest that might endure and lead to career pathways and lifelong pursuits.