National Lottery money to boost youth work in Westbury

A COMMUNITY youth organisation, which supports young people in Westbury and surrounding areas, has been awarded £250,000 from the National Lottery to fund their next five years of support.

4Youth (South West) supports young people in Westbury and surrounding areas, challenging them to be the best they can be.

In Westbury, the team provides street engagement work, going directly to the places where young people are, to talk to them and offer support if needed, and a pop-up youth club on Friday evenings.

Based in Melksham, 4Youth (South West) provides TeenTalk counselling services to the young people all over Wiltshire. The funding will enable the service provision to be extended in Westbury.

Chair of trustees Jon Hubbard said, “The funding is wonderful and will give us the chance to professionalise the service and increase the provision. It will enable the charity to extend its offering, reaching more young people and will give us the opportunity to recruit a youth development manager to help us expand into areas that need more support.

“A massive pat on the back to the whole team, we are really chuffed. This money is of significant value and testament must go to every single member. It has been quite the journey and taken about 12 months to apply for. Huge credit must go to Bryan Clover for leading the application. It has taken hundreds of hours of work.”

The TeenTalk counselling service can be accessed remotely for anyone unable to attend a face-to-face appointment.

Jon said, “Last year we saw fewer young people coming into the service as an impact of Covid. Now, we are back up to pre-Covid levels of the amount of young people we support.

“Last year, 187 young people were supported in Westbury. In 2022 across the whole service, there were 94 new young people that referred into the counselling service. For six months of this year, the waiting list was closed because there were not enough counsellors to meet the need and we did not want to force the young people to have to wait around five to six months or take them on just to make the numbers up. That is just unacceptable. Now, the waiting list is back open and people are seen within two to three weeks. The turnaround is much quicker.”

For more information about 4 Youth, which is based in Melksham, and its services visit the website, https://4youth.org.uk/ or ring 01225 667327.